241–250 of 386 posts
Others have pointed this out, but no one has actually done the math yet, so... 6000 "units" for $250,000 is $41/unit. At wholesale. For a product that retails for $16/bag. It is just inconceivable that no one noticed this discrepancy. This is not a "grift" by the distributor, this is an elementary and obvious fuckup by the producer. In fact, it's so elementary and obvious that it would not surprise me a bit if this w…
My friends company (software consulting) got a contract with Amex, super excited Took months for them to even respond to emails about their invoices, they never ever paid on time or even a month a late Dealing with giant firms is the worst and there’s nothing you can do as a small vendor besides having your game tight upfront and if you do have your game tight upfront they won’t hire you in most cases
I was buying a house many many years ago at a time I was self employed. I owned a computer company and my largest client put in an order for 20 computers. They had Net 30 terms with me so I said to them, "I'm very sorry, I am buying a house and can't float the money for 30 days. I can refer you to someone else to buy them from." The general manager of the company told me it was no problem, send the invoice directly t…
Others have pointed this out, but no one has actually done the math yet, so... 6000 "units" for $250,000 is $41/unit. At wholesale. For a product that retails for $16/bag. It is just inconceivable that no one noticed this discrepancy. This is not a "grift" by the distributor, this is an elementary and obvious fuckup by the producer. In fact, it's so elementary and obvious that it would not surprise me a bit if this w…
I think what's happed here is that as the order kept a growing they took on more debt to fulfil it. I don't think they believed the initial order was for $250k and that they were being payed more than wholesale per bag.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something something high quality, ethically-sourced coffee? (I don’t actually know the details of those descriptions. Playing devils advocate it sounded to me like they were trying to run a very ethical, environmentally friendly, health-focused business from the start, which is expensive as far as I can tell in the US, so maybe those prices made sense.)
The point is that a "unit" could not possibly have been a $16 bag of coffee, if they were getting paid $41 per unit. The story smells fake to me. The most charitable interpretation is that they were misled by their "food broker" more than they realize even now.
Others have pointed this out, but no one has actually done the math yet, so... 6000 "units" for $250,000 is $41/unit. At wholesale. For a product that retails for $16/bag. It is just inconceivable that no one noticed this discrepancy. This is not a "grift" by the distributor, this is an elementary and obvious fuckup by the producer. In fact, it's so elementary and obvious that it would not surprise me a bit if this w…
From the article: > June 2022 comes, and the orders for this retailer start coming in from the distributor. This coffee was shipping to five distribution centers so we were receiving multiple orders. The orders were large but we thought we could handle it. Then the orders kept coming, spread apart by days. So it sounds like they had an initial agreement for 6000 units, but the actual purchase orders were coming in pi…
What difference does that make? They thought they had a deal to sell 6000 "units" for $250,000. If they had just bothered to divide 250 by 6 they would have immediately realized that a unit could not possibly be a bag, and they would, by their own account, have passed on the deal, and none of this would have happened.
Others have pointed this out, but no one has actually done the math yet, so... 6000 "units" for $250,000 is $41/unit. At wholesale. For a product that retails for $16/bag. It is just inconceivable that no one noticed this discrepancy. This is not a "grift" by the distributor, this is an elementary and obvious fuckup by the producer. In fact, it's so elementary and obvious that it would not surprise me a bit if this w…
There is undeniable an F-up on the producers part here, however I think you are assuming too much in your calculation. They don't say at any point the $250k order value was the initial order as they understood it. They explicitly state that they kept getting further orders past what they understood as the initial 6k units. I think what's happed here is that as the order kept a growing they took on more debt to fulfil…
Others have pointed this out, but no one has actually done the math yet, so... 6000 "units" for $250,000 is $41/unit. At wholesale. For a product that retails for $16/bag. It is just inconceivable that no one noticed this discrepancy. This is not a "grift" by the distributor, this is an elementary and obvious fuckup by the producer. In fact, it's so elementary and obvious that it would not surprise me a bit if this w…
There is undeniable an F-up on the producers part here, however I think you are assuming too much in your calculation. They don't say at any point the $250k order value was the initial order as they understood it. They explicitly state that they kept getting further orders past what they understood as the initial 6k units. I think what's happed here is that as the order kept a growing they took on more debt to fulfil…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't believe it's "the food business" as much as "suppliers" in general. I know non-food industries that operate this way, and it's common enough that accounting classes I've taken covered some of the basics of these. Advertising or informational industries (e.g. non-tangible goods industries) seem to operate differently, as you've said.
I primarily do direct mail which is tangible. But the margins are thin and postage is such a big part of our cost that if a customer was going to skip payment we’d need 10 new orders to cover the loss. So it makes sense to never extend credit. I do think it’s very industry specific and food / retail as one of the worst.
The reason kind of seems to be to give more flexibility to the supply chain. If everyone required payment upfront to get items to shelves or lots for customers to buy, then the risk goes more fully on the last link in the chain. It appears this pattern began to spread the risk to the entire chain.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's 101 that wholesale buyers order by the case and for producers to specify the casecount and price, Not sure why you're being downvoted because thats standard in wolesale. Not sure how they couldn't catch that when looking at the price either. Maybe they thought they'd sell a lot less for the same price and aren't talking about this?
I don't understand either. They sell for 50% off right now for 42 a case, meaning normal price was 84. 84 × 6000 = 504 000 This doesn't add up with the 250k they were hoping for and the 50% off. Or am I wrong? (too bad they only have decaf yet, wouldn't have minded to try.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They generally are, but if you say net 30 and set a % penalty for not paying in net 30 (common), when a multi-billion dollar corporation decides to do net 90 and won't pay the penalty, what are you going to do as a freelancer? Sue them? The amount of money you spend on legal fees would likely be multiples of the penalty fees. And it would delay payment further. Big corporations rely on this power imbalance.
yeah, i see your point. I think I fall into the trap of believing what some random piece of papers says always reflects reality. I worked for a large smallbiz ( independent pharmacy chain ) early in my career and it was like pulling teeth to get insurance companies to reimburse/pay on time and correctly despite what the contract said. We had about a dozen people who's only job was to watch them like a hawk and stay e…
In the end they paid 2 weeks after the net-60 expired. Probably calculated to be maximally annoying with the least amount of risk of legal costs. Really takes the wind out of you. Selling to California startup type companies is so much nicer, I once took a call, negotiated a whole new pricing model closed the deal, entered the product details into FastSpring and the customer paid 40k for the yearly subscription on that model that same afternoon.