Re: AGA plant sales

["Villa Sunscape" <davidlass@villasunscape.com>]

I vote YES
Lass
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Robert P. Cashin <rcashin@juno.com>
To: <aga-mcm@thekrib.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 23, 1999 9:16 AM
Subject: Fw: AGA plant sales


> Hi Everybody,
> 
> Quite a while ago, we had a lengthy discussion about plant sales. David
> Lass, who has volunteered to do the job offered this proposal on how it
> would work with him doing the job. Please vote yes or no on this proposal
> as it stands.
> 
> Thanks, Bob.
> 
> --------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: "Villa Sunscape" <davidlass@villasunscape.com>
> To: "Neil Frank" <nfrank@mindspring.com>,
> "Robert P. Cashin" <rcashin@juno.com>
> Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 21:56:14 -0400
> Subject: AGA plant sales
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> 
> Hi again guys -- 
> When the dust clears from the PAM thing, I would like to begin the
> discussion about AGA plant sales, which upon Neil's description of what
> had been planned a while ago, I am willing to undertake as the person in
> charge. As you (Bob) requested, here is the way I think it would work.
> * Being able to do the plant sales would only be open to AGA members, and
> would be advertised in the AGA section of PAM. This would, I think, be a
> significant incentive for folks to join AGA. 
> * The idea would be to be able to offer a good variety of "rare" plants
> -- those that are not normally available at stores.
> * Florida Aquatic Nurseries (FAN) has told Neil that they would be
> willing to supply the plants. Neil says that they have even volunteered
> to obtain rare plants from their sources, grow them out for us, and then
> ship them to us. In addition there is a company in Canada whose plants I
> have seen in some shops I sell fish to, and I could see if they would
> sell to us. Too bad that Gasser did not have anyone continue his
> business.
> * The way I think the actual procedure would work is as follows:
>     * To start with we do this once a quarter. Advertise it in PAM and
> have deadlines of, say, 1/1, 4/1, 7/1 and 10/1.
>     * We would include in PAM a listing of the plants available and the
> prices (We can talk about pricing later, but from what Neil and I have
> talked about it seems we can make a straight XX% markup)
>     * Orders would have to be in by the four dates above, and orders
> would have to be submitted by email. There would have to be a minimum
> order of $XX.
>     * After the order was confirmed by me (to make sure that FAN has all
> the plants that were offered when the PAM went to press), I would email
> back the total amount including shipping and handling.
>     * The Customer would then send AGA (me) their check, which would have
> to be in by the 15th of the month.
>     * I would aggregate all of the orders and make a single order to FAN.
>     * FAN would ship the plants to me
>     * I would break them down into the orders from above., and send them
> out, probably Express Mail or FedEx.
> Lots of what may seem heavy lifting I can set up on my computer, and once
> the program is done, the ordering and aggregating process will be simple,
> as will the emailing. The only thing that will be time consuming will be
> breaking down the FAN shipment into the individual orders. How much of a
> hassle this is will depend on how many folks do it each quarter. 20 or 30
> orders I can handle easily. If we start getting 50 or more that will be
> tough. If the response is that big we may want to consider my hiring
> someone to help with the breakdown and shipping ( the cost of which we
> would include in our pricing, just as we would the freight from FAN to
> me), or we could simply limit the number of orders we will take each
> quarter.
> That's where my thoughts are now. Please let me know what you think, and
> what else you need me to do.
> Thanks.
> Lass
> 
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