Comments | khromat: My favorite season

khromat

My favorite season

Oct 13, 2011 10:41

I have always loved autumn, which marks the beginning of "The Food Season" for me. It's the time of the year when I bake a lot as the yearly crop of pumpkins appears. Soups, breads, pies, stews, ice cream ... pumpkin can be used in both sweet and savory ways, and the heirloom varieties of Cucurbita Moschata are fabulous for the task. As always ( Read more... )

pumpkin, cooking

Comments 11

tuftears October 13 2011, 18:36:20 UTC

Curiosity compels me to ask why you need the shipping boxes returned! Shouldn't that just be part of the shipping cost?

khromat October 13 2011, 19:18:21 UTC

Because I believe in being Green: The specialty shipping boxes can be better recycled by being re-used, and it would offset my costs of buying them by having them be value to a customer rather than a cost.... what better value and reason to re-use than sending it back for more pie? :D

tuftears October 13 2011, 20:27:37 UTC

Well, my concern is that the boxes will have contained food items, and thus if you reuse a shipping box, you risk introducing germs into the next pie! Wouldn't it be easier to have customers recycle or use their shipping boxes as compost?

Shipping food khromat October 18 2011, 18:26:48 UTC

The pie will be wrapped before it's put inside the shipping box, so the chances of contamination are small... but just as important, the foam can be safely cleaned.

Thread 5

Boxes... niall_shapero October 13 2011, 19:01:12 UTC

And what about those who might be able to pick up the pies directly (Yes, I know, LA is some 350 miles away from whereever you are in San Jose, but I _DO_ get up to the SFBay area "every now and then").

Re: Boxes... khromat October 13 2011, 19:16:11 UTC

Well, in that case I'd just have the pie in the Deep Freeze ready for pick-up. :)

Re: Boxes... niall_shapero October 13 2011, 22:00:16 UTC

Certainly sounds like a plan to me...:-)

twentythoughts October 13 2011, 22:10:12 UTC

Coming from newspapering, that "subscription service" thing sounds like a good idea. Especially since it keeps you in customers' minds. Buying a pie doesn't just become a fire-and-forget thing, but this forces them to make the decision about whether or not to come back for more, without it feeling like you're pushing it onto'em.

While Tuftears does have a point about the hygiene of it, as long as it's washable it sounds doable.

coppercheetah October 14 2011, 17:06:41 UTC

(Having tackled a similar problem at my workplace ( ... )

khromat October 18 2011, 18:31:43 UTC

The boxes I've ordered are specifically designed to handle shipping of cakes and pies... the foam inserts are formed to handle the odd shape, so that's covered (although, if you can get me a better price on them, I won't complain)

I'll definitely talk to FedEx about reusable airbill mailers, and find out how much the empty box would cost to be shipped back. I don't have a business account with them yet, maybe if I start getting regular orders I will.

Shipping of perishables is always very expensive -- you're paying for speed for temperature control. As I start doing this as a business, I'll be able to have a better idea of the actual costs.