I see my local chain grocery stores selling a few varieties of hot peppers. Does anyone here sell to any local or commercial chains?
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Does anyone sell to a grocery chain?
- Thread starter newhotstuff
- Start date
Maybe a better place to find people who sell to stores would be over at the Garden Web forum on Market Gardening http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/market/
In general peppers are NOT the item to sell wholesale to stores. You will be lucky to make a dime an hour for your labor. You need low labor veggies and you really still need to sell at retail.
Restaurants will pay a premium price on good veggies high retail. Stores want rock bottom prices dirt cheap prices.
If you want to sell to stores, you are better off importing from the south cheap and marking it up.
Lets say you rent a really fertile acre to grow. You have all the equipment and irrigation. So on the acre you can grow lets say 20 tons of pumpkins or 20 tons of Jalapeno off of 43,000 jalapeno plants. Which do you grow. Well you will never in a million years harvest 20 tons of jalapeno so you better choose the pumpkins. At harvest time you will still be planting out the 43,000 seedlings. Your back will be broken. You will be sun stroke. and bitten by a million mosquitos. it is crazy.
You might also do well with a pick your own strawberry acre. etc. farming is a tough way to make a buck. and a buck does not even buy a gallon of gas today.
In general peppers are NOT the item to sell wholesale to stores. You will be lucky to make a dime an hour for your labor. You need low labor veggies and you really still need to sell at retail.
Restaurants will pay a premium price on good veggies high retail. Stores want rock bottom prices dirt cheap prices.
If you want to sell to stores, you are better off importing from the south cheap and marking it up.
Lets say you rent a really fertile acre to grow. You have all the equipment and irrigation. So on the acre you can grow lets say 20 tons of pumpkins or 20 tons of Jalapeno off of 43,000 jalapeno plants. Which do you grow. Well you will never in a million years harvest 20 tons of jalapeno so you better choose the pumpkins. At harvest time you will still be planting out the 43,000 seedlings. Your back will be broken. You will be sun stroke. and bitten by a million mosquitos. it is crazy.
You might also do well with a pick your own strawberry acre. etc. farming is a tough way to make a buck. and a buck does not even buy a gallon of gas today.
AJ said he was selling to a high end grocery chain in the DFW area. Have not see any updates from him about it though. Here is the link:
AJ's Exotic Superhots in Central Market Stores
AJ's Exotic Superhots in Central Market Stores
AlabamaJack
Extreme Member
that fell through when I finally realized they wanted me to have a million in liability insurance and it was more expensive than I wanted to pay...heck, I probably wouldn't even have sold enough to pay for the premiums...
to Tabby Basco...if they know what the pods are, such as the "ghost pepper" or other exotic varieties, they are willing to pay...but they want them in small containers already packed and labelled...1/2 pint clamshell pack for 3.50 or 3.75 each (my price)...I figured between 14 and 30 bucks a pound depending on the pods...
hey nhs,
i don't sell to any grocery chains but I am a consumer and do watch as to what companies do have their products positioned at some stores, as I have helped some companies with labels, packaging and software and always look for their products when I am out and about.
i have noticed that many chains have organic sections for locally grown fresh food products, many of the fresh products are greenhouse grown and the benefit for the grocer is that they can portray a "green" product. lessen the transportation CO2 impact and with "ecofriendly" products there are rules that the producer has to follow to retain that right. many times just certain stores within the chain will carry a seasonal produce product and sell them at a premium(I don't know how badly they squeeze the producer for pricing). i am guessing the store manager may have the autonomy to make those decisions.
next, you have the custom markets that focus on the organic shopper and carry mostly locally farmed or ecofriendly lines, the clientelle that shop there tend to drive highend lexus, mercedes type vehicles and some may even be highbreds(smartcars). when I say custom markets, I am not talking farmers markets but a grocery store that tries to distinguish themselves from the big chains, so they will also carry foriegn heath food products, highend european utensils etc., may have a soup & sandwich area that would serve things like free range chicken slices on freshly baked multigrain bread made on premise.
so an example, just north of the city in which i live there is a greenhouse called diane's greenhouses, this company at certain times of the year has their hot thai peppers, packaged in those long thin clear plastic containers, displayed in the produce section of a western canadian chain store. the store that has them displayed is minutes from my home but 5 minutes away is the same chain store but they do not carry these hot peppers. i have unsuccessfully tried to contact this diane's greenhouses to talk to them about their successes at promoting their products, i could talk to the local produce manager and discuss the steps they use to place these locally grown products in their displays. the pepper containers usually have 3 long peppers and sell for $4.99 (the peppers always look consistant in size and shape and a nice quality compared to the imported products that are beaten up pretty badly and sell for $8.99/lbs. I am also seeing long sweet peppers packaged the same way but the peppers are yellow, orange and red.
what is your intention?
i don't sell to any grocery chains but I am a consumer and do watch as to what companies do have their products positioned at some stores, as I have helped some companies with labels, packaging and software and always look for their products when I am out and about.
i have noticed that many chains have organic sections for locally grown fresh food products, many of the fresh products are greenhouse grown and the benefit for the grocer is that they can portray a "green" product. lessen the transportation CO2 impact and with "ecofriendly" products there are rules that the producer has to follow to retain that right. many times just certain stores within the chain will carry a seasonal produce product and sell them at a premium(I don't know how badly they squeeze the producer for pricing). i am guessing the store manager may have the autonomy to make those decisions.
next, you have the custom markets that focus on the organic shopper and carry mostly locally farmed or ecofriendly lines, the clientelle that shop there tend to drive highend lexus, mercedes type vehicles and some may even be highbreds(smartcars). when I say custom markets, I am not talking farmers markets but a grocery store that tries to distinguish themselves from the big chains, so they will also carry foriegn heath food products, highend european utensils etc., may have a soup & sandwich area that would serve things like free range chicken slices on freshly baked multigrain bread made on premise.
so an example, just north of the city in which i live there is a greenhouse called diane's greenhouses, this company at certain times of the year has their hot thai peppers, packaged in those long thin clear plastic containers, displayed in the produce section of a western canadian chain store. the store that has them displayed is minutes from my home but 5 minutes away is the same chain store but they do not carry these hot peppers. i have unsuccessfully tried to contact this diane's greenhouses to talk to them about their successes at promoting their products, i could talk to the local produce manager and discuss the steps they use to place these locally grown products in their displays. the pepper containers usually have 3 long peppers and sell for $4.99 (the peppers always look consistant in size and shape and a nice quality compared to the imported products that are beaten up pretty badly and sell for $8.99/lbs. I am also seeing long sweet peppers packaged the same way but the peppers are yellow, orange and red.
what is your intention?
I have been lucky enough to make deals with a local thai rest. and a local farmer's market. Other than that, I can see what AJ is talking about. Big chains run the risk of people suing them for the dumbest crap. Like when the coffee incident happened at McDonald's. But, when you go to a produce stand, or a farmer's market, you pretty much buy at your own risk. I promise you there will be some idiot that eats a whole bhut, then wants to sue somebody because it hurt SO bad. I personally wouldnt even fool with the bigger places. More money than its worth.
I see chiliplants selling their peppers after the growing session has subsided and they seem to sell out fast or even sell out via preorders. The garbage I see at my local grocery food chain looks like it's old, colorless and of course overpriced. Perhaps by selling sweet peppers there is no liability or much more limited?
I dunno. Still wouldnt want to mess with any of that. Just too many crazies in this world...