Why Buy More Than You Need?

[Ian M]

I have an order for 100 mugs so, decided to go & buy them from my usual supplier. I thought if I buy 3 boxes of 36 mugs then that will do for this order as I would have just 8 mugs left. I went onto the website to find I would have to buy 2x72 mugs which is far more than I need for this order. I can buy 3 boxes of 36 of their other mugs so, why do I have to buy more of the other ones?

I solved the problem where I went to another supplier where I could just buy the number of mugs I need. On top of this I also got a discount with being a Premium Member too so, looks like I will be going there from now on.

[Paul]

well... This is my thinking too Ian! On the end of the day Iam going where is the cheapest and easiest option going.

[logobear]

sorry, but I really don't get the point of this tread.
If you (Ian M) are a sublimator, and the mainstay of sub is typically mugs, - and you have 1,691 posts then you must really know your stuff!
Why Why Why don't you carry a stock of mugs, - sure, buy them at the best sensible price, but why wait for an order? - can you not keep a few boxes somewhere because you know another order is going to come in? (ok, - space = money.....)
Making mugs is easy, But I find the real hassle is sorting our stock, - what, from where, how many, delivery, payment, checking product, and accounting.
There is a cost to sourcing product, and if you KNOW you will use more of it, why not buy more?
It sounds like you work hand2mouth?
I can accept that if the order is for a minority product like 100 large latte mugs, or water bottles or whatever then ordering the right amount, plus a few is acceptable, but mugs is a mainstay, you KNOW you will need more next day/week... and delivery is often a significant aspect of cost, so the more you order, the proportionally cheaper they become.
Soz, didn't mean to rant, but ...... are you a mug man or not ?

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Logobear

Sorry but I completely (and respectfully ) disagree with your post.

There could a number of reasons why IanM does not keep stock and purchases when he needs to and it really is not for you or I, or anyone to question it.

For example, I order a pallet of mugs from Raja and by some miracle they actually have them in stock. Lets say A pallet of mugs is 1800. I then get an order in for 1764 mugs (48 boxes) which leaves me with 1 box. I then get another order in which is for 504, I call Raja and not surprisingly they are out of stock for 6 weeks. I then call Listawoods and think I will have 1008 from them. I complete the order for 504 which leaves me with 504 from Listawoods and 36 from Raja. I then get another order for 792, call Listawoods and they are out of stock so I turn to BMS. Again, going by your rule I order more than I need.

You can see from just the one example above that by the time I have finished the orders I end up with 3 different types of mugs, from three different suppliers that will sit on my shelf in the hope that at some point I will be able to off load them with future orders, bearing in mind that it would not be good practice to mix and match from the different suppliers.

There are so many other reasons that I can think of for not keeping stock that I really do not see why it should be raised.

Going back to the original thread, there are quite a few reasons why selling them in 72's is better for some suppliers, and possibly customers. One example I can think of is depending on what courier is used, some charge by the box and not by weight. So sending two boxes of 36 mugs inside 1 big box will cost the same as sending 36. So the end result is the unit cost per mug is cheaper.

[pisquee]

Equally if they come from China (or wherever) already packaged as a box of 72, then it is extra work for a supplier to unpack the box to send it out, and then potentially have to repackage it in an extra cardboard outer so it is double boxed - this is an increase of man-hours, and another box that has to be sourced (cost) and stored (space-cost) and then either storage or disposal of original big box. When the cheapest, quickest and easiest option is to only sell them in the box size they come in.

[Ian M]

Phil, I have a stock of mugs here now but, the mugs I need for this order are slightly different to the ones I have in stock. That is why I need them but, thanks for the attack on me. I do have a good idea what I'm doing which doesn't always reflect in the number of posts.

Simon, thanks & you are spot on in that I don't want a load of odd mugs that will take me ages to get rid of. The supplier I wanted to buy them off originally sells their other mugs in boxes of 36 so, why not these mugs?

Tim, this supplier does supply a lot of their other mugs in packs of 6 so, they do split boxes.

[logobear]

Hi everyone, not sure why i got on my high horse last nite, ...... but i guess that since i tend to buy 6months worth of some media per purchase, and i find the hunt for stock the frustrating bit, what i was saying was that ...... oh i don't know!

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Logobear, I agree with you about sourcing stock. That is the most frustrating part as suppliers do run out. I am certainly not blaming suppliers for this as it must be impossible to know what you are going to need. As an example I know one supplier who could have sold treble the stock he had for February in relation to what he sold last year.

IanM, if I am in a situation like that I tend to purchase the extra and use them for a company promotion or even give them away to my customers as corporate mugs. As my customers regularly purchase 500+ at a time giving a box away every now and then goes a long way and does not break the bank. The alternative is to use them for sourcing new customers, an example of which is below...

Last year while watching the carnival in my local town I noticed that there were two main haulage firms that were represented by the use of their trucks to tow the floats. A little bit of investigation told me that these companies donate the vehicles for free. So I took a few photos of the lorry's and with the aide of Photoshop printed 12 mugs for each firm. I then delivered the mugs to the local company offices with a letter saying thank you from a local resident for their efforts in supporting a local event. Got an email from one firm before I had even got back to my office with a request for a quote for 504 mugs which turned into an order and I now supply them with quite a few bits n bobs (high vis vest peeps are the future :biggrin:)

Essentially I agree with you about the frustrations that some suppliers sell double boxes, but whether its a marketing ploy or simply a numbers game (as explained by Pisquee) it is what it is and without knowing all the facts it is impossible to know why and I suppose we just have to either put up with it, source from a different supplier, or like I have done, use them to my advantage by using a different style of marketing.

Lastly, I wish I could buy six months worth of stock upfront.... having the wife as a company director and a company debit card means that is never going to happen LOL!!!!

[purpledragon]

Last year while watching the carnival in my local town I noticed that there were two main haulage firms that were represented by the use of their trucks to tow the floats. A little bit of investigation told me that these companies donate the vehicles for free. So I took a few photos of the lorry's and with the aide of Photoshop printed 12 mugs for each firm. I then delivered the mugs to the local company offices with a letter saying thank you from a local resident for their efforts in supporting a local event. Got an email from one firm before I had even got back to my office with a request for a quote for 504 mugs which turned into an order and I now supply them with quite a few bits n bobs (high vis vest peeps are the future :biggrin:)

Genius !!!! note to self watch socials posts could learn a lot there

as for logos post just to throw my twopenneth in . Sublimation isnt just about mugs we sell a wide range of sublimation goods and to be honest we sell less mugs than most things there are various recognised stock retention styles for various reasons personally we use the just in time system which if im honest isnt the best but the advantage to this is better cash flow if your money is tied up in stock theres not much room for movement should oppertunities arise for instance we keep upto 2 boxes of thermal mugs in stock yet ive just done a job for 700 thermal mugs now these jobs are unfortunatly few and far between at the moment so if i kept another 700 mugs in stock just in case it could take an age for them to sell. I think there are some suppliers who could help themselves a bit more by offering accounts i know i buy from other sources at times simply because i get 30 days credit which can be a huge help when accepting orders . Im hoping the thermal mugs i did will become regular and bigger orders from this particular customer guess who will get my business should it coem off yep the guys who can provide me with stock on a 30 day invoice

[Ian M]

The situation is I work from home & don't have a lot of space to keep loads of stock of mugs. I would love to be in the position of being able to buy mugs by the pallet but, I can't. On top of this I don't have loads of spare cash either to buy loads of stock. One of the reasons I wanted just enough cheaper mugs was because I decided to try to support what I think is a worthy cause & tried to save money for the association that asked for them. In short I was trying to help some people out who have become very good regular customers of mine.

One thing I was trying to point out is how some suppliers have us by the short & curlies in the quantity we have to buy or with their prices we have to pay.