Honey priced to low!

[jdesq]

I have some retired guys in my area who keep bees and sell their honey for $2.00 a lb. We live in the country and these folks are within 5 miles of us which in the country is pretty close. I would like to sell mine for $5.00 a lb. What do you all think I should do. Stick with my price- sell it lower- or buy theirs and sell it for $5.00 a lb?  I'm just kidding about the last one.  Seriously, it's a conundrum.

[asprince]

Have you talked to them about raising their prices? Unless your honey is special, it will be difficult to get a higher price than your competition.

Steve   

[Ross]

Buy all they have then sell at your price.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

I would promote the difference between your honey and there's. Sure go ahead and ask them to raise their price. But also ask about what time do they harvest honey. Do they wait for clover to bloom? or do they wait for the rest of the wildflowers summers has to offer? Have they ever collected Goldenrod honey?

Ask if they feed, how often, what ratio and so on. (As a side note I don't think it's right for honey prices to be anywhere near $5 if they're feeding Corn Syrup to their bees. That's what most of the $2.50 store honeys imported from China do and I consider it to ordinary to warrant anything more.)

Also ask to see the hives. Can you out compete him with the amount your hives make? This can be tricky when counties limit 3 or so many hives per property.

[johnnybigfish]

I figure it depends if you're trying to make a living from selling honey. I sell mine for 5$ a lb. Then again, I'm content to just look at my last eleven bottles on my shelf. I learned one thing when i jacked my fishing lures up to 2$ from 1$....People sometimes think that if they pay more they will be getting a better product. I sell probably 10X more lures since i raised the price.
When I decided to sell my honey I thought 7$ a lb. I made a misquote to a customer because i thought I had some 12 oz bottles left so i told them 5$ a bottle..I found that all my 12 oz bottles were gone and all i had were 1 lb bottles. I had given my word though, at 5$...So now you see...1lb for 5$
 I undersold my lures for almost 20 years, just to show  that I made a top quality American product that I could sell for less than anybody else in the country.
 I'm not going to make the same mistake with my bees honey as I did with my fishing lures by underselling myself. I tried to explain this to my wife as she is a portrait artist. She now sells 1200$ to 2500$ paintings for 100$...She set the standards for her works because she wanted first to draw the attention to her paintings and get customers. By doing this she got pretty much got locked in to doing the paintings for next to nothing.
  Sell the honey for the most you can get..get a fancy label to help...Put on the nutrition labels on the back of your bottles...People will comment saying,"Oh my gosh!! These are really nice! I didnt know you were this BIG TIME into making honey!".
 Well,...Thats all I know about this.
good luck!
your friend,
john



 

[Jessaboo]

I agree with Ross - buy everything they have and sell it at your price (provided the product is a quality one).

If you are worried about how that will go over, maybe approach them on a "joint" venture - maybe offer to buy it at their price but don't make them bottle it? That way you will be getting it "wholesale", they will get their $2/lb and you can have the whole retail market. If they have a few "steady" customers, you might want to make a deal with them to keep the neighborhood friendly.

Regardless of how you approach this, I don't think you should lower your price. I can't imagine how you could even break even at $2/lb.

Your only other option is to try and sell farther afield - but that has its own costs and perils, doesn't it!

Good luck.

- Jess

[TwT]

I would talk to the farmers and tell them they are getting ripped off by selling honey that cheap, they should just give it away if they sale at that price, counting the jar and anything they add like a label plus their time, that's crazy. be nice about it but they should know because sounds like they don't, I sale mine for $6.50 a pint and sale out ever year, case of 12 pints goes for $72.00 ( $6.00 a pint) chunk honey goes for $8.50 a pint. if they don't raise their prices I sure wouldn't lower mine, sale what you can there and build a market somewhere else close by, there's always a way.  if you know the farmer practice and there honey is as good as yours with no syrup added then buy theirs and sale, I see nothing wrong with it, its still local honey but before you were to do this you should know everything about there managing habits before buying theirs and selling.

[octagon]

5 pounds of Virginia brand Pure honey at Sams Club for 8.99. It's hard to beat that price.
 I couldn't believe that they had over 3 ton setting on the floor on pallets

[TwT]

5 pounds of Virginia brand Pure honey at Sams Club for 8.99. It's hard to beat that price.
 I couldn't believe that they had over 3 ton setting on the floor on pallets

sam's and walmart mostly sale stuff that is imported (lower price), I wouldn't trust any honey that they sale, Virgina is probably the honey packers name, then they use a name like Pure Honey, they have pure honey in other countries also and that is probably where it come from, you can't even trust the Made in the USA sticker's any more, their is a warehouse here in my county that ships in merchandise and people here put the decals or stickers on, for doing this here they can put Made in the USA stickers on it. odds are if you but from a store like Sams or Walmart it is from a bulk honey packer and from other countries no matter what name they have, go to a souvenir shop or a mom and pop store to buy real honey probably from a local.

[johnnybigfish]

  people like us just cant compete with walmart or sams club prices. But we CAN make better honey available!. Its better because WE dont have a multi million dollar factory filling jars! WE get sticky...WE get stung by the real honey makers! WE get sweat in our honey that gives it that special taste! OUR honey has a "Spirit" to it!...And one other thing,.....WE more than likely wont get rich from what we like to do, we'll just get the satisfaction of being able to do it.
  Long Live the Queen!

your friend,
john

[JP]

Buy all they have then sell at your price.

Ditto!!! And tell them they're not helping anyone with their dirt cheap pricing.


...JP

[hankdog1]

i'd just buy everything they had and slap you label on it and sell it higher.  i know a bunch of beekeepers around here that don't keep enough hives to keep up with demand.  i will tell you though make sure your buying it local though.  there have been some beekeepers around here that imported honey and called it local.  so be as honest as you can selling it at least keep it local.

[Scadsobees]

It is all about marketing.  If you are just going to stick some out on a table like is commonly done, and wait for people to drive by, you probably aren't going to do much better.

If you have a fancier table and a big nice sign, you can get more.  If you go to the farmer's market and bring it to the people interested, you can do even better.

They aren't getting ripped off.  They are charging what they are comfortable with, and they don't rely on the income, and they don't want to put a lot of marketing into it. 

I fall into the same boat...I enjoy beekeeping and honey, but I produce honey, not liquified gold.  I'd rather that most of the single-income, school-tuition paying families like my own can afford good honest home-grown real honey than price everybody out of my market.  I'd rather my honey be enjoyed by many hard working families than be savored by an elite few.  And I can still make a few bucks on it.