Thanks again for all the great feedback. The issue of DIRECT selling to chefs is big with me. Middleman might actually provide value for another grower, but I don't see one being useful to us. There was an article in the paper recently about one of these locally grown veggie distributors. Good for him, starting a business and all, but the idea of someone getting between me and my customer irks me. How much of my price would the middle-man expect to take? I run two businesses because I like having some control over my destiny (or at least the illusion of it). If I make the distributor guy my customer instead of going direct, I leave myself with basically one customer, instead of a larger base of several restaurants. What's to stop him from low-balling me on price? Probably nothing, and my guess is that's figured into his business plan. No thanks.
Of course, these are just the ramblings of someone brand new to this business. If I'm way off base, please let me know!
The 3.99 price is good (better than 4.00) and the Craigslist idea is great. Saw people selling heirloom seedlings on there for $3.00 each, so some might want to buy the tomatoes via that route, also.
Jim
Jim
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