Trish Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 For those of you that do wholesale, do you have a certain amount of miles in between stores that carry your product? If so, how many?I have a store that wants to phase out their Illume candles and just focus on mine. Her goal with her store is to be unique and not carry products you can find everywhere. She wants to know if she does focus on mine, that they will not suddenly pop up in all the stores around her.I had never thought about this, although I know lots of companies that do monitor how close the stores are to each other.... trying to figure out what would be adverage. TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schmoopie Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 I guess it would depend on how many stores there are in the area..... don't want to shot your foot off by saying 5 miles...... because for some, they don't want to travel that far....I guess the way we have worked it is by the size of the town/city..... the bigger ones we will give whatever street they are on to ( to a certain blockage, if it is a big, thriving city/town)..... smaller we work in block radius.....There is a city we would really like to get into, but it is many blocks of tourist trade and this one store wants absolute rights to our products, otherwise, no go....... we said NO and are not there yet but figure we will be at some point, AND have more products in and a bit more control. YES we have probably given up quite a few sales, but we are trying to let this company know ( semi-big for the area) we are not some little mom and pop operation that can be messed with:yay:They need to know we are a serious professional Corp.Everyone stand up for your right as true craftspeople and don't take sh*t for wholesale offers..... we have a fantastic product and they can love it or leave it.I've got plenty of business and have no problem saying "no"..... by the way this brings them back......Anyway, sorry for the rant but I say a minimal is best.....maybe 3 max...Can't ask for 10 or so ...... unless they are ordering $1,000 plus a month... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trish Posted January 14, 2008 Author Share Posted January 14, 2008 Thanks Schmoopie!This store is in the city of Sacramento, near the university. I was thinking a five mile radius would be fair since there really are quite a few places to shop. I don't want to extend it too far but don't want stores competing against each other either... I appreciate your input! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barncat Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 I have stores pratically across the street from each other that each reorder every few weeks...they are in a high tourist area..so it varies. THe questions I ask my customers when then want protection is..."What stores don't you want me to sell too?" They know their compeition!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southern.scents Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 The area in which most of my wholesale accounts are is usually small cities. I normally agree with each wholesale customer that they will be the only person in the city carrying my product unless it is a larger city and then it is about a three mile radius. Im pretty much like barncat, they know who they don't want to compete with so if there is a store outside of that three mile radius that they particularly don't want to carry my candles then I can work with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sockmonkey Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Sometimes you need to be careful with store owners and their requests and not engage in an agreement you will later regret.There's nothing wrong with a business wanting to obtain unique items for their shop, but be observant about the appearance of her shop. How well stocked does her store appear to be? Do you see very many name brand items? What type of price ranges are there on her inventory? Does the merchandise appear to be new, or does it look like it's been sitting around a while? Those are clues that sales could be less than stellar.Getting rid of name brand items could mean the company has cut her off. Maybe she didn't sell enough to meet their requirements or maybe she didn't pay her bills in a timely manner--either can cause a company to dump you. On the other hand, maybe she is received poor customer service from the company and doesn't want to deal with them anymore, or maybe as she said, she's just wanting to sell truly unique items and get rid of all the typical brands you find in every other gift shop.I knew a lady who owned a gift shop and she demanded a protected territory from the independent people who sold their candles and crafts to her. The funny thing was, I later found out she only insisted upon that because she couldn't afford to buy from her former big name suppliers anymore. Little by little her brand name stuff started disappearing and more locally made crafts started showing up in her store instead; then the next thing you know, she was out of business.So, with that in mind, my advice for selling wholesale is never promote or advertise protected territories in the normal course of doing business unless you have to. If you must offer them, give yourself an escape clause. Always state in the fine print that you reserve the right to terminate the relationship at your discretion. Either that, or spell out exactly what type of sales volume is required on their part to give them a protected territory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southern.scents Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 If you must offer them, give yourself an escape clause. Always state in the fine print that you reserve the right to terminate the relationship at your discretion. Either that, or spell out exactly what type of sales volume is required on their part to give them a protected territory.You said it perfectly sockmonkey. I factor in location, wthat the store offers, and the amount of business a place does BEFORE I even consider wholesaling with them. I also state in every contract we sign with a wholesaler that we reserve the right to terminate the wholesale agreement at any time for any feasable reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barncat Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Yes, you definately dont want to protect a customer that only orders $100. For territory rights, my minimum is $1.5K a year,anything below that I cannot guarantee. This usually only come up when I'm at a show..and they can actually see their competition. If they place their order at the same show, i cannot guarantee rights either. I had a big problem at a show in Chicago, ths lady was argueimg with me about another store, in the same town with a similar name. They both placed the order at the same show..sold to both...course looking at it now...neither have ordered lately...hmm need to send(one of) them a coupon!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candlelady Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 The first thing I look the type of clientele that will be visiting each store. I supply alot of Feed Stores but have no problem putting them also into a gift shop in the same town, no matter how small the town is.In the town where I work, pop. 10,000 I have my candles in a Feed Store (this is one of 6 Feed Stores they own) and a Hair Salon and private label my candles in a small gift store (different container, with their logo and my name is only mentioned on the warning label on the bottom of the candle.)I want and need all the business I can, so found another way of getting my products into another store.HTH!Carrie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VerticallyEnhanced Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 I offer them exclusive zip code rights, but in return, they have to meet minimums (i.e per order minimums, time period between order requirements, etc.) In other words, someone cannot abide by my minimum purchase guidelines, order say $300 worth of candles and then not order again for three months.It works very well and I have found that my stores appreciate me taking care of them. In turn, they represent my line very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cindym Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Trish, I always check with my other accounts first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barncat Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 I had a big problem at a show in Chicago, ths lady was argueimg with me about another store, in the same town with a similar name. They both placed the order at the same show..sold to both...course looking at it now...neither have ordered lately...hmm need to send(one of) them a coupon!!How weird....they just faxed an order over.....they must have been reading my thoughts!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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