SAM's chocolate bar price increase

[deee_z]

Looks like all major chocolate bars have gone up 8 cents this week to 67 cents a bar plus tax.  What are you guys charging per candy bar nowadays?

 

 

 

[allen watson]

1.25 no commission

1.50 with commission

[Southeast Treats]

Mars announced a 10% increase a few weeks ago so no surprise about sams.... I have been working on going to 1.25 on my candy.  Most C-stores are already past that except for promotional prices..

[TKK]

Everyone raise your prices. Im at 1.25 no com 1.50 w comission. At my sams they are still .59 to .61

[Apple Leisure]

My customers get Snickers and Peanut M&Ms, not much chocolate other than that.  Oreos, crackers, Nature Valley, nuts etc. etc.  Plus I've been moving to one candy shelf only.

[flintflash]

19 hours ago, Apple Leisure said:

My customers get Snickers and Peanut M&Ms, not much chocolate other than that.  Oreos, crackers, Nature Valley, nuts etc. etc.  Plus I've been moving to one candy shelf only.

Why would you limit your offerings to your customers like that?  Simply raise your price.  Most vendors in our area have and I know we have not seen any repercussions.  In fact the increase in price has more than covered the slight drop in usage.  We have a net gain in cash collected while selling slightly less.  But regardless, you can't just stop running items because of a price increase.  Just take the price hike and move on.  Everything else in the world has gone up in price and so will your pricing, if you want to stay in business.

[AngryChris]

1 hour ago, flintflash said:

Why would you limit your offerings to your customers like that?  Simply raise your price.  Most vendors in our area have and I know we have not seen any repercussions.  In fact the increase in price has more than covered the slight drop in usage.  We have a net gain in cash collected while selling slightly less.  But regardless, you can't just stop running items because of a price increase.  Just take the price hike and move on.  Everything else in the world has gone up in price and so will your pricing, if you want to stay in business.

Is your region anything similar to Dayton (ie. relatively low cost of living, relatively low wages, etc..)?  The reason why I ask is because, unless things have changed (which I need to check), a lot of vendors here are still at $1.00 or $1.10 on candy.  Since this increase is a bit of sticker shock (even though I was aware 1 month ago), it makes me feel like I need to go for mass price-increases on all locations that haven't been increased in a while and just deal with it.  Dayton is pretty low cost of living and my rule of thumb is to stay up to par with the market prices.  I am just wondering how going from $1.00 to $1.25 will go over with customers.  I feel like I should go to $1.10 this year, $1.25 next year.

[Snickers]

36 minutes ago, AngryChris said:

Is your region anything similar to Dayton (ie. relatively low cost of living, relatively low wages, etc..)?  The reason why I ask is because, unless things have changed (which I need to check), a lot of vendors here are still at $1.00 or $1.10 on candy.  Since this increase is a bit of sticker shock (even though I was aware 1 month ago), it makes me feel like I need to go for mass price-increases on all locations that haven't been increased in a while and just deal with it.  Dayton is pretty low cost of living and my rule of thumb is to stay up to par with the market prices.  I am just wondering how going from $1.00 to $1.25 will go over with customers.  I feel like I should go to $1.10 this year, $1.25 next year.

 

 

Yes we are low low cost of living with low wages here in rural Missouri. It's tough to pass on these price increases but it's tough to absorb them as well. You have to go above a dollar and really it just makes sense to do the 1.25 now across the board. Like a band aid. Riiiip

[AZVendor]

Go to 1.25 and give top notch service.  Nothing beats service if you can prove that the prices get them the best professional vendor.

[allen watson]

I went from $1 to $1.25 without much trouble. Just do it. My candy sales only dipped for a few weeks then right back to where they were. My danishes are also at $1.25. For some reason I saw a big increase in Danish sales. 

[AngryChris]

4 minutes ago, AZVendor said:

Go to 1.25 and give top notch service.  Nothing beats service if you can prove that the prices get them the best professional vendor.

Aside from the candy topic (but related to service), I'm having a problem right now.  I mean, it's sort of a good problem but also a bad one....but you'll know what I mean when I explain...

A large quantity of my accounts have seen somewhat sudden increases in sales.  I have changed some equipment around, added card readers, and also bumped up service (due to telemetry).  All of this, in addition to some coincidences (increased # of temps at several locations) has caused my sales to seemingly grow at a rate of anywhere from 10% to 25%.  I think anything above 15% is only temporary but the problem is that I am getting more calls needing service and I am kind of at a loss as to what to do right now.

Honestly, all I can think of is that I need to cancel my slow locations ASAP and move on so I can focus more on the better locations and get my service back on track.  I can see no other way around it.  Then, I can focus on price increases.  What are your thoughts on that?!?  Am I overlooking something I should be doing?  Some accounts have gone from every 2 weeks to 1.5 weeks because they are just blowing through product.

[TKK]

Apple leisure same here. Pmms and snikers are all .58 here and thats the best sellers, i will sometimes carry kit kats. But i dont get vendors that have all 10 spirals with chocolates. I sell more .30 to .38c cost items than chocolates and way better margins (rice krispies, oreos, corn nuts, trail mix, fruit gummies, sponch, barritas, etc)

[TKK]

Pastries should be at 1.25 to 1.50 too. Yes some dudes price em at 90c and what not but you want new machines that accept apple pay and great service? Then its gonna cost. As long as you are cheaper than the gast station who cares. Would u rather pay 1.25 with tax outside your office or 1.89 plus tax and drive there? 

[Apple Leisure]

3 hours ago, flintflash said:

Why would you limit your offerings to your customers like that?  Simply raise your price.  Most vendors in our area have and I know we have not seen any repercussions.  In fact the increase in price has more than covered the slight drop in usage.  We have a net gain in cash collected while selling slightly less.  But regardless, you can't just stop running items because of a price increase.  Just take the price hike and move on.  Everything else in the world has gone up in price and so will your pricing, if you want to stay in business.

It's the principle.  Chocolate prices have FAR exceeded normal inflation, and besides, the other things I replace them with sell just fine.  Mostly I'm selling LSS bags of flaming hot whatever anyway.  For those people who really want a candy bar, well, they can have a Snickers.

[AZVendor]

3 hours ago, AngryChris said:

Aside from the candy topic (but related to service), I'm having a problem right now.  I mean, it's sort of a good problem but also a bad one....but you'll know what I mean when I explain...

A large quantity of my accounts have seen somewhat sudden increases in sales.  I have changed some equipment around, added card readers, and also bumped up service (due to telemetry).  All of this, in addition to some coincidences (increased # of temps at several locations) has caused my sales to seemingly grow at a rate of anywhere from 10% to 25%.  I think anything above 15% is only temporary but the problem is that I am getting more calls needing service and I am kind of at a loss as to what to do right now.

Honestly, all I can think of is that I need to cancel my slow locations ASAP and move on so I can focus more on the better locations and get my service back on track.  I can see no other way around it.  Then, I can focus on price increases.  What are your thoughts on that?!?  Am I overlooking something I should be doing?  Some accounts have gone from every 2 weeks to 1.5 weeks because they are just blowing through product.

This means that your area is finally beginning to see the growing economy effect.  Because they are hiring temps means either they can't find good permanent workers or they aren't all-in on the economy yet.  Your idea to cut back on small accounts could spell a bad time for you when another recession hits and your great accounts go back to being only okay because all the temps are gone.  You might want to hedge your bets and just put the slow accounts on even longer schedules so you can keep all of them for now, unless you are confident you can win a bunch of slow accounts in the next downturn.

[TKK]

I got rid of 6 slow accounts that would make 200 to 400 a month gross. Sold all 6 w 11 machines for $30k with that i bought 18 usi 5 wides refurbed and those placed are making like $15k a month. Smart move.