Maters for restaurants

PureHarvest · March 10, 2016

I guess to follow up.
When I ran the garden center, we used to sell over 50 heirloom tomato varieties. It was a nightmare. Never could nail down what people would want or how many. Keeping them organized was a pain. We pressured ourselves to do this to be THE place to get plants of all kinds.
The guy who brought them was also a pain to show up with product.
So we dumped the idea after some years. We still sold about a dozen or so heirlooms types that we could get from our larger growers. They sold just fine and people were happy. Nobody complained about selection because we still had a tremendous overall tomato, pepper and herb selection.
For the occasional grumpadump, we politely told them to order seeds of what they were looking for if they couldn't find something anywhere and that we could coach them through the process and supply them with stuff for seed starting.
In the end we made our life easier, sales rolled on, quality remained high, and customers were happy.
And Gerardo, I am not saying what you are doing is a bad idea. I admire your endeavor, and can't wait to follow along on how things are going. My brain keeps me from going the 40+ variety route, but I think everyone's situation is different.

March 10, 2016	#33
PureHarvest Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Mid-Atlantic right on the line of Zone 7a and 7b Posts: 1,369	I guess to follow up. When I ran the garden center, we used to sell over 50 heirloom tomato varieties. It was a nightmare. Never could nail down what people would want or how many. Keeping them organized was a pain. We pressured ourselves to do this to be THE place to get plants of all kinds. The guy who brought them was also a pain to show up with product. So we dumped the idea after some years. We still sold about a dozen or so heirlooms types that we could get from our larger growers. They sold just fine and people were happy. Nobody complained about selection because we still had a tremendous overall tomato, pepper and herb selection. For the occasional grumpadump, we politely told them to order seeds of what they were looking for if they couldn't find something anywhere and that we could coach them through the process and supply them with stuff for seed starting. In the end we made our life easier, sales rolled on, quality remained high, and customers were happy. And Gerardo, I am not saying what you are doing is a bad idea. I admire your endeavor, and can't wait to follow along on how things are going. My brain keeps me from going the 40+ variety route, but I think everyone's situation is different. Last edited by PureHarvest; March 10, 2016 at 07:15 AM.