I always said I’d never sell fruit because it might feel like a job, because I could never come close to breaking even anyway, and I enjoy giving my fruit away. But last year I decided to sell a few apples just to help with some of my spray cost and this year I decided to do it again.
This year I borrowed a little stand from the man across the street from me who sells vegetables out of it in the summer but his garden is finished by now. Its not much, but it beats last year I just made a table with saw horses and plywood, so this is an improvement and even has a roof!
It’s 100% on the honor system. There is a small wood box with a lock on it that is nailed to the stand where people put money. Of course a determined thief with a crow bar could get in it, but its a lot more secure than the loose coffee can I used last year. Time will tell if this experiment will work or not- I’ll keep you posted! Fingers crossed that people are mostly honest!
Here is my little stand. I only put out 15 bags at a time in case someone steals everything.
Looking good, Kevin! I’m curious though, I feel like a lot of people I know don’t carry cash anymore. Have you experienced that too. Maybe it’s a regional thing or urban vs rural thing. Mind if I put this poll here?
nice setup Kev.! nothing wrong with getting a little money back to help fund your hobby. i bet most people will be honest esp. where its placed in the open. most crooks know nowadays know there could be a game cam hid nearby and won’t take the chance. good luck!
I really hope this works out for you—and, if it does, I definitely want to hear about it. It would be nice to have a little bit of my faith in humanity restored.
I’ve heard that this sort of honor system stand is common in Japan.
my father had a veggie stand with the honor system for 25yrs. was never cleaned but some would grab a cuc or 2 more than they payed for. Dad would run into these people in town and give them a guilt trip about how much time and effort it took to grow his produce just to have a selfish person steal from him. they stopped stealing. nowadays I’m not so sure it would bother them much.
They still have honor system stands around here in NH, on Long Island, and back where I grew up in NJ. I actually saw a lot fewer when I lived in the more rural parts of the country. Might have something to do with not enough traffic.
As far as theft goes, it’s disheartening, but I bet losses from theft would be much less than the cost of staffing a stand, whether yourself or an employee.
I have a farmer friend that does nearly $20,000/year of business from a very simple, unassuming self-serve stand with a cash box he typically only empties once/day. Looking at it, you might think he only sells a few hundred dollars each year. He’s done so for well over a decade, and if I remember correctly he told me no one has ever attempted to steal the money, but he did have some product stolen a couple times, but only a small portion of what he had set out each of those times.
Very nice. There are tons of honor system stands here in the Finger Lakes. I made a tiny one for my stepdaughter and it made it into the local newspaper.
SMC has a point. Yesterday we went apple picking and on our way back there was a small shop selling pumpkins. I bought couple of tiny pumpkins that came out to $3.90 and I gave the cashier my credit card and they only take credit card for purchases above 10. I had no cash at all on me. I had to ask her to wait until I go check in the cash. I always keep $20 in the car in case of emergency. So I was able to buy my pumpkins without grabbing other stuff to come up to $10. More often than not I have no cash in my wallet.
We have a lot of honor system stands around here so they must work. The last one I stopped at was selling fresh eggs. I bought my first fig tree from one.
Great job Kevin. Please keep us updated on how it goes.
It would be interesting if you added a Venmo option for people. I don’t know if there is a negative side to putting up your venmo name publicly, but you might get some sales you wouldn’t otherwise if you were willing to sign up for the service and put up a sign for people to pay you that way as well. I grow tomato and pepper seedlings to donate to our local PTA plant sale, which was cancelled this year due to the virus so I offered them through Craigslist and donated the money to the PTA myself. About 10% of the sales were from people who wanted to use Venmo and might not have bought otherwise. They didn’t even use Paypal, which surprised me. I’m in my 50s, so wasn’t hip enough to already have Venmo, but it was worth signing up.
Also, with Venmo and the other services, people can add a note if they wanted to request more of some variety or wanted to buy a bushel, etc.
Then again, I would understand if you just want to keep it simple.
Same here. I admit to being a little surprised at how they’ve persisted.
Even though I’m in a relatively affluent part of the tech-savvy Bay Area, I haven’t yet seen one that employs electronic payment options. Cash and local checks seem to be the norm here. The average age is a bit older than the usual, however, and that may well be a factor. The farmers may also be trying to avoid transaction fees, as margins are likely pretty thin and the cost of living is quite high.
