Split into a separate note because I’m long winded and this is a separate conversation. Would you be willing to spend more and shop local if you knew that the item was delivered from a local business to you buy someone local like a locally owned grubhub business model type clone? Or is it the “local shop” experience you’re after?
Discussion
More of local shop… a subscription program where I just set a subscription plan for several household items that my family uses all the time like Amazon “subscribe and save”… I guess it could be a grub hub model as well as long as it was sourced from local shops… but it was just a contemplation that might have me asking my local hardware store if they ever thought of the model of setting a subscription plan type thing where I could list what I need once a month and they’d set it aside for me to come in once a month and buy
Cool. Mind me asking a couple examples of items you’d subscribe to? I’m currently looking to up my game. We aren’t a hardware store, but I can extrapolate concepts from specifics. We haven’t restructured our shop in about 10 years. The joke back then was we got “into the 21st century.” There’s a lot that could be automated, and a lot of consumer perception has changed away from small shops.
One thing that has changed for the worse on my end is that the suppliers almost universally have moved to volume and market share. I can’t get a good deal by being their oldest and most loyal customer. Often, I can just buy something on Amazon cheaper than I can from my wholesaler. I do that sometimes. Sad but true. 😅
Well stuff that I used to buy from Amazon through their program was cases of toilet paper, paper towel, batteries, diapers, household cleaners, etc. just stuff that I could set once to deliver between once every month or 2 and I wouldn’t have to worry about forgetting to buy them… and with Amazon there is the 5-15% off incentive for buying more items this way at a time… which I know local retailers could never compete with those prices but maybe even a 5% discount for a bulk sale based on the amount of sale or on quantities ordered and just once a month, come in and pick it up… as long as it wasn’t obviously an Amazon brand item, how would people know it wasn’t purchased from Amazon… but the down side for retailers are, if you did the ordering through amazon, they don’t get advance notice of price changes so it be hard to not get screwed if Amazon did a price change just prior to a monthly order when your subscribers would be planning on a more consistent price where wholesalers generally will give you at least a month notice from my past experiences in retail ordering departments
Mmmm! Good point about the supply price changing. Most of my business involves service in some manner, but with larger customers I do have to get wholesaler’s commitments before I bid/invoice.
So you’re saying basically mundane items. That would be possible, but you’re probably going to see some sacrifice. Instead of Bounty towels and Charmin tp, you just get towels de jour and tp de jour. You also would get your items from a local retailer, but there’s very few local factories. The American consumer has backed themselves in a corner in that regard. You can’t go to the fishmonger or the wheelwright anymore. The Spatula City joke comes to mind lol
A monthly “sample of your city” order would be pretty cool, but the startup costs would be astronomical and you’d have to get hundreds of producers to buy into the idea.
About the generic brand products, it be no different than when people order amazon brand items… usually they are generic venders that just repackage in amazon, but before it was “amazon basics” amazon just used to sell them in the original no name brand package… it’s all made overseas anymore anyways… and yes, it be an expensive startup for someone doing it on only this model… that’s why I was thinking, I’d go to a retailer who already handles and stocks these items and just float the idea to them first