Is This A Wierd Wholesale Request?

[egirlxx7]

I have a shop owner who is interested in buying some of my soaps. however, they want to buy when I'm at a craft show. They are hoping to purchase 25-30 bars and of course have them discounted.

What I wanted to know is if anyone else has had this happen, sell the odd time like that... is that a normal thing? (As purchasing this way they are just selecting randomly several of any particular type)

Because my thoughts would be that they would order by the loaves.

How many bars would you sell to a store or would you only sell by the loaves?

 

[ahutchins9]

I sell my soaps to a store by the bar. She usually doesn't get a whole loafs worth of each scent at a time.

 

[paillo]

I sell my soaps wholesale by the bar too, want to make sure the packaging and labeling is by me. That does sound like an odd request, especially if you have other customers waiting in line at your show. I wouldn't want to talk pricing at a show, would rather suggest to the wholesale customer that we talk at another time to discuss pricing and other details.

 

[Stakie]

I think if you discuss pricing prior to the show, it would be okay. Other wise I would deny the request.

 

[DeeAnna]

This customer might be trying to minimize shipping costs by picking the order up at the show. Or s/he might be a touchy-feely sort and wants to personally see your product line in person to get a clear sense of what you offer. Or maybe s/he just wants to meet you face-to-face, if you two haven't met before.

If you do decide to sell at wholesale to this person, I agree with the others -- decide ahead of time what your pricing and terms are and discuss them with your customer in advance. Wholesale can be a normal part of one's business, but I always keep it quite separate from retail.

You may want to think about whether 25-30 bars is enough of a sale to justify a wholesale price. Some people set a minimum dollar amount per order; others require a minimum quantity of product. There are three good reasons for this -- to weed out the retail buyers who want to unfairly buy at wholesale, to ensure a legitimate reseller will purchase enough product so your products have a reasonably large presence in their store, and to make it worth your while to sell at wholesale.

Also, if you do sell to this person, make sure you get his/her sales tax ID number or other reasonable proof the person is buying for resale. At a show, the buyer should either pay sales tax or provide proof of exemption. (Assuming of course your state collects sales tax.)

Hope this helps!

 

[savonierre]

I have had people pick up wholesale orders at the market. We arrange everything in advance tho..