My Network Admin could maybe have a list of useful people by area who could be depended upon Feed suppliers Farriers etc Collective purchasing power can be economic What do you think??
Sounds a good idea to me. We do a similar thing in our village for heating oil which cuts the cost a bit. No reason why something similar wouldn't work for the horsey stuff.
wouldnt it be free advertising for feed companies etc? collective purchasing can be a nightmare, even with people who you know, who would "police" it? what if 12 people buy a tonne of pony nuts then 10 drop out at the last minute? does the co-ordinator get a fee for doing the work? Sorry to pour cold water on the idea but these issues need thinking through.
I thought this might be good idea in my area where there are dozens of livery yards, but people are entrenched into buying their one bag of "X" brand. What I would like is a cheap one ton feed bin so I can go it alone, I know I will use it and can borrow a van to pick up the bin and later the feed.
My wife organised the oil syndicate where all the members gave tel no. and e mail to supplier and each person placed order and paid directly to supplier . The discount of 10% applies if the orders are placed at the same time When one is needing oil they alert the rest. Basically one tells the other yards in your area who you are pleased with and ask the supplier to give an incentive for the group toplace the business
In a recession You need to have reliability of supply and they need loyalty of customers ,it is a partnership Banks will not extend credit as before so pick your supplier who will survive.The cheapest could go out of business
Joto has a point about free advertising .... What if suppliers were to pay AL for appearing in a directory then after that we could recommend and form buying groups . Nationally that would be a stream of income for this site and serve the members
I found a great site for bulk foods but as Pat said people have their foibles when it comes to food and although the savings were good did I really want 60 bales of Dengie Hi Fi for instance.
HoCoN are hopefully getting a website done and maybe locals could organise something.
The other problem I found was that people wanted me to buy the lot and they purchase in dribs and drabs but still at the discounted price. I found shavings at a very good price but at around £2,500 for the load I was not prepared to make the outlay and then take months to get the money in (in fact I could not afford to do this)
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Posted - 05 Nov 2008 : 2:41:11 PM
