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Permalink Reply by Tom Maegdlin on May 9, 2011 at 12:53pm

This what my retail bag looks like. Pretty simple and to the point.I also created my own tape to seal the bags.

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Permalink Reply by Dustin DeMers on May 9, 2011 at 1:16pm

I totally get what your saying. Initially when companies would switch there pound bag to 12 oz bags it made me angry. I was like they were saying, "hey your not going to notice that we are giving you less coffee, cause 12oz is almost 16" 

 

Once I realized that it was more of a way to keep costs down, and not a way to screw the customer my opinion started to change. Honestly I would rather pay 14 dollars for 12 ozs than 18 dollars for 16ozs. because I may not go threw a pound in a week. (and i still haven't found a way to successfully freeze coffee). Dont know if that helped any, but i say dont be afraid to offer lesser sizes.
Joseph Zimmemann said:,

Thanks for the nice words on our design.

We have struggled with the bag size since we began over three years ago and have stuck hard to 16 oz bags and occasionally do some half pound bags. Here is why:transparency. We feel that one pound bags offer our customers the most value, reducing packaging and labor costs for us allowing us to sell if for less per ounce. Coffee prices have went up dramatically and we feel that being honest to our coffee drinkers means keeping the bag size the same even though the price goes up. Maybe we could sell more coffee if we floated between 10 and 12 oz bags to keep the bag price" insulated, but this is what seems to work for us. I think the main thing is picking a bag size and sticking with it. I find that the 8 oz bag works well when you have an expensive coffee you would like to showcase and keep the sticker shock down. Our coffees are have been retailing for between $14 and $17 per 16oz bag and because of our quality folks buy it.

I would appreciate your or anyone else's has more thoughts on bag size.

Heather Delia said:

Artwork is Nice Joe :-)  Just a suggestion that seems to be working great for our company, instead of selling coffee by the pound, try 10 or 12 ounces...people tend to look at the price before the actual amount they are getting, we are now selling twice as much coffee as before!

Joseph Zimmermann said:

We have been using a roasted on date since we began 3+ years ago, as part of our commitment to transparency. Since we use it on our sealed bags that go on retailer shelves, it works well until there is a bag or two on the shelf that are a month or two old. Sometime those bags are hard for our retailers to move because folks occasionally stay away from them because they are "older' even though. I am thinking about moving the date on the side or back of the bag so it isn't so confusing. 

I have attached one of our front labels. I am not sure how I am going to transition this to full bag printed on foil artwork. Thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by Greg Thomas on May 9, 2011 at 2:15pm

Yes, I definitely like your design. 

Tom Maegdlin said:

This what my retail bag looks like. Pretty simple and to the point.I also created my own tape to seal the bags.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Thomas on May 9, 2011 at 2:29pm

I think if you pick a size and stick with it, you'll be fine.  I prefer selling and buying 12 or 14oz bags.  A full pound is definitely too much for me due to staleness issues, and 8 or 10 oz just isn't worth it.

 

I don't have net weight on our bags but I try to make it as clear as possible that they're 14oz bags, and it's usually a very generous 14oz.

 

Dustin DeMers said:

I totally get what your saying. Initially when companies would switch there pound bag to 12 oz bags it made me angry. I was like they were saying, "hey your not going to notice that we are giving you less coffee, cause 12oz is almost 16" 

 

Once I realized that it was more of a way to keep costs down, and not a way to screw the customer my opinion started to change. Honestly I would rather pay 14 dollars for 12 ozs than 18 dollars for 16ozs. because I may not go threw a pound in a week. (and i still haven't found a way to successfully freeze coffee). Dont know if that helped any, but i say dont be afraid to offer lesser sizes.
Joseph Zimmemann said:,

Thanks for the nice words on our design.

We have struggled with the bag size since we began over three years ago and have stuck hard to 16 oz bags and occasionally do some half pound bags. Here is why:transparency. We feel that one pound bags offer our customers the most value, reducing packaging and labor costs for us allowing us to sell if for less per ounce. Coffee prices have went up dramatically and we feel that being honest to our coffee drinkers means keeping the bag size the same even though the price goes up. Maybe we could sell more coffee if we floated between 10 and 12 oz bags to keep the bag price" insulated, but this is what seems to work for us. I think the main thing is picking a bag size and sticking with it. I find that the 8 oz bag works well when you have an expensive coffee you would like to showcase and keep the sticker shock down. Our coffees are have been retailing for between $14 and $17 per 16oz bag and because of our quality folks buy it.

I would appreciate your or anyone else's has more thoughts on bag size.

Heather Delia said:

Artwork is Nice Joe :-)  Just a suggestion that seems to be working great for our company, instead of selling coffee by the pound, try 10 or 12 ounces...people tend to look at the price before the actual amount they are getting, we are now selling twice as much coffee as before!

Joseph Zimmermann said:

We have been using a roasted on date since we began 3+ years ago, as part of our commitment to transparency. Since we use it on our sealed bags that go on retailer shelves, it works well until there is a bag or two on the shelf that are a month or two old. Sometime those bags are hard for our retailers to move because folks occasionally stay away from them because they are "older' even though. I am thinking about moving the date on the side or back of the bag so it isn't so confusing. 

I have attached one of our front labels. I am not sure how I am going to transition this to full bag printed on foil artwork. Thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by Heather Delia on May 9, 2011 at 2:39pm

In our store and on our website we sell it by the pound, however , when we went into the local grocery stores they suggested we only sell it by 12 ounces...our wholesale to the grocery store is awesome...

We still service our customers that come into the store the same way as we always have and the same goes for our website...

The prices in the grocery store are much more competitive, people tend to look more at price than quality and amount...

Its a shame, Coffee is something I will Never compromise for quality :-)

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Permalink Reply by Joseph Zimmermann on May 9, 2011 at 2:46pm

Greg,

I am assuming you are a roaster retailer and selling craft bags of coffee out of a shop. Is that accurate? As a wholesale roaster, I always have a tough time with the cost that goes into packaging to make it attractive and keep the coffee fresh. I need to put about $0.70 into packaging with two labels and a triple-layer bag with a valve. This is why I run with the larger bags because me cost would be the same whether the package is 10,12,14 or 16 oz. Actually my labor would be higher with the smaller bags because per volume there would be more of them. It's a tough one.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Thomas on May 9, 2011 at 2:49pm

Yes, yes, correct on all accounts.

Joseph Zimmermann said:

Greg,

I am assuming you are a roaster retailer and selling craft bags of coffee out of a shop. Is that accurate? As a wholesale roaster, I always have a tough time with the cost that goes into packaging to make it attractive and keep the coffee fresh. I need to put about $0.70 into packaging with two labels and a triple-layer bag with a valve. This is why I run with the larger bags because me cost would be the same whether the package is 10,12,14 or 16 oz. Actually my labor would be higher with the smaller bags because per volume there would be more of them. It's a tough one.

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Permalink Reply by Joseph Zimmermann on May 9, 2011 at 2:54pm

Heather, I am stubborn on that one, because I feel like I shouldn't be inconsistent. I also fear that on a grocery store shelf, I would need to compete more on price if my bag was the same size. I know that I will alway be the most expensive coffee on the grocery shelf because we are small scale and pay high green prices to source amazing coffees. Starbucks is still going to be $1.00 or a $1.50 cheaper them me if I switch to a 12 oz bag.

So I sell about 20-25 16 oz bags of my coffee per week at a local super market. The store prices them at $13.99. The 12 oz bags of Starbucks are about $9.60. What should I do? There is no other specialty coffee on the shelf. Everything else is bulk bin stale premium coffee at $9.50 per pound and it goes south from there.

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