# wholesale question



## kwahlne (May 4, 2009)

OK, how does one handle this situation?  This winery wants to buy soaps wholesale from me to put in their gift shop.  They would like the soaps to have _their_ wine in it.  So, how would that work?  Would they wholesale the wine to me, then I make the soap with their wine and then wholesale the soaps back to them?

I've never done wholesale before.  Do I draw up a wholesale agreement or do they, in this situation?  I figure I can find a sample agreement online somewhere, unless someone here as one they's like to share...   :wink:


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## AshleyR (May 4, 2009)

Not really sure what you should do, but I know of someone who recently made a wine soap that did not turn out as they expected (turned brown and had no wine scent). Have you ever made one before? You may want to do a little trial run before saying yes to the wholesale account!


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## Lindy (May 4, 2009)

Kristin - I've been experimenting with wine soaps - the lye monster kills the scent and the colour - makes a really, really, ugly soap!!!! :evil: 

I would recommend that you stick to FO's for Cabernet, Merlot & Champagne.

JMO

Lindy


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## Dixie (May 4, 2009)

I have been told, to make wine soap, you need to boil the wine way down till it is like syrup and then use that as part of your liquid or as sugar....depending on how much you use in your soap.


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## Lindy (May 4, 2009)

Dixie said:
			
		

> I have been told, to make wine soap, you need to boil the wine way down till it is like syrup and then use that as part of your liquid or as sugar....depending on how much you use in your soap.



Yup - that's what I did - the first time I reduce 1 bottle of wine to syrup for a 6 lb batch - didn't get colour or scent - 2nd time - reduced 3 litres of wine for 6 lb batch - didn't get colour (still brown both batches) and no wine scent.....


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## Dixie (May 4, 2009)

Quite honestly, I wonder what the benefits of all this wine, coffee, beer and so forth are and if they are even worth it.....except for the experiment mentality we soapers have


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## SimplyE (May 4, 2009)

Dixie said:
			
		

> Quite honestly, I wonder what the benefits of all this wine, coffee, beer and so forth are and if they are even worth it.....except for the experiment mentality we soapers have



It is for the nostalgia of it.  Don't turn your nose up at it.  It is a great opportunity.  Try a couple of things and give them several options.  It is a wholesale perspective, and people will buy, especially something like you are talking about.  I live in the resort business.  People eat stuff like this up.  Just give them several options.

I think that if you were to use their wine in it, you should get a break on the purchase.  Just be careful because they also might expect you to give them a bigger wholesale discount.  I think it is a very fine line.  HTH


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## Dixie (May 4, 2009)

[quoteDon't turn your nose up at it. It is a great opportunity. [/quote]
Oh I'm not! I can just imagine beer soap is a #1 seller to the men


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## SimplyE (May 4, 2009)

Dixie said:
			
		

> > Don't turn your nose up at it. It is a great opportunity.
> 
> 
> Oh I'm not! I can just imagine beer soap is a #1 seller to the men



Dixie - not meant to offend!  Just came out wrong!!!  I have a way with words!


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## Lindy (May 4, 2009)

Oh I love adding coffee, beer and other things into my soaps - some work - some not so much.  I love to experiment - I just need to remember to do it in smaller quanities than 6 lbs!!!  :?


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## Dixie (May 4, 2009)

SimplyE I wasn't offended! Promise

See that's the problem with us soap-aholics Lindy! We gotta try everything. I walk through the stores and everything I see, I'm thinking "Wonder if that would work in soap?"


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## Guest (May 4, 2009)

Lindy said:
			
		

> Yup - that's what I did - the first time I reduce 1 bottle of wine to syrup for a 6 lb batch - didn't get colour or scent - 2nd time - reduced 3 litres of wine for 6 lb batch - didn't get colour (still brown both batches) and no wine scent.....



This is interesting , have you seen wine soap?
Oh no :!: all that wine wasted  :cry: 

Kitn


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## SimplyE (May 4, 2009)

Kitn said:
			
		

> This is interesting , have you seen wine soap?
> Oh no :!: all that wine wasted  :cry:
> 
> Kitn



Seems like a waste, doesn't it!!!  I saw somewhere not too long ago a wine soap swirl.  It was so amazing!  It was a swirl, and the color was TDF!


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## Lindy (May 4, 2009)

Kitn said:
			
		

> Lindy said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yup - fortunately I did drink a "couple" of glasses - but yup - I'm waiting for the wine police to arrest me.....


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## kaseencook (May 5, 2009)

Wow, that sounds like a great opportunity! 

When I wholesale I do not have any agreements. I have a brochure online with pricing charts based on the amount purchased as well as the minimums required for a particular price for the items, and terms such as the purchaser must be a business intending to resell the product, but this is a general information for everyone and the terms that I am selling under. 

But generally speaking I do not think you need any agreements between you and the wine place wholesaling your soap because you can have your terms laid out that they agree to by purchasing your product (or else you would not be selling it to them if they did not agree on your terms). 

I think that if the winery is asking you to add the wine to your soap that they should be supplying the wine or giving you a huge discount. It is a tricky thing to think about, but I look at it as you would sell a non-wine soap to them for x wholesale price, so if they ask you to add wine that increases your costs to x+wine,  thus the cost to them increases as you cannot absorb the cost of the wine, so for them the cheapest way to offset the extra cost to themselves would be to supply the wine for free. If they didn't give you the wine for free then obviously your wholesale price for wine soap would increase due to the costs of the wine. Perhaps you could explain to them that X is the base wholesale price of your soap without wine, and they can pay a higher price if you have to buy the wine or they can supply you with the wine for free as it is for THEIR end product (I mean that in a nice way of course). Of course for them it would be cheaper for them to supply the wine, instead of you having to buy it, put it in the soap, and they buy the wine back as soap. In essence they are not selling wine to you as benefit to you, because they get the soap in the end anyway, so you should not be obligated to give them a discount on soap if they give you a discount on wine, because they get the wine in soap form at the end anyway! 

I am sorry for rambling on, just ideas that come to mind. I guess it is important to get the price right before you give them a final offer and then you realise later that you are not making much profit. I have realised from selling that it is really easy to under price and end up working for free (which soap making is fun), but is a bummer when trying to support yourself. Ok, I'll stop now! hehe!


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## kathrynit4 (May 5, 2009)

I agree with kaseencook.
You should definitely be getting the wine free, or at a very good rate.
I've dealt with wholesaling as an artist only. In that case, no agreement was necessary. It is understood in that the gallery, if buying your work and not just consigning it, will double your price to them for the product.
My concern for you is that you have enough profit margin. Again, in the case of galleries buying artist's work, they often put the prices so high (more than double) that the items don't sell, therefore there are no 're-orders' for the artist.
The soap issue will be slightly different, but I can't help thinking that you should be informing the wine company on what prices will work for the public (assuming you already have that experience) and you should be getting maybe 60% of that rather than 50%.
Good luck!


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## kwahlne (May 5, 2009)

Thank you all so much for your extremely helpful advice!  They do know that I have not made soap with wine in it before and they are willing to give me some wine to experiment with first.

We aren't going for cool fragrances from the wine. I think they just like the idea that they would be selling soap with their wine in it.

I think I 'm going to move this thread to the General Business section.  It probably belongs there.


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## SimplyE (May 5, 2009)

I have done a lot of other trades of services/goods in other catagories, mostly restaurant food and resort biz.  We always would do a trade or sale for equal costs.

I.E.  If you were to sell your soap to them wholesale, then they would need to provide you with the wine wholesale.

If they were to sell you their wine for the soap at retail, then you would sell your soap to them retail.

Does that make sense?  Like stated, it is a fine line, but if you do it cost for cost, you should be fine.  I think that you would run into problems if you were to try to get them to provide you (for free) with the wine for their soaps.  It is easier to keep everyone on the straight and narrow, so to speak.  You need to look at it as you would anyother ingredients that you buy as wholesale.


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