Vegetable exchange

[pdblake]

Why wouldn't I just skip the middleman (you) and sell it myself?

And do you think you can really shift that many courgettes?

The other thing, what about when the main season is over. Are you just going to sell leeks or shut down until spring.

[zazen999]

What would you think would be a fair percentage for the exchange?

It's really just an idea at this stage but I have somewhere I could set it up so really interested to hear peoples opinions?

Sorry - my response sounded sharp but i was also in the middle of texting a very tall excited man.....

Not sure, it depends on so many things...I'll let some others respond before i mention them.....

[halip66]

Why wouldn't I just skip the middleman (you) and sell it myself?

And do you think you can really shift that many courgettes?

The other thing, what about when the main season is over. Are you just going to sell leeks or shut down until spring.

I suppose the point is that you would have one place where there is a lot of choice of veg, a place for people to go when they know there will be stock & they can choose what they want. Just like a normal grocers really. Except all the produe is home grown.

I'm really talking about the stuff you can't get rid of, the stuff left over after you have given it to family & friends...

[ckfe]

Why wouldn't I just skip the middleman (you) and sell it myself?

i can see both sides to this.. i personally wouldn't sell to you knowing that you were going to make a killing out of my hard graft BUT it's only what every other business does (including supermarkets), get someone to do the hard work, buy it cheap then sell it on

i can see you getting lynched for this on here halip lol

[zazen999]

I'm really talking about the stuff you can't get rid of, the stuff left over after you have given it to family & friends...

AAh, a courgette shop.

[pdblake]

I suppose the point is that you would have one place where there is a lot of choice of veg, a place for people to go when they know there will be stock & they can choose what they want. Just like a normal grocers really. Except all the produe is home grown.

I'm really talking about the stuff you can't get rid of, the stuff left over after you have given it to family & friends...

The thing is, because it's home grown and stuff I/we don't want you're only going to have prolific crops to sell, and then only in season. You'll get loads of courgettes and summer squash, but you'll see precious little sweetcorn and hardly ever get a sniff of a decent sized carrot. We all have surplus, but we all tend to get the same surplus.

Then, once the main growing season is over, your shop will be empty and people will go to the supermarket, realise that they never run out, and stay there

[halip66]

i can see both sides to this.. i personally wouldn't sell to you knowing that you were going to make a killing out of my hard graft BUT it's only what every other business does (including supermarkets), get someone to do the hard work, buy it cheap then sell it on

i can see you getting lynched for this on here halip lol

ha ha thanks for that.

Where I live you have 2 options, the supermarket or farm shops. The produce from the farm shops is fantastic but so are the prices (£1 for a leek!)

It is a big tourist area so is very busy in the summer & dead in the winter so I would only be doing it in the growing season.

I think I should clarify that I am thinking of doing this from the drive at my house. It will not be on a corporate scale!

I just plucked the 2x prices out of thin air really if that sounds like a rip off fair enough. If i said buy at 50% tescos 7 sell at 75% would that sound more reasonable?

[Flummery]

I think if it were a genuine exchange - that is, I swap my excess cabbages for some of your excess peas, it might work. But I can't sell my stuff - allotment site rules, so I can't sell it to you or to anyone else. If I could, and it was worth buying at 2/3 Tesco price, I'd want to sell it for that myself, not to you for 1/3. See what I mean?

You are in fact wanting to be a vegetable broker? I honestly don't see anyone who's growing veg going for that.

[pdblake]

AAh, a courgette shop.

PMSL You beat me to it.

[Hilary B]

The nearest to your idea I can see working is if you act as 'liaison' for people who specialise a bit to swap, and charge a modest percentage for doing the organising, rather than buying (from people who may not be allowed to sell) and selling on.
For instance I usually grow loads of tomatoes and very little else (not this year, I've had 2 blight years....). If someone had beans, or sweetcorn, I would be delighted to swap, but how to find them? I would happily pay 20% of my surplus crop to someone who co-ordinated the swaps of the rest for something I don't have.
25 years ago there was a weekly 'produce auction' that I could get to, and it was easy to get loads of very cheap veg, but it was necessary to buy a lot more than I wanted. People I met through my kids' school (parents of their friends mainly) had less access to transport than I did, and the only greengrocer they could get to regularly was the 'mobile shop' whose prices were higher than the standard of the goods, so I bought plenty of whatever was good value, and sold it on at a profit sufficient to cover my petrol costs for doing the run, and the cost of what I kept for my own use. (also did eggs, auctioned by the 5 dozen. Those I simply 'rounded up' the price paid to the next convenient figure).

[NOG]

Then there is the TAX element.