The books / Selling from the Farm / chapter 7 of 14
Pricing a jar so it sells out before the next crop
All chapters
- The going rate
- A price has a shoulder
- What the road brings
- Regulars
- A new thing on the shelf
- Why a bargain spreads faster
- Pricing a jar so it sells out before the next crop
- The co-op is a valve
- Market day
- A shop of your own
- Signs, leaflets and adverts
- Selling by post
- Selling drink
- What a keeper is really choosing
A price is not just what a jar earns; it is how fast the shelf empties, and the two pull against each other. A modest premium on a small crop barely slows it and pays well for the patience; the same premium on a big crop can leave a third of it still on the shelf when the next harvest arrives, because the road only brings so many buyers a day.
The right question is not what a jar is worth alone.
In this game:
- a 25 kilo crop at the going rate clears the stand in 17 nights for 450
- the same crop at three tenths over takes 38 nights for 585
- a hundred kilos at a fifth over takes 101 nights
- the same hundred kilos at half again leaves over thirty kilos unsold a year later