WFM order!

Someone from WFM actually called me to inquire about reusable sandwich bags.  Oddly, it was not one of the people that my Mail Chimp campaign went to!  Apparently the manager, I mean team leader, saw my bags at another store and, since his customers had been asking for them, called me to find out more.  Says he's going to order 3 cases!  Of course, it hasn't happened yet - I know how busy these people get so I'm resigned to having to follow up.  But it's exciting to know that I haven't entirely missed the back-to-school season.

Mail Chimp campaign for sandwich bags

Launched a Mail Chimp campaign today targeted at the southern region WFM vendors, hoping to get at least a couple of orders for back-to-school and not miss the season entirely.  Although how I'll actually fill the orders is another matter, with Natapoc coming up and very busy B&B schedule in August.  Maybe I'll finally get to hire that employee; wouldn't that be great. 

Next step is to contact my laptop sleeve customers and see about new orders.  And I need to get more samples to my sales rep.  First thing Monday, I promise!

More Whole Foods Woes

Why oh why is Whole Foods so hard to work with???

Just when I thought I'd licked the systems issue, it now turns out that I'm not "set up electronically" so buyers still can't order through IRMA even though all my information is there.  Once again, I have contacted Julie to resolve the issue and I hope she can do it soon.

I'm frustrated and discouraged, but persistent.  I've invested way too much time and energy to give up now.  Plus I'm getting very positive responses from the stores!

My first WFM order - thank you, Chapel  Hill!

I think I should have sent my UPC labels and I forgot to do that (no wonder, since it's been over a year-and-a-half since I got the information about that).  I'll need to call Rebekka on Monday to see what to do about that.

Whole Foods

Followed up today with ALL the WFMs in the southeast region.  As usual, had a pretty hard time getting hold of people, especially in Atlanta.  Many of the ones I did get a hold of hadn't received (read:  seen/read) my email of last week.  But most were receptive to the idea so I resent a bunch of emails and catalogs.  Two of them said they wanted to place an order although I've received nothing so far.

Almost done embroidering the 30 custom patches; tomorrow I should be able to cut, trim, and ship them, right on schedule.

Didn't do anything on the work room organization today.

New patch project

Got an interesting order today from someone who works at Etsy:  30 custom patches.  I'm curious to know what MITS is and why/how it moves mountains.  The patches are going to be put on lab jackets so it doesn't seem like something that would be associated with etsy, although the mailing address is etsy.  Hmmm.

QDigitizing came back so quickly with a file!  And although they didn't follow directions, I can fix the issue myself.  (Their stitch count wasn't so hot either; actual count is 25% higher, after the fix; 50% higher before.)  Unfortunately, he asked for 3 colors that I don't have so I'll have to locate an embroidery thread store tomorrow.

In other news, got the Whole Foods order off ahead of schedule!

Persistence pays!

One and a half years after getting the green light from Whole Foods' southern region, I'm finally fully in their systems and made my first sale yesterday!  Thank you, Rebekka from  Chapel Hill!

Got the contact list from Vince so was able to contact everyone by email; I think that's their preferred means of communication, they're all so busy and even buyers and team leaders are on the floor with customers.  I didn't expect any sales at this point; I was going for meetings with the Atlanta stores and samples to the rest.  What a great surprise it was to receive a sales order the very same day!

Needless to say, these are going to be the best sandwich bags I've ever made.

Just goes to show, persistence really does pay off.  So many times I just wanted to let it go; I couldn't stand the thought of contacting the systems people one more time; attempting to contact the stores one more time only to be told, again, that I wasn't in the system...This is validation and motivation to keep pushing.

Merchandising

This post could be subtitled Not My Strong Suit.

I recontacted my Whole Foods buyers today and had a response back from one (very fast! thanks, Michelle).  Among other things, she wondered how we could merchandise the bags, given that they would be part of the Lunch Box display and as such, be placed on a bookshelf.

I started researching display racks but they're very expensive, and none was what I was looking for - not that I knew what I was looking for, but I would have recognized it if I saw it, and I knew what I didn't want.  I thought about it a long time, then I remembered how I used to display them at the farmers market last year, namely, I pinned them to a tri-fold foam board.  It worked great, because I could tape info to the board about the bags, and it was easy for customers to unpin them to look at them, then put them back again.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought it could be adapted for WFM.  Rather than pins - seemed like a bad idea in a retail environment with a lot of children - I could staple some elastic bands to the board and then loop the flaps around them.  Easy to take down and put back, no clips or pins to get lost or prick someone, the tri-fold should sit nicely on the shelf without leaning, and it can be sized for the space available.  And best of all, no extra packaging to be thrown away, in line with both Whole Foods' and GMBD's values.

I couldn't think of anything better so I sent her the idea, hoping it didn't sound too amateurish.  She loved it!  She's going to present the line to her Team Leader next week, so all I can do now is keep my fingers crossed.  And maybe make a few sandwich bags, just in case.

The Power of Persistance

Two months and 17 days after being officially approved as a WFM vendor I am finally in the system and able to sell my products in the southeast region.  Whew!  What a long strange trip that was.

I have created my vendor account and uploaded the two products I think should do well - the sandwich bags and possibly the wine bottle bags.  I recontacted my team leader contacts with limited results:  one said it was in the purview of grocery, not whole body, and two were out.  I decided to wait on the fourth since early morning seems to be a better time to reach these folks than afternoon.

I hate like hell to have to email people every week but I have to say, in this case, it got the job done and there's no question it would have not gotten done without my pestering.

Now if I can only get Josh at UDub to buy something this year...

Whole Foods direct contact!

I think there's been a breakthrough in the WFM saga.  I actually had a call from the famous JP - unfortunately I had left my phone charger in Oberlin and only just got the message today.  In the meantime, however, he had emailed me asking for my vendor packet.  And this morning I went ahead and returned his call even though it was late and I had already resent him the packet.

Apparently they changed systems and my information fell through the cracks.  He did apologize and seems like a super nice guy.  And good thing we talked, because it turns out there is an insurance waiver form I can sign instead of having to buy product liability insurance.  Thank goodness - the insurance is expensive and what am I insuring against, exactly?  I'm trying to think of the stupidest thing someone could do with a sandwich bag that could harm them, and I just can't come up with anything.

Of course, this waiver form hasn't actually made it to my inbox yet, but I'm reasonably optimistic that it won't take another 8 weeks and 8 emails to get it.  Just in time for BTS!

Moving on...to sandwich bags and laptopwraps

Not that I'm giving up entirely the wine store chase, but I'm quickly approaching back-to-school buying time and I don't want to miss it.  Although I'm pleased with the results of my wine bag campaign, it's clear that the big season for them is around the holidays, i.e., October.  So I'm going to wrap up the calls I've already started, then put wine stores on the back burner for awhile.

Have already started marketing the sandwich bags today, with several calls/emails to local health food stores including Sevananda and the Savannah Food Co-op.  And in breaking news, WFM finally responded to my sixth email - not that I have any news but at least JP's boss and boss's boss are requesting an update from him.  Be nice to see some movement there so I can re-contact the Atlanta stores and branch out to the rest of the region.

Sales Efforts Paying Off

Hmm, I guess I got busy...I'll blame it on the trip to Cuba, which was fabulous.

Things are moving more or less according to plan.  There's been progress on the Whole Foods front - my vendor application was approved!  Now I just need to be put into their system.  It's been 2 weeks and it seems I'm not in yet; 2 follow-up emails have had no visible effect.  Very frustrating.

From Our Cave to Yours

In the meantime, I'm concentrating on my wine bottle bags.  Have sold to 3 wine stores now, plus Hafner, with interest from others.  I'm steeling myself to make 5 cold calls a day; not overly ambitious, I admit, but pretty good for me.  Getting a lot of requests for info/photos that I hope will turn into orders.  Learned, however, that this is the slow season for wine sellers.  I guess that makes sense.  Will have more interest closer toward the holidays.

Had a good chat with Michael at Western Washington University, let him know what I was up to with respect to the new laptop sleeve design.  He was encouraging, said there was a lot of interest in the bags but the price seemed to discourage them (he's sold about half of what he bought).  They should like the new price point a lot better.

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.)

2 for 2

Got my second wholesale order today, this time from D'Vine in Dunwoody.  Yeah, he was throwing me a bone because I'm local but hey, I'll take it!

Also sent off my vendor application to WineStyles in Florida; will hear back from them in 3 weeks (or less).

Still no word from Tatjana although I sent her my UPC label yesterday.  I know she's busy but it's frustrating.

UPC codes

Could anything be more confusing?

After I spent nearly $800 to get a unique company identifier for creating bar codes, I found out that you can buy one-off bar codes for just a little more than 1% of that.  Granted, it comes with a caveat that says not all stores will accept them - Wal-Mart being chief among them, so what - but clearly it's ok with Whole Foods since they referred me to one of these sites in the first place.

I called to cancel my membership with GS1 which they will do for a cool $250 for "administrative fees."  This is supposedly part of the license agreement but I couldn't find this printed anywhere, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can get out of it.  Still, I'd rather be out $250 than $800.  Before canceling, though, I have to be sure that Total Wine will accept these bar codes.

I submitted a new item form to them today and they require a scannable UPC with the form, so I went ahead and purchased 2, one for them and one for WFM.  If Total Wine doesn't accept the bar code - assuming that they do accept my wine bottle bag (unlikely), then I'll have to bite the bullet with GS1.  Otherwise, I'll cancel.

Anyway, what's up with charging $800 to keep a bunch of numbers straight?  Isn't that basic spreadsheet management, and couldn't it simply be automated?  What a racket!

Wine Stores

I think I've done all I can do with Whole Foods for the moment, including 3 follow-up emails and phone calls this morning.

So I'm moving on to wine stores.  I've developed a list of 38 in the Atlanta area and I'm going to start dialing for dollars, as Arden always said, to see who wants to take a closer look.  Can't put all my (organic free range) eggs in one basket, right?

And More WFM

Had a very nice meeting with Mary today at the Duluth WFM.  She is interested and planning to contact Tatjana so hopefully they can collaborate to push the vendor application through.  It sounds as though the decision really can be taken locally, which is great.  She might also be interested in other bags later on.

Good way to end the week, plus it put me it good proximity for Dom's I Am a US Citizen luncheon with his team.  Now to finish the mah jongg bags and do a little cleaning up.

More WFM

Just got back from visiting the Buckhead store which was interesting.  Chris and Blakely liked the bags but weren't sure there was a good market there for them.  They'll keep them in mind for back-to-school.  On the other hand, they asked me to send them photos of my tote bags and suggested I contact the specialty department about the wine bags.  Will do!

Stopped by Sandy Springs WFM on the way home but Tatjana wasn't in.  I think I'll drop by tomorrow on the way back from Duluth - I really want to keep the vendor app process going and I think the personal contact will help.  Until it gets annoying.

Going to send this bag (in stock) plus some sold samples.

WFM

Just submitted my new vendor packet to the buyer at Whole Foods in Sandy Springs.  Keeping my fingers crossed that it is approved and an order is forthcoming!

In the meantime, I have a meeting with the WFM in Buckhead tomorrow and the one in Duluth on Friday.  Have not been able to talk with the one on Ponce de Leon yet as she just returned from vacation yesterday; I'll call her again tomorrow.

No word from Fresh Market yet; I'll call them again today.

Now off to standardize my reusable sandwich bags process and costs; this afternoon I'll do the same for the laptop sleeves.  Oh, and I have to make a custom tote bag for Charles for WCOG.

Working on the Sales

Have decided to abandon the college bookstores for the time being and am really focused on Whole Foods.  So far most are positive although there is one that doesn't quite see the tie-in, and one that I absolutely can't get a hold of.  But that makes 5 good prospects including the one that seems committed.  (She'd better be; I already spent the big bucks for the UPC company code.)

Also threw out a couple of feelers to sites selling wine accessories for my wine bottle gift bags.  One of them is The Wine Enthusiast; a long shot, I know, but what the heck.  What I need to do next is visit some local wine stores.  Seems that Pearson's in Buckhead is a good place to start.  Also that place over on Sandy Springs Circle.  I need to pick a day, map my route, and hit the road. 

Not to procrastinate, but tomorrow is Sunny's vet appointment, Thursday is my networking meeting, and it seems that Friday might not be the best day to visit a liquor store.  I'm guessing that Mondays are quiet, though, so I'm going to target next Monday and spend today figuring out my route.

Moving into the Big Time??

Well, I'm either taking a giant step into future profitability or killing myself financially this year.  The good news is, a local Whole Foods is definitely interested in purchasing my sandwich bags!  The bad news is, they require UPC labels before even approving you and putting you in their system.  To get a UPC label I had to apply for a unique identifier for my company.  This cost $760 with annual fees starting at $158.  Yowzah.  Once I have my company i.d. I can go ahead and order the bar codes which, if I understand what I've read so far, will cost around $10 per bar code artwork and around 6 cents per label.

But I don't want to focus on the scary money part!  I'm thrilled that Tatajana likes my bags.  The other Whole Foods buyer I met with also liked the bags, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that I'll be amortizing this cost over many Whole Foods stores.  Today Atlanta, tomorrow the southeast region!  Maybe next year the holy grail - California.

But what's up with WF buyers' scheduling skills?  This is the second time I've shown up at a Whole Foods and the buyer wasn't there!  At least this one had let her assistant know that I was coming, but sheesh!