Waste-Free Lunches - Sandwich Wraps, Anyone?

Great article in today's New York Times about schools that are encouraging if not outright mandating waste-free packaging for kids' school lunches (click on title above to see article).  Yay!!  I wish I could tell everyone about our sandwich wraps.  Made from upcycled fabrics, lined with reused plastic bags:  doesn't get much more environmentally-friendly than that.

I had a look at the competition on etsy and noted that my bags were priced $1.50 more than the next highest.  And although I do believe the work justifies the price, I lowered it to match the $6 that is the high end of the scale.  Changed the titles and tags to incorporate "waste free," also.  Haven't sold a lot of these despite the superior design (in my humble opinion) and great fabrics, and a 25% premium could go a long way to explaining that.  Well, we'll see.

Status Update

With a lot of my focus on Oberlin and the house recently, I haven't kept up with the blog.  So, current status:

1.  Sandwich bags - "Dropped by" the Sandy Springs Whole Foods today to see what was going on with my vendor app.  Was able to talk face-to-face with Tatjana, who said that the regional grocery coordinator now had the application in hand; her part is finished.  It's confusing because Mary in the Duluth store said that they had the authority to add certain items themselves, and that's the impression I had from Susan as well, who declined to take these on at the regional level.  Anyway, I will soon have a contact name and email and can follow up with him directly.

2.  Wine bags - Had a nice order from Hafner based on the listing I sent him showcasing his wine.  Also had a retail order today from one of my networking colleagues.  Nevertheless, I think I need to review the construction process to see if I can't get the time down a bit; I had a lot of pushback on the price point.  Then I need to continue to expand the sales effort.  Cook's Warehouse/Sherlock's (I think that was the name) was suggested this morning.

3.  Sleeves - I like the streamlined design and think the price can't be beat.  Just need to have a few more samples and rework my catalog.

These are all projects for next week as I'm leaving for Cuba tomorrow, returning next Wednesday evening.  And they all take a back seat to cleaning up my workroom which is an absolute disaster.  (Not to mention the guest bedroom next door - thank you, Sunny.)