> I realize this is regional in many respects,
> but I'd like a bit of advice on pricing my crops this year.


No matter what prices you arrive at, try this:

Pick a small size (let's say the pint)

Get two different containers for that size
(for example, a plastic squeeze bear and
the plastic "BuzzyBee" container, claimed
to look like a bee, but I think it looks
more like Casper the Ghost...)

Price one at a dollar more than the other.
Try to make both look exactly as nice,
use similar labels, etc.

Now, track your sales.  Watch the more expensive
honey fly off the shelf for NO APPARENT REASON.

This will convince you that you are selling a
boutique product, one where higher price alone
implies higher quality, higher value, and thereby
desirability.

Repeat the process with a price delta of $1.50,
$2.00, $3.00...  there's no telling what your
local market will tolerate.

Once you have found the highest price at which
honey still flies off the shelf, use the extra
money to buy some really fancy glass.  Hexagons
are a good bet to start, and Crabtree and Evelyn
have sold overpriced jam and marmalade in them
for decades.  There's a gazillion different
containers out there if you look around and order
lots of catalogs.

Once you are bottling in fancy glass, you have a
package that can be re-priced in the same experimental
manner as before, leaving your original retail price on
a plastic container looking like a real bargain.

Now you are done.  You are serving both the "snob"
market and the "families with kids" market, and you
are making more money than you thought you would on
the same net harvest.

Congratulations, you just skipped 2 years and about
$70K getting an MBA from Harvard, and now know more
about pricing than all the other beekeepers that sell
honey at retail.  Tell your family that your degree
is in "Microeconomic Pricing Theory and Arbitrage".


        jim (The proof that intelligent life
             exists on other planets is that
             they have never tried to contact us.)

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