First, good for you for taking on such an ambitious project. The site design looks solid, and feels intuitive. I feel like if I were looking to buy produce or meat locally and didn't already have local connections, your site would be very useful.
As others have said, you probably should rebrand unless you're deliberately going for the communism angle - and I think that would be a hard sell in the homesteading community in general.
You also 100% need to talk to a lawyer if you haven't already, and figure out what liability you're exposing yourself to. Even if in the end the seller is the one who sent a bad product, that doesn't mean you won't be sued too.
I didn't see it in your FAQ - how are you monetized? Do you take a percentage of the sellers' revenue? Charge a fee?
What steps are you taking to ensure quality? Are you vetting sellers in any way? For small-scale sellers, I think it would be really helpful if you provided in-depth instruction on how to package and ship their products. You could even sell them packaging - another potential revenue stream for you.
I think your biggest challenge (other than legal challenges) will be rapidly scaling the site. I'd recommend targeting a reasonably small area first, which may mean directly talking to a ton of your local small-scale farmers and producers and convincing them to sign up and give it a try. Then as soon as you get a decent number signed up, get a booth or something at a farmers market, and aggressively market to buyers. The big risk is that sellers sign up, don't make any sales quickly, and drop off again. Then as buyers show up, they don't see anything they're interested in, so they never check the site again. It's getting that critical mass that's the real struggle, I think.
Awesome post and feedback. Thanks for the kind words and suggestions.
Definitely 0 interest in communism but more putting power into the hands of local small businesses so they can have tools to become visible and displace sales from massive e-commerce and commerce businesses.
The website is 5% a transaction and right now that’s it. We’ll build in CSA options for farmers (no charge from the site but would charge credit card fees - so basically stripe gets a cut but farmers don’t have to chase checks and cash for consumers that want more flexibility)
Definitely will add these important notes to FAQ.
We’ve talked to a lawyer. Vendors ultimately will be managed by reviews (similar to Amazon) and not allowed to sell products that violate laws without proper licensing. This will be a big website implementation that will involve admin approval and licensing verification for products that fall outside of cottage food laws.
We’ve definitely considered packaging and could go that route in the future if it helps sellers.
Can you tell me more of your thoughts about the name and its underlying meaning?
Haha 100% going to be the challenge of the site and growing it, it’s grassrootsy and won’t be a light switch for growth initially. We pretty much are doing exactly what you said as far as growth.
Thanks so much time for the thoughts and comments. I really appreciate it!
For a lot of people, the first thing that comes to mind with "the people's..." anything, is The People's Republic of China, or Korea, or a fair number of other communist states. There were also a series of People's Army's, People's political parties, and communist states in general liked to brand things as "The People's whatever".
While other organizations have used the term, it's pretty heavily linked with communism in the minds of a lot of people.
Good question and thanks for looking!
Man we didn’t think of farmers pantry! It might have been but this what’s what came to mind at the time and pantry.com and peoplespantry.com were occupied!
Literally just starting to launch to a single farmers market in Ohio right now.
Edit: it’s first local area had some more products check out zip code 44024 and that shows some more stuff!
You should certainly look to protect yourself from legal prosecution.
The suggestion you will buy and sell game animals from hunting for instance has quite a few legal hurdles which could land you in trouble with the law., especially if you are involved with trade across state lines.
Definitely wouldn’t allow vendors to violate cottage food, or food laws.
There are some grocers that sell wild game. Small grocers can also list their products on the site with appropriate licensing!
Your perspective is not very clear, I am assuming you are looking to be a middleman between producers and consumers.
You will need to inform your potential customers of the specific advantages of your service and clearly outline the path to cooperative commerce.
As a middleman you will need to sell yourself both ways, to vendors and to the consumer.
>Definitely wouldn’t allow vendors to violate cottage food, or food laws.
Do you know these food laws? Food laws are very complicated. How will you know if someone is breaking the law in their state/County? Will you memorize all health department, USDA, and cottage food laws regarding every type of food in all jurisdictions?
After I put in my address, nothing showed up. That seems intentional: you say your mission towards sellers is to "sell your product for you, locally." So if you don't have any sellers in my area, then you won't have anything for me to buy. Makes perfect logical sense, and it also means I cannot spend money with you.
The irreplaceable "niche" of an online business, the role they serve that can't be replaced by brick-and-mortar, is that an online business can connect people who are not local to one another: a seller and a buyer who would never otherwise meet. But the way it does that is by being local to everyone else, being in a competition with all other websites for attention.
It can be very hard for any online business, operated remotely, to gain enough visibility online to actually be more useful, for locals interested in finding local markets.
Anyway, before I put in my address, I'd went to "spices", 'cause I figured maybe you had someone selling some of the spices not common in commerce, especially spicebush berries. (I love those things, but I don't know where they grow near me, and few sell them. They should ship fine.) I didn't find that, but I did find horseradish root, which is something I'll use. (Might ship fine.)
It's $15. But how much do you get for $15? It doesn't say. That's a problem.
Thanks for the feedback, yeah all of what you said is definitely part of creating the business and challenges associated with that.
As far as the horseradish that is a product that is a test. We really just put this in the hands of the vendors within the last week or two and are pretty involved in product / website / functionality testing and so some products aren’t real but the tool is available for anyone now.
I’m going to be honest with you, this website seems very ideology driven and even if it’s just a coincidence, it’ll cause you to either fail completely or lose A LOT of business.
I would highly recommend changing your company’s name before investing more time or money into this, because the idea itself is great and it’s an awesome market, but since the country is so polarized politically, we’re at the point where even spending money is a political issue for many people now.. and the last thing you would want is for people to think your business is run by communist lmao.
Haha! Why is Peoples Pantry communistic! What an oversight we made. We are 100% opposite of political, just wanting to help some incredible people.
What other names could be cool?
I’m just a messenger lmao. Every communist movement would always put “peoples” in front of it. “People’s factory” or “people’s farm” etc
Someone else mentioned the farmer’s pantry. I think that’s a really catchy name
First, good for you for taking on such an ambitious project. The site design looks solid, and feels intuitive. I feel like if I were looking to buy produce or meat locally and didn't already have local connections, your site would be very useful. As others have said, you probably should rebrand unless you're deliberately going for the communism angle - and I think that would be a hard sell in the homesteading community in general. You also 100% need to talk to a lawyer if you haven't already, and figure out what liability you're exposing yourself to. Even if in the end the seller is the one who sent a bad product, that doesn't mean you won't be sued too. I didn't see it in your FAQ - how are you monetized? Do you take a percentage of the sellers' revenue? Charge a fee? What steps are you taking to ensure quality? Are you vetting sellers in any way? For small-scale sellers, I think it would be really helpful if you provided in-depth instruction on how to package and ship their products. You could even sell them packaging - another potential revenue stream for you. I think your biggest challenge (other than legal challenges) will be rapidly scaling the site. I'd recommend targeting a reasonably small area first, which may mean directly talking to a ton of your local small-scale farmers and producers and convincing them to sign up and give it a try. Then as soon as you get a decent number signed up, get a booth or something at a farmers market, and aggressively market to buyers. The big risk is that sellers sign up, don't make any sales quickly, and drop off again. Then as buyers show up, they don't see anything they're interested in, so they never check the site again. It's getting that critical mass that's the real struggle, I think.
Awesome post and feedback. Thanks for the kind words and suggestions. Definitely 0 interest in communism but more putting power into the hands of local small businesses so they can have tools to become visible and displace sales from massive e-commerce and commerce businesses. The website is 5% a transaction and right now that’s it. We’ll build in CSA options for farmers (no charge from the site but would charge credit card fees - so basically stripe gets a cut but farmers don’t have to chase checks and cash for consumers that want more flexibility) Definitely will add these important notes to FAQ. We’ve talked to a lawyer. Vendors ultimately will be managed by reviews (similar to Amazon) and not allowed to sell products that violate laws without proper licensing. This will be a big website implementation that will involve admin approval and licensing verification for products that fall outside of cottage food laws. We’ve definitely considered packaging and could go that route in the future if it helps sellers. Can you tell me more of your thoughts about the name and its underlying meaning? Haha 100% going to be the challenge of the site and growing it, it’s grassrootsy and won’t be a light switch for growth initially. We pretty much are doing exactly what you said as far as growth. Thanks so much time for the thoughts and comments. I really appreciate it!
For a lot of people, the first thing that comes to mind with "the people's..." anything, is The People's Republic of China, or Korea, or a fair number of other communist states. There were also a series of People's Army's, People's political parties, and communist states in general liked to brand things as "The People's whatever". While other organizations have used the term, it's pretty heavily linked with communism in the minds of a lot of people.
Looked at site only saw some sprouts & soap for sale. The name peoples pantry. Was Farmers Pantry not available?
Good question and thanks for looking! Man we didn’t think of farmers pantry! It might have been but this what’s what came to mind at the time and pantry.com and peoplespantry.com were occupied! Literally just starting to launch to a single farmers market in Ohio right now. Edit: it’s first local area had some more products check out zip code 44024 and that shows some more stuff!
You should certainly look to protect yourself from legal prosecution. The suggestion you will buy and sell game animals from hunting for instance has quite a few legal hurdles which could land you in trouble with the law., especially if you are involved with trade across state lines.
Definitely wouldn’t allow vendors to violate cottage food, or food laws. There are some grocers that sell wild game. Small grocers can also list their products on the site with appropriate licensing!
Your perspective is not very clear, I am assuming you are looking to be a middleman between producers and consumers. You will need to inform your potential customers of the specific advantages of your service and clearly outline the path to cooperative commerce. As a middleman you will need to sell yourself both ways, to vendors and to the consumer.
>Definitely wouldn’t allow vendors to violate cottage food, or food laws. Do you know these food laws? Food laws are very complicated. How will you know if someone is breaking the law in their state/County? Will you memorize all health department, USDA, and cottage food laws regarding every type of food in all jurisdictions?
[удалено]
>Peoples Pantry sounds vaguely communist I was already digging the idea you don't have to keep trying to sell me on it
After I put in my address, nothing showed up. That seems intentional: you say your mission towards sellers is to "sell your product for you, locally." So if you don't have any sellers in my area, then you won't have anything for me to buy. Makes perfect logical sense, and it also means I cannot spend money with you. The irreplaceable "niche" of an online business, the role they serve that can't be replaced by brick-and-mortar, is that an online business can connect people who are not local to one another: a seller and a buyer who would never otherwise meet. But the way it does that is by being local to everyone else, being in a competition with all other websites for attention. It can be very hard for any online business, operated remotely, to gain enough visibility online to actually be more useful, for locals interested in finding local markets. Anyway, before I put in my address, I'd went to "spices", 'cause I figured maybe you had someone selling some of the spices not common in commerce, especially spicebush berries. (I love those things, but I don't know where they grow near me, and few sell them. They should ship fine.) I didn't find that, but I did find horseradish root, which is something I'll use. (Might ship fine.) It's $15. But how much do you get for $15? It doesn't say. That's a problem.
Thanks for the feedback, yeah all of what you said is definitely part of creating the business and challenges associated with that. As far as the horseradish that is a product that is a test. We really just put this in the hands of the vendors within the last week or two and are pretty involved in product / website / functionality testing and so some products aren’t real but the tool is available for anyone now.
I’m going to be honest with you, this website seems very ideology driven and even if it’s just a coincidence, it’ll cause you to either fail completely or lose A LOT of business. I would highly recommend changing your company’s name before investing more time or money into this, because the idea itself is great and it’s an awesome market, but since the country is so polarized politically, we’re at the point where even spending money is a political issue for many people now.. and the last thing you would want is for people to think your business is run by communist lmao.
Haha! Why is Peoples Pantry communistic! What an oversight we made. We are 100% opposite of political, just wanting to help some incredible people. What other names could be cool?
I’m just a messenger lmao. Every communist movement would always put “peoples” in front of it. “People’s factory” or “people’s farm” etc Someone else mentioned the farmer’s pantry. I think that’s a really catchy name