The books / Selling from the Farm / chapter 8 of 14
The co-op is a valve
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 co-op is not a market; it is a valve. It buys at a fixed price and buys reliably, without a customer to find or a jar to hand across a counter, worth a great deal to a producer who would rather harvest bees than chase buyers. What it does not do is buy an unlimited amount. A village shop has a shelf, and its own customers only drink so much mead or eat so many candles in a season.
So a co-op's usefulness is in the limit as much as the price. It turns a first crop into cash the same afternoon, and stops being useful where a keeper needs a bigger outlet.
In this game the co-op takes, per season:
- 15 kilos of honey
- 30 pieces
- 8 bottles
At 12 a kilo and six tenths of the stand's bottle price, and no more until the season turns.