How to Find State Products
Cynthia asks:
“I can’t find manufacturers here in Arkansas that sell products for my baskets. I want to approach hotels and groups, and I need items that are made right here. Do companies exist in my state?”
There are 38 companies I found in Arkansas using an easy online search, selling items from cookies to non-alcoholic beverages to candles and more. All of these products create fabulous gift baskets for the market you serve.
You can decrease your search time in several ways:
1. Yahoo.com’s “U.S. States” link groups wholesalers and suppliers selling packaged products. You’ll have to drill through several screens to find the listings. If I can find them, I know you can, too.
2. Review the listings at GiftBasketWholesaleSupplies.com, or use the search page to find what you want. The same advice works at OrganicWholesaleSupplies.com if certified organic products are on your inventory list.
3. The CD, How to Find Products In and Around Your State, uncovers numerous ways to locate product sources. You can listen to the CD while traveling to clients or running errands. Look for more information about the CD on this page in the “CD” section.
You’re closer than you think to finding state manufacturers. I bet you’ll have several on your resource list by next week.
Can I Add Branded Products to My Baskets?
Joy asks:
“Do we have to obtain consent from the various vendors in order to include their products in our baskets?”
When you buy products from wholesale sources, those sources provide you with items that need no permission for basket inclusion.
If you’re referring to products from vendors such as Hershey’s, Bath and Body Works, and Trader Joe’s, the answer is also “no.”
The only time there might be a problem is if you open the goods and repackage them.
Designers keep products sealed in its original packaging, touching the plastic, can, or jar and never directly touching the product unless your facility is licensed by your local board of health.
Home-based facilities cannot get such licensing, while commercial spaces can apply for a food handler’s license.
You are free to add anyone’s goods within your gift basket as long as it’s included the way it was packaged when you received it.
Buying Gift Cards for Gift Baskets
Heidi asks:
“I’m staring my business and I’m currently developing a reasonable number of fun gift baskets to offer. I’m looking to add gift cards from major, national companies.
Is there anything I need to be aware of when looking to purchase? Or is it as simple as purchasing the card myself and reselling it at the same price?
Thanks for ALL your help!”
I believe you’re referring to gift cards that include a prepaid amount redeemable at stores that issue or accept such cards, the ones that have become very popular to buy at holiday times when the giver doesn’t know what to purchase for the receiver.
Buying gift cards are a straight-forward process. They are only discounted when you buy hundreds at a time, and the discount only amounts to about five percent, if that.
So, the buying process is as you state – as simple as purchasing the card yourself and reselling it at the same price – or perhaps the card’s price is a bit more than face value for a customer due to the entire gift basket cost.
This is one reason why most designers do not include gift cards in gift baskets, but that is not said to deter you if gift cards are or will become a popular item within your baskets.
We tend to spend our inventory money on items with higher profit potential. Since gift cards don’t offer that, we select tried-and-true food and gift items with better margins.
