Anyone Interested in Purchasing Printed Items together....

[CoffeeJunky]

I have been purchasing coffee from the local roaster. The coffee price is not very cheap but he supplies about 100 independent coffee houses and he gets the printed items much cheaper then I can get them on my own.
I am wondering if we can create a purchasing club with members here from the US. Is that even possible? If so, how many of us are interested? I am going to start roasting for my store and that is one sticking point.

Thanks for your future reply and ideas.....

 

[eldub]

What is a printed item?

 

[PinkRose]

Some examples of what you mean by printed items would be helpful. Are you thinking about cups? sleeves? bags for roasted coffee?

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Some examples of what you mean by printed items would be helpful. Are you thinking about cups? sleeves? bags for roasted coffee?

Yes... cups, sleeves, napkins, bags.... and anything we need custom printed items...

 

[eldub]

I buy all of those items now as an independent coffee roaster. I'm not sure any quantity discount would make the logistics of purchasing for a group desirable. Buying in case quantity really isn't that big of a deal, imo.

Besides, if you are talking specially printed items, everyone is going to want their own version/image/information printed on the products.

Maybe I'm missing something here....?

 

[CoffeeJunky]

maybe i wasn't very clear for the my motive of this topic.

Eldub, Yes you are absolutely right. Each of us are not going to generate much business for the printer but as a group, we can generate more business.

Example: I use around 2-2,500 printed paper cups and sleeps a week. As a one coffee shop owner, we can only get low volume pricing but if we put together around 20-25 owners put together, the size of business is pretty decent. Of course, cost of the business isn't going to be any cheaper for the printer or whoever decide to take this business but they do not have to go after 25 business owners.

I am just trying to see if we can help each other on purchasing together....

 

[eldub]

Would everyone's items have the same information printed on it? If so, there would probably be quantity discounts involved. But if every group member wanted their own information printed on the items they order, I'm not sure that would qualify for quantity discounts.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Yes, we won't be getting quantity discount. As a one owner, I might be giving the printer about 10,000 dollars a year business but as a 100 business owners, we can give him 1 million dollars worth of business....That is what i am talking about.... Not quantity discount....

If someone comes through the door asking 1 cup of coffee for 1 dollar, we would laugh about it but if someone comes in and say, I would buy 5,000 cups a week at 1 dollar a piece, you would not turn that business away.....

 

[eldub]

Good luck with that.

The problem with your last analogy, imo, is that you are still going to have 100 business owners getting ahold of the suppliers to give individual orders, just as you have 5000 individuals coming into the shop for their $1 cup of coffee.

To me, time is money. And the amount of time you are going to have to spend organizing this venture will offset any monetary savings you may realize, imo.

Our shop has a printer who prints our labels, a bag supplier for coffee bags, a supplier of recyclable/compostable cups/lids/straws, etc. I don't view these expenses as being cost prohibitive. Maybe others do. Just putting out my 2 cents worth, as you posted the idea on the forums.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

I think you missed the point...

There is no arguing about there will be a printer/printers out there who will print our supplies for cheaper. My question is there anyone who is interested in saving money.

With any businesses like ... Insurance, Suppliers of any kind( office, furniture, packaging, and etc,,,) they will all willing to give bigger discount to bigger groups. I think we all know the reason. We don't have to argue about why anyone is willing to give discounts to the group.

My question to this board was to create buying group together. That is my question. We all in the same industry. Why not take advantage of buying together and save money. It might not be a lot for now but we can always shop around every year. We can have few vendors to bid and see if we can get any bigger discounts. As an individual, you are locked into their price and that is all the choice you have.

We can do many different things like buying supplies but also insurances(business, health, and life) .... and more... Just my thought... Maybe there are already this kind of group exist in different site or different forum... I don't know... If the discount is big enough, this site might attract more members to join......

 

[PinkRose]

Hi CoffeeJunky,

It appears that you've given this idea a lot of thought.

I imagine it would be an huge project to try to organize a buying group here on the Coffee Forum, especially since our members are from all over the world. If a few vendors were willing to offer bulk discounts and then ship the individual orders out separately, there may be a possibility that it would work. But, I can't picture that happening.

Rose

 

[CoffeeJunky]

I think it only qualifies to members in US. I believe, this could work. Not just printed items but green beans and other things we buy by the truck loads... lol.... I think most important thing is to see how much volume we have as group. If vendors can only make few hundred dollars from us, it would not be worth much.
If anyone interested, please send me your monthly volume of items you use and the price.
I use around `1200-1400 paper cups and sleeves a month.
I could buy 300 -350 pounds of green beans a month as well...

 

[CoffeeJunky]

I will offer my time to organize this if you let me....

 

[ryandiaz]

I have to agree with eldub. I don't understand where you would save money. You described 2 scenerios, and I'll use cups in my examples...

1: You purchase 2,500 custom printed cups as 1 business and receive low quantity pricing. Not a big deal to the printer.

2: You make a group of 25 business owners and all of you approach the printer to order 2,500 different printed cups for each of your businesses. In this 2nd scenerio you would certainly receive the printer's undivided attention, but each of the 25 businesses involved would still receive the same low quantity pricing. So, a big deal to the printer, but not a big deal to the business owners.

Discounts and lower quantity pricing is given for larger individual orders, because the printer saves money by not having to change colors and plates and cup sizes, etc. The printery is setup once, and then just starts spitting out cups. But for 25 different business owners, that is 25 different times to change and setup the printery. No discount here.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

I don't understand why you all want to say it won't work without even considering all the facts and points.
It really doesn't matter why it works or doesn't work since none of you guys are very interested in saving money in any level.....

But here is my example of just one item....COFFEE CUP

1. If you are independent buyer, you will be paying top dollars for any printing job. So whatever you printer is asking for it, that will be your price. No chance of getting any bargains or quantity discount.
This is major reason why you would do group buying.

2. I said eldub is right, we won't be getting any one quantity discount since most of the small business only orders, low quantity.. that being about 5000-10,000 cups a month per store. But if we can get about 100,000 to 500,000 cup. As 1/2 million cups a month quantity, this is not a small business anymore. If we can get more then 1 millions cups, that would be even better.... But i guess i won't know since there aren't any of you want to save money....

3. My father was in printing business and I know how this works. At the first order, most of the printers wont' make much money but this is going to be repeat business. Setting up logo, setting up the printing color and all the art work.. all those take money but once that is done, you only need to keep printing and repeat business is always plus and lucrative for the printers since all the hard work is done...

4. I currently work with local coffee roaster who serves around 300 local coffee houses... 300 in mid-west not just in Michigan and he helps everyone buy their supply together and we all get very good pricing right now. SO i know it work... and I know where to get good price. My reason for coming here is to start roasting my own beans and I will no longer get my supplies cheap since I will be leaving my roaster and will need to buy my own as one small coffee house....

Look at your books from last year and tell me how much each of you spent on disposable product ... I know how much i spent and that might not be much but if you just add about 20-100 business together, that number get very impressive.... That is what I am talking about....

Our family used to also own a restaurant near DTE energy and gave them 10 percent off not because it was cheaper or less expensive to make their food but getting their business was important.

This might not work with online printers whose only competing tool is price but it can work with mid-size printer who is looking to replace business they lost past 7 years due to bad economy......