Courageous Joy

STARTING VEGGIE SALES (PRODUCE CO-OP) For Stephanie and others interested readers...

* I decided to post this here rather than under comments so it doesn't get lost. LOL

I've started produce co-ops two ways.....In San Antonio there was a produce terminal. I would go down at 5 a.m. weekly and hand pick the produce that we wanted. Here, there is no produce terminal. HEB DOES get produce daily and the manager is very willing to work with us. He gives us 25% (officially 20 but it's always more) off the prices he is selling in the store. The quality is consistently better than I got at the produce terminal. There has been one time that he and I had checked a case and when I got it home the underside of all the fruit was awful. He had me come in and gave me another case immediately and told me to salvage what I could from the others. We aren't supposed to get discounts on sales items - but we also do in the sense that he throws in case of the sales stuff for free. LOL That makes it hard to figure out what a "manageable" share is but who can say no to free produce?

I've discovered that "shares" work best. It is much less work for the organizer. In our current case we are charging $28 per share.

Every week I total the shares. Adrienne will do the ordering, but for the next few weeks we'll do it together as she figures out the whole share thing. This week we had 15 shares (up from her and I a few weeks ago). It's simply a matter of deciding what a sane amount for a single share would be....multiplied by 3. So the single shares would be fine with 1 head of lettuce...triples will get 3 that works....we need one case of lettuce (comes in 24). I put the extras in a basket and as members show up can take what they'd like from the extra basket. Also - if someone hates something in their basket they can swap if there is something they'd rather have. I also encourage them to swap with each other or give it away and bless someone else. We found someone who was thrilled to take extra heads of cauliflower and someone else wanted extra lettuce...it all works out and when folks realize how much produce they are getting for $28, they are usually willing to be flexible.

This brings us to selection. My stock line has become "we are not a grocery store - don't give us a shopping list". LOL We tell folks we guarantee the staples and will add extras as funds permit. All collected money is spent on the week it was collected for....no money rolling over...because that wouldn't be fair to those who ordered for THIS week. I also make sure all know - more shares equals less quantity of more variety....now there are some things you have to up as your shares increase or you'd' get to few. It's a matter of trial and error to figure that out. We NEEDED twice the apples or all would have run out....I'm not sure we NEEDED twice the carrots....but then that's why it will be good to hear what others have to say. Adrienne's family could NEVER get enough carrots and my family may be less than the average consumer....who knows? We can get a general consensus from listening. We do not take individual orders. We do not refund if an item is bruised....We do not offer shares lower than $28. In SA shares were $15 but we paid much cheaper for produce. AND well the quality is wonderful with HEB. We went with $28 because we thought that is what we needed for the amount we wanted in a single share......and because I'd talked with someone whose sister is in a co-op a few hours away and that is what their shares are.....seemed good to adjust.

Usually the organizers or sorters take free produce. We aren't. We'd rather have bigger variety. If our order falls less than $10 below the funds we have to spend Adrienne and I will split that and deduct it from our shares. So yesterday we both had to pay $75.50 instead of $80. For years in SA I got three shares of free produce each week. People were still getting a good deal. We may revisit this as the co-op grows and it becomes more work...we'll pray about it.

We are playing with how best to receive payment. I was leery of charging this much each week since I have to mail deposits to AK.....so everyone is giving me cash. Adrienne and I were talking and if my credit card limit can handle it.....I get airline miles so maybe it's best to go back to checks so that I can mail them to AK - can't mail cash....not sure on this one yet. I can only cash $100 a day at the BX and I don't want to have to run up each day to cash a check.....playing with options at this point...but we are switching to require payment in advance.

We ask for two - four laundry baskets by their 3rd order. This allows some to go home full and some to come back empty each week.

You can grow via word of mouth. In SA I made up a brochure and left it at homeschool support group meetings, members took them and passed them out at churches etc.

They key is to get big enough for variety but not so big that you can't easily handle the time required for ordering and sorting etc. In SA I had 30 families who ordered every week.....between 60 - 80 shares...that was fine. Cynthia had about 6,000 shares and it was too much. Cynthia, do you remember what was comfortable???? I want to be able to sort at home. I like this because we expect our children to be the worker bees of the project and then I can still tend to little ones as needed....instead of my older ones having to give up a whole a.m of school. This week the olders helped unload and then did school while the younger ones and I sorted.

We do allow people to change their shares and to sit a week out as needed. We also allow them to order complete cases of something IF they are ordering shares as well.

I let everyone know up front that they WILL get items they don't like...they may have too much of one item or another....if they hate most things or don't eat most...they need to either go to a smaller share or just leave the co-op because it isn't worth it to have lots of produce if you don't eat it - waste of money.

My brochure is on my crashed computer....so I wrote up a letter for yesterday and tried to remember all the things that had been areas of concern in years past....and to explain how it all works.....if you'd like a copy of that I can email it to you - email me privately.

I think that's it. In typing this out I realized that it is KEY to figure out how big you want to get so that you don't overwhelm yourself. As for pricing shares....the more you charge the more variety you can order.....I think you sort of see how much folks are getting and decide if that's a good amount to charge. $15 wouldn't give a person much here at all......in SA they got about the same amount as our $28 here...so check the prices you have and estimate how much a single share would be.

I think I can get Stacia down now.