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Old September 3, 2015   #99
KC.Sun
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: 6a
Posts: 322
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In my area, we sell to both business to business OR business to customer.

When selling to chefs, I've encountered the following:

1) price shoppers because what they sell (in terms of dishes/revenue) and how much they expend equates to a calculation of their monthly income. So there are price shoppers out there.
2) some chefs that advertise selling local and buying local when they do not.
3) chefs that are paid by contract
4) chefs that do not care about how much per pound so long as a high level of quality exist. These are typically the chefs from really high end restaurants.
5) chefs no matter if they are from the high or lower end restaurants always want consistency. That means that they don't want to ask if they will have enough inventory to make a dish for their customers.
6) on the business side, even if the chef may run the show, they are still accountable to the owners/management. So that is something to keep in mind.
7) we have friends that contact out to local farms. The farms will grow what the restaurant needs, provided the restaurant will buy exclusively from the farm with the prices set, unless the farm, cannot provide what the restaurant needs.

On the retail market side, even if selling at farmers markets or other secondary markets, one should consider the following:

1) your customers will always know the market price of what they buy. Even if they are at a farmers market, they frequent grocery stores and know what to expect. So even if you are selling heirloom tomatoes, you will have to account for prices in regular grocery stores. This is a good indicator of market volatility.
2) market value of produce changes. Prices can escalate rapidly or decline rapidly. Grocery stores are again a good way to determine how volatile prices are when pricing per pound. Market value depends on weather, growing conditions, area it is grown, transportation cost, shelf life, etc.
3) we take large volumes from farmers that cannot sell all their produce at the farmers market. As a retail location/business we are like chefs that we want consistency. When ordering produce, I always have my list of preferred suppliers that I will order from all the time, regardless of price. But I do ask for consistency. So when I cannot buy produce of a certain type, I have to source through other means.
4) I'm always sent an availability list ahead of time or ask suppliers for it so I can plan adequately. If I don't do this, it means the business shuts down. This is really important to our suppliers to determine how much they grow and if they can meet the demands.
5) due to limited space, if I provide space to sell products from local farms, I really want consistency and be able to supply our customers. We were helping a new farm for a while and they were trying to meet the demands of so many niches, that they could not grow or supply enough to meet the demands of our customers. The farm would bring by large varieties of produce, but they could not supply our customers demands. A few pounds of every variety equated to a waste of space.
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