Friday, April 7, 2017

Food Orders & Running Out of Food

So, I've been getting a lot of people... well, since always I suppose, who order something, or email me with an order, and specify, hey they need it right away.

This is especially true with food orders, where I guess some people are unable to determine that they need more chin chow until all their bags are empty.

Which, maybe you say, ok they don't realize it... let me back up a minute and ask -- would you completely run out of food in your house before you'd go buy more?  I mean to the point of not having anything to eat, no snacks, nothing to make a meal.  Maybe some people would... but I go shopping for more groceries before that.  Maybe I'm the odd one out... but I doubt people would let their pantries dwindle down to nothing before going shopping, and I personally think we should apply this to our pets' food supply as well.

When I only fed and sold Mazuri, the second I had two bags left (I usually buy 8-10 at a time, 200-250 pounds), that's when I would mentally tell myself, ok I need to get more.  If, for some reason I hadn't gone to get food and I had literally OPENED the last 25 pound bag... I would pretty much drop everything and go that day.  With the Tradition... Jim will deliver 500 pounds from Ohio every so often, and if I absolutely need more and he can't deliver, there's a local place that will order it for me and will have it within a week.  Not like I want to wait a week, but because I'm prepared... I usually have MannaPro Pro (rabbit food) on hand, which chins can eat, so if for some reason I actually ran out... I do have a backup.  But so with Tradition, if I go below four un-opened bags (200 pounds), I start to mentally panic, because I do have a few people who buy a whole 50 pound bag, and even one person whose family buys four at a time for her herd.  So, I like to make sure I have plenty, to keep it in stock for the people who buy it.  Oh, and for us.  Did I mention, we go through a 50 pound bag of Tradition in 2-3 days?  Yeah, so that's about 500 pounds a month, just to feed our own animals.

The point is -- notice, how with either of these foods, once it gets below a certain point, I make it a point to get more, one way or another.  The people who I'm talking about with food orders, while I love all my customers to death, paypal money for a food order and then email me that the pellets that are in the bowl are all they have.  When I send out flat rate food orders (which most of them are), they're 11 pounds.  That's two 5-pound bags, and a 1 pound bag.  Even that one pound bag would last one chin about two weeks.  Surely it wouldn't be that hard for someone to say, ok, when they open the last bag (whichever one they choose), that's when they'll order?  Cause it's more to be... when they use up the last bag, and the bag is empty and they're like, well shit.  And that's when they order.

Which, hey, you can all order whenever you want.... but on my side of this... it's tiring when every single food order is a rush, because someone couldn't be bothered to keep an eye on food supply.  Some weeks, I'm out of town for three days.  When ECBC Nationals rolled around, I was out of town for 5 days and had other people watching my dogs, feeding the chins, and so on.  It's not that I can't get your order ready that day, cause if I have the food, I will do my best, and I will try to get it out in the morning.  It's that sometimes, someone orders food... and I'm on my way out of town, and will be gone for 3 days.  When I get back, I can do it, but that means... the pet will be out of food for 4 days, by the time you figure that the package goes out next day, if I get it ready the absolute night I get back.  This is why it's best not to delay.  Yes, the chins can live on hay.  No, it won't hurt them.  But... a little more diligence would prevent this from even being an issue!

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