Selling colored eggs...do you ask more for them?

[Upcycled]

Stop selling your product short.

If, as you said, the customers truly PREFER colored eggs, that is called an economic "discriminator". They clearly value your eggs more, and hence they should be asked to pay more. If they DO value them more, they will.

But first you MUST ASK.

I sell my time for a living. If I begin by devaluing it, I can never raise my hourly bill rate without painful incrimental raises that seem arbitrary. I start out at where I want to be, then hold fast. They always pay. I may have fewer clients, but they pay more, and they are getting a value for what I ask them to pay, otherwise they simply wouldn't retain me. Economics 101.

I am not saying anything that you all don't already know, I just think that **eggs** don't seem to make the cut when we think of "value added".

In fact, I helped one of my chicken mentors market her eggs in an actually very downscale farmer's market. She couldn't break the $2.00 ceiling for a dozen. She had tried bundling 18 in one paper box for $3, but nothing worked. I suggested she package them in these cool CLEAR EGG BOXES...

http://www.eggboxes.com/index.php?a...g-Carton&sid=2dpa5au70lr2hxk0x61kc7uou8zkd077

to showcase off her predominantly green and blue eggs. Blue eggs don't cost more to "make", so the premium for the egg carton and custom label (designed by her DH) was still a bargain.

This is what we did :

TRENDY ROUND clear pack, but ONLY 1/2 doz , ALL GREEN eggs---$2.00
TRADITIONAL shaped, clear pack , DZN, MOSTLY green eggs, a few brown--- $3.25 (kinda like $9.99 feels better than $10, but not a full $3.50---that just felt too high- but that left wiggle room for a seasonal price increase, near Easter---which worked beautifully, even though there were technically
more in the supply chain---again, the "perception" of increased value was at work.)
TRADITIONAL shaped, clear pack, DZN, all brown---$2.50 (not a money MAKER, but liquidated the brown eggs without undercutting the "value" of the other
clear packed eggs.

She broke her $2 ceiling, SOLD OUT OF EVERY EGG SHE EVER BROUGHT, with "waiting list" orders for the following week!

She was a dear friend and mentor, and I can't wait to put "our" formula to work locally (478 miles from her!) in September when my week old EE chicks start laying regularly.

REMINDER (edit) this was a DOWN scale farmer;s market. I can only imagine that the claims of $6-$8 a dozen in Yuppieville is spot on.

GO FOR IT, GIRL!

 

[honeydoll]

WOW! Upcycle, that is all I can say WOW!! That is just an amazing tutorial on this. SO encouraging and informative. So, I need to make my outside nice enough that what's inside looks extra special, so to speak. Thanks. I know you said more than that, and I will take what you said and really apply it to my sales. I was never much of a good sales person, but I better become one and fast, ok.

Thanks so much for the encouragement. I feel appreciated and I don't even know your name! LOL (Being a little silly here)

Very apreciatative,
Carolyn

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
$3.00 for me too. I try to put some of every color in the carton, with at least two green eggs and one very dark brown egg. Now that I have three green-egg layers, I may have to change that ratio!

 

[hallerlake]

That depends on where you live. I'm told that organic eggs are $6 a dozen at the farmer's markets in Seattle.


Quote:

 

[Luke13:34]

We are not selling eggs right now and probably wont for at least a year or two. Around here organic, cage free eggs in the store are around $3.50. A couple of local folks on craigslist sell theirs for $3/doz, but only one of those is truely free-range. I have brown and green egg layers and as I build my flock I want to add some more brown egg layers and some blue egg layers, too. I plan to sell the brown eggs for the standard $3 or 3.50/doz but will sell the green and blue ones at a premium ($4.50 to $5.. we'll have to see what the market can bear) under the name "Elsie's Easter Eggs for Epilepsy." A portion of the sales from those eggs will go to support the Epilepsy Foundation in my daughter's name.

To answer the original PP... why not charge more if those are the eggs your customers want? Go for it!

 

[Upcycled]

You are quite welcome, Miss Carolyn.

What you are doing is providing SAFER, FRESHER, HEALTHIER and more FUN eggs to your customers.

Corn is going up...(thank you, Ethanol boneheads) and you really have to do the math to get any margin of profit out of egg sales lately. Free ranging is almost an economic nesessity anymore, but it just happens to be a HUGE selling point. WIN!

Other folks metioned pegging prices to the local MEGA HEL*MART, and that is a valid point.

Do your customers want growth hormones (not MY growing children!) in thin shelled packages, laid by tortured chickens? No, or they wouldn't seek to buy yours. REMIND THEM WHAT THEY AREN'T GETTING when they buy your eggs.

OBTW, this "organic" label was not even a FACTOR in my mentor's egg sales, and she did well anyway. Hers were "organic" before orgnaic was cool. I can only imagine if she added THAT to her pretty packages how the price would skyrocket.

I am not suggesting gouging your neighbors, but your product IS special and should be thusly compensated.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
OK, just for the sake of accuracy. There are no hormones allowed in any chickens in the US. Sorry. That statement should not be repeated.

We have a good product to sell, but we shouldn't make statements about the commercial egg producer that aren't true.

 

[hallerlake]

My father was a marketing professor for forty years. According to him, you'll know you're charging too much when people stop paying. The original question was about parking at the airport, but it goes for other things, too.

 

[Cass]

Just a thought for those people who pick up eggs at your house or farmer's market stall, give a 25 cent credit for returning the egg carton. I don't know how much cartons cost, but if it is more than 25 cents each, you are making a little more money that way. Of course you would want to put the eggs they were taking home with them in their carton, in case there is some obscure regulation regarding reuse of egg cartons in your state/locality.

 

[TigerLilly]

I started selling my eggs only recently, via a CL ad advertising them for $2 per doz. I was honest in the fact that my chickens were part-time free-range & in their coop/run otherwise. I ended up selling a couple of dozen to the one woman who is now my only customer. She always buys whatever I have available. She recently contacted me to get more eggs and I let her know that the large eggs were still $2, but the Xlg were $2.50 and I had 2 doz of each.
She told me she would gladly pay $2.50 for any that I had. Signed, sealed & delivered! Well, actually, she drives about 20 minutes to come & pick them up. And she brings my egg cartons back, plus any that she collects from friends/family that she shares the eggs with. She will be getting a free dozen the next time she picks up.
Now, when my EE's start laying, if I am blessed with any color other than brown, they may start off at $3.50 a doz. If that doesnt go over, I'll lower it.
I'm just in it for my own fresh eggs; selling my extras pays for my feed...barely. But it's something I love doing!