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Distributor cancelled an order and we need to move 30k bags of coffee [updated]

modest.coffee

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Re: Distributor cancelled an order and we need to move 30k bags of coffee [updated]

#361

Post by xiaosun »

>>To make this order happen, we had to take $45,000 in personal loans from friends and family, $65,000 in business credit card debt, $35,000 from a business loan, $60,000 in personal credit card debt, $20,000 in outstanding invoice debt, and $11,000 in loans from us personally to the business, for a total of $216,000 in debt.

I don't find myself very sympathetic. Feels like there is plenty of evidence that the business owners here aren't the most diligent or detailed oriented.

$45k+$65k+$35k+$60k+$20k+$11k adds up to $236k

Best case this is the result of their own naivety/incompetence, worse case this is just a distasteful marketing ploy.

>>Mid July, after 6 weeks of roasting 21 hours a day on the roaster in 3 shifts, working 12-16 hour days, regularly working until 11 pm to finish bagging and boxing.

Despite this work schedule, had no problem releasing their weekly hour-long podcasts every week in June/July.

Re: Distributor cancelled an order and we need to move 30k bags of coffee [updated]

#362

Post by xiaosun »

xiaosun wrote: post #361

>>To make this order happen, we had to take $45,000 in personal loans from friends and family, $65,000 in business credit card debt, $35,000 from a business loan, $60,000 in personal credit card debt, $20,000 in outstanding invoice debt, and $11,000 in loans from us personally to the business, for a total of $216,000 in debt. I don't find myself very sympathetic. Feels like there is plenty of evidence that the busine…

https://www.nobadreviewspodcast.com/episodes/

Podcast website

Re: Distributor cancelled an order and we need to move 30k bags of coffee [updated]

#363

Post by LanceH »

andrew_ wrote: post #332
buu709 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in wholesale, but a different industry (electrical) and this is 100% wrong from my experience. Varies from business to business but often times our POs go out for single units rather than cases. It's actually a huge headache for us as we can't get the team responsible to keep our ERP system up to date on which units to use for which lines.

I grew up in a piping wholesale business in the midwest that's still going after 35 years. Orders could be ea. (each, single part) or cs. (case, which is arbitrary based on supplier). That industry is never arbitrary unit (e.g. per "units")because the suppliers sell in bulk and piecemeal, and buyers all have their own specs for how they order. So I can confirm that at least one other wholesale market is indeed differ…

I've seen the same with snack foods. Never saw "unit". A single was an each and it would be said like, "$2 per each" rather than most people would say, "$2 each". I can't remember what the bundle name was case...or something, but it wasn't unit.

Re: Distributor cancelled an order and we need to move 30k bags of coffee [updated]

#364

Post by flutas »

xiaosun wrote: post #361

>>To make this order happen, we had to take $45,000 in personal loans from friends and family, $65,000 in business credit card debt, $35,000 from a business loan, $60,000 in personal credit card debt, $20,000 in outstanding invoice debt, and $11,000 in loans from us personally to the business, for a total of $216,000 in debt. I don't find myself very sympathetic. Feels like there is plenty of evidence that the busine…

> I don't find myself very sympathetic. Feels like there is plenty of evidence that the business owners here aren't the most diligent or detailed oriented.

> $45k+$65k+$35k+$60k+$20k+$11k adds up to $236k

$20k of that, as called out by them is invoice debt. Aka they will are owed that amount but amount, they just have yet to get it from the distributor. Leaving them with the $216k number given.

> $20,000 in outstanding invoice debt

Re: Distributor cancelled an order and we need to move 30k bags of coffee [updated]

#365

Post by scabros »

I got tired of reading "expert" opinions in this thread... All throwing numbers that "don't add up", but at the same time confusing some elements of the story to make it sound as "fake". Sometimes, there are just hard workers seeing an opportunity to grow after years of waiting and fighting. You see the deal, it sounds risky but you think you can do it and maybe it can change your life... You trust the wrong person, don't do your double checking, and boom, it just explodes in your face. Maybe that would never happen to this "experts", but it could definitely happen to me.

Re: Distributor cancelled an order and we need to move 30k bags of coffee [updated]

#366

Post by sgc »

iJohnDoe wrote: post #323
loeg wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wholesale is usually 50% or less of retail price.

Any retailer hopes to make 30%. 50% would be pretty incredible.

The confusion here is that different types of items have different margins. but grocery is typically 30%, as is hardware / lumber. However coffee itself might be a profit center for grocery stores, and they might make a bit higher on it. Items like gifts are 50-55%, and clothes more like 70% markup.

Re: Distributor cancelled an order and we need to move 30k bags of coffee [updated]

#367

Post by golem14 »

golem14 wrote: post #290
irjustin wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe it was written in a way that priced by bag but somehow requested UNITS in a way that the total order volume in USD wasn't clear. If the price was listed per bag as $6.83/bag (assuming 6 bags/case) and the PO said 6,000-units, that's the "best light" scenario for the OP I can come up. There are literally zero other numbers (no totals, no total dollar value) and the only difference is in the "units" which could…

I'm with you all the way – but I would still like to understand how they could get it so wrong.

Actually, I now know what seemed so weird to me. If they had planned to sell a bag for $x (41 or 41/case_size) retail, but now realized that was per case not per bag, this would have reduced their profitability by a lot or completely killed it. Since there is no mention of this in the story (it was only a bout the size of the order), I'm still believing that they thought their per-bag profit was unchanged by the now larger order (otherwise they would have mentioned it or immediately renegotiated the deal).

I guess we'll never know unless we see the order details...

Re: Distributor cancelled an order and we need to move 30k bags of coffee [updated]

#368

Post by onphonenow »

cortesoft wrote: post #298
lisper wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are making the assumption that there's some formal deal for $250k total. No, I'm not. I'm not assuming anything. Here is what they wrote: "In April 2022, a representative from this distributor reached out to us to see if we would be interested in participating in an online specialty coffee program for a major nationwide retailer. The opening order would be approximately 6,000 “units”." At this point there are o…

You are assuming they knew the $250k amount at that point. When they made the deal for 6000 units, they didn't know the total was going to be $250k. They didn't know the total was $250k until they learned it was for 6000 cases later.

Who cares, didn’t they know how much they’d be paid per ‘unit’?? If they didn’t ask even that they are idiots - that’s the core part of the deal, 1 unit or 6,000

Re: Distributor cancelled an order and we need to move 30k bags of coffee [updated]

#369

Post by onphonenow »

teawrecks wrote: post #342
lisper wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are assuming they knew the $250k amount at that point. No, I'm saying they should have asked .

You're moving your goalpost. Up above you said, > They thought they had a deal to sell 6000 "units" for $250,000. Now you're agreeing that they didn't necessarily have that deal up front, and that they should have asked for it.

Are you saying they agreed to a deal without even knowing the price of a ‘unit’?? They truly are idiots then

Re: Distributor cancelled an order and we need to move 30k bags of coffee [updated]

#370

Post by dang »

chihuahua wrote: post #313
dang wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone suggests a more accurate and neutral title that doesn't say 'grift', we can change it.

"Our distributor cancelled their order and we need to move 6,000 bags of decaf coffee"

Thanks! I've used a shorter version of that so I can still squeeze in the [updated].
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