Buying in bulk

[MaureenHall]

I don't know if there are any other threads about this, but I was wondering if anyone knows how to go about buying allotment stuff (potatoes, onion sets etc) in bulk so that all the allotment holders can share a discounted order?

Our allotment site is a new one, and the community spirit is brilliant. I've been asked to help out with producing a newsletter so that everyone knows what's going on whether they have an internet connection / access or not. I thought it might be a good idea as well as having a seed/plant swap section, to put forward the idea of bulk buying the items most wanted and sharing the cost. We've already done this with manure, we got 20 tons delivered and shared it out between us all (there's about 12 of us so far) and shared the cost proportionately. Great community spirit here with lots of laughs and help sh*t shovelling Now I've got to spread mine but I'm not doing it in the rain!

[Skotch]

Hi Maureen

I believe that most of the seed companies have a discount scheme for Allotment Societies - ours in Leicester has used Kings Seeds for a few years now - at a substantial discount. The downside is that someone has to collect and coordinate the submission of the order and then the dividing up of individual orders on receipt - no easy task in our case with over 100 plots.

It may be worth someone in your Society giving all the companies a call to see which ones are prepared to send you the literature.

HTH

[Snadger]

It was a stipulation in our tenancy agreement this year that we had to have public liability insurance.
As far as we could ascertain there were only a couple of places doing it. We joined NSALG and got our insurance through them............but the point of all this waffle is they also operate a discounted seed store for societies with Kings seeds.
An allotment site close to ours also has a small shop selling paraffin,seeds,tatties,compost etc. Anyone can use it and they have seed racks you can browse with Kings seeds at 50% off. I think they work on a sale or return also which it makes it a lot simpler than getting a sheet and taking orders!
Just out of interest, the profit they make from the shop helps to subsidise the allotment rents to the tune of £6.00 per year per plot holder!

[phil the shed]

our allotment society uses codnor horticultural supplies codnor derbyshire
look them up on tinterwebet they may be able to help you.
i think they source or supply our seed pots and onion for us

[Kristen]

I think of Marshalls Seeds as being "Allotment friendly", but can't see anything on their website about bulk-buying; no harm in asking though!

[PAULW]

T&M do a 50% discount for allotment orders, we have a special order form with the allotments name on that you use and the seeds are sent to your home saves a lot of bother from having to sort out a bulk order .

[jacob marley]

We use DT Browns on our site the more you spend in bulk buying the bigger discount we usally work on about 45% wich is a good saving .
Tuckers from down in Devon ain't to bad either jacob marley

[MaureenHall]

Thank you all so much for this info, I'll do a report type thingy to show to the important bods who do all the running of the allotments and see what we can come up with. I love the idea of getting stuff on sale or return, the only down-side to that at the moment is that we haven't anywhere on-site where we could set up any sort of shop ...................... yet

Thanks Paul W for the T&M info, I'll be getting on to them deffo

[geoff]

buying in bulk

You could try the allotment associations or societies, and seed merchants as already mentioned. Also look in yellow pages for agricultural suppliers

I tried to get our plotholders to join in a subscription to GYO, but only a couple were interested. Obviously several people would bring it down to a very reasonable amount of money, and you could share out the gifts an offers