I thought the same thing about marking the month(s) with possible group buy. I ordered monday morning (2) 175 gallon worth of salt from BRS along with some other items I have been needing.
-
Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.
Club sponsored - Group Buy. Attempt 1
- Thread starter ecam
- Start date
I thought the same thing about marking the month(s) with possible group buy. I ordered monday morning (2) 175 gallon worth of salt from BRS along with some other items I have been needing.
Guys. We are working on get the timing right. At the moment I want to put out feelers and see what everyone is interested in. So I can talk to the BOD on Friday.
I’m hoping to getting the entire club on an annual rotation for salt buy.
. (Pipe dream I know)
Gfo and carbon
Misc.
Looks like the first one is going to be salt.
I’m hoping to getting the entire club on an annual rotation for salt buy.
. (Pipe dream I know)Gfo and carbon
Misc.
Looks like the first one is going to be salt.
I think salt would be a mistake. Years ago salt made sense since it would be cheaper than what we could pay at a LFS. However over the past decade I've seen how large online retailers are able to reduce the price point, be exempt from tax, and then ship to your home for free. Furthermore I don't think the stores really get much of a margin on salt - and many of them end up having all this extra salt on hand because members back out from paying at the last minute. There is nothing worse than having a pallet of salt in your store. I've seen it happen, instead of improving relations with our sponsors, we make matters worse.
People vote salt now because they assume you can get something cheap. But if your price is anywhere close to what can be bought online, factoring in tax, and the gas to drive to the store...a lot of members back out.
People vote salt now because they assume you can get something cheap. But if your price is anywhere close to what can be bought online, factoring in tax, and the gas to drive to the store...a lot of members back out.
Well .. we need to look at stuff that the big online retailers like amazon, drfosterandsmith and what not are selling for less than GB prices and delivering it at our doorstep for FREE. Salt will not fly for sure.
I see frozen food as something we can do with out local sponsors. Invert group buy might work also. However there MUST be a minimum amount set on what everyone has to buy, say $15 or $20 to make it more appealing for our LFS. I have had a first hand discussion with our previous sponsor who did not renew their sponsorship because they did not think they will want someone to come in as a part of GB and get $2.50 worth of stuff only. Not worth the hassle to them.
I did Nori group by twice and that was worth it. Do something that amazon does not. That should be worth it.
I see frozen food as something we can do with out local sponsors. Invert group buy might work also. However there MUST be a minimum amount set on what everyone has to buy, say $15 or $20 to make it more appealing for our LFS. I have had a first hand discussion with our previous sponsor who did not renew their sponsorship because they did not think they will want someone to come in as a part of GB and get $2.50 worth of stuff only. Not worth the hassle to them.
I did Nori group by twice and that was worth it. Do something that amazon does not. That should be worth it.
Last edited:
I think salt still has possibilities.... but what needs to be done is prior to approaching a vendor we need to collect everything internally (to prevent flakers) and also to have a set min....
here is some of the things that went wrong with prior buys....
1. Flakers!!!
2. the following order
4 salinity
3 instant ocean
2 reef crystal
1 esv
There is no way a vendor can make a profit off of this order not enough quantity for the to get involved..
as @Sunny mentioned we need to set min purchases and really drive it to make salt purchases once a year. from prior dealings... i know there is still margin to be made on salt but it has to be done by the pallet not like the prior orders.
to this effect. we would...
1. gather up all the users of lets say instant ocean... a pallet is normally 30 -40boxes or buckets.
2. we will push for that much purchases
3. pre-paid to the club
4. club will pay the vendor.
a store will have no problem sitting on sold salt.... for x amount of time. its the unsold salt that is the problem.
any thoughts?
here is some of the things that went wrong with prior buys....
1. Flakers!!!
2. the following order
4 salinity
3 instant ocean
2 reef crystal
1 esv
There is no way a vendor can make a profit off of this order not enough quantity for the to get involved..
as @Sunny mentioned we need to set min purchases and really drive it to make salt purchases once a year. from prior dealings... i know there is still margin to be made on salt but it has to be done by the pallet not like the prior orders.
to this effect. we would...
1. gather up all the users of lets say instant ocean... a pallet is normally 30 -40boxes or buckets.
2. we will push for that much purchases
3. pre-paid to the club
4. club will pay the vendor.
a store will have no problem sitting on sold salt.... for x amount of time. its the unsold salt that is the problem.
any thoughts?
Be careful with this part. This is how we used to do group Buys and then a few years back the Treaurer, Pres, and BOD realized they may be in violation by collecting all the money and then paying the vendor and it was stopped. That was a big issue on why Group Buys died. @JRWOHLER can chime in on the payments issue as well. He may remember more than I do. James and I ran GB's for many many years.
Usually also MAP pricing, but you can ask. The club would prefer using a sponsor though.
jmags080307
SPS Grow Out Winner
do we have enough dedicated member base to get a group buy with say, 50+ people?
Have you ever seen this write up by melev from the Dallas club? Long ago he came to speak at one of our swaps.
Reef Addicts - How to Organize and Host a Group Buy
The example they use is a 10 person invert group buy. In that case though the delivery is sent to a board member and it's up to the 9 others to get there.
Maybe we could do a smaller sized group buy?
Regarding the money being gathered by the club first...i was unaware of the legal implications.
Reef Addicts - How to Organize and Host a Group Buy
The example they use is a 10 person invert group buy. In that case though the delivery is sent to a board member and it's up to the 9 others to get there.
Maybe we could do a smaller sized group buy?
Regarding the money being gathered by the club first...i was unaware of the legal implications.
jmags080307
SPS Grow Out Winner
group buys are cool, but can be inconvenient. i'm not going to drive an hour to save $25. most of us are extremely busy so everything is a matter of convenience. personally, i think organizing a specific day a month with our LFS sponsors to give paid members a discount on certain things would be a good idea (a different sponsor each month). this would get some additional foot traffic in the door to our sponsors and provide a benefit to the paid members. i think people are likely to head to a local LFS to spend and buy what they want (and get a discount).