what do you do if you want to be
involved in the local food movement but
you don't want to be a farmer or if you
have a farm and you're looking for
another way to move your farm product or
another way to diversify your income
streams I'll show you one example that
can fill both those niches coming up in
this video today I'm at max Becker's
first steps farm in Ojai California and
we're gonna take a look at his farm
store model it's an online farm store
we're gonna see about what it's about
how it works and how he prepares for it
he sells product online and then he
packs it right here at his farm the
unique thing about this model is he's
aggregating product from other farmers
in the area it may sound simple but
where the confusion can come in and all
this is packing so today you're gonna
get an inside look and how he's doing it
all what max is doing here I think is
really unique it's something that I
think you're gonna be interested in it's
not a model you see a lot it's much more
than just the Grove edge here harvested
sell it at a farmers market sales model
or sell it to restaurants this is
aggregating product from local farms
growing some of your own product to feed
into that aggregation model and then
selling all of that product online to
customers so they can over one jalapeno
and one pound of oranges if they want
they can order eggs and Swiss chard and
five bunches of cilantro it's totally
customizable customers only pay what
they're gonna take delivery for max
doesn't grow at all
he aggregates it from other farmers ten
different ones in this video you'll see
all the ins and outs why he does it how
he does it what's involved in the
packing because it can get confusing
pretty quickly if you're not careful you
gotta figure he was dealing with 31
different products this week 104
different orders how do you get those 31
products divided up into those 104
orders it's challenging so we speaker
out how to do it in a very lean farming
style way I really like this model I
think it's unique like I said you're not
going to see a lot out of it if you want
to find another way to get other people
in your farm or in your life involved in
the farm scene here's one way to do it
and if you're looking for a way to try
and boost revenue on your farm
not without FERC because you'll see
there's work involved this is one way to
do it stay tuned
coming up we're one of the pickup's here
today for your
armed store and you were just telling me
an interesting story about these eggs
this farm here raises duck eggs the farm
was long a bunch of duck eggs she asked
you could you try listing them on your
web store you did and what happened
we sold nine half-dozen four out of a
hundred orders so 10% of our customers
one of the duck eggs that she wouldn't
have been able to sell otherwise right
so it's a way this model of aggregating
from other farms not only supports farms
like the one we're standing on right now
it's run by a young couple trying to get
started on their farm so max is
supporting them by buying from them and
it in one way it does that is by
allowing max to sell product for them
which allows the farmer to move product
that they might not otherwise be able to
sell one theme that comes up a lot if in
the farming is have a diversity of
market streams have a diversity of
customer bases and four farms in this
area you're really playing into that
diversification being a customer for a
lot of these smaller farms mm-hmm yeah
we're on both ends of the spectrum now
overall if you look at this model of the
web store how many total farms are you
buying from at the moment six or seven
but it's been as many as ten or fifteen
ok so quite a bit and it just shows when
you're at the hub the advantages to you
is you get a lot of product you
otherwise normally couldn't grow or
don't want to grow exactly any advantage
to these other farmers is that's just
another outlet for them to move products
it's a win-win people are generally very
happy to sell to us right on I really
love this farm store model that max is
doing and that's one of the reasons why
I wanted to drive four hours north today
up here to Ojai to see what it was
actually like in person I love the idea
of this it offers new people an
interesting way to get into business
because you can aggregate from other
producers in your area you don't have to
grow the crops it gives you the ability
to let other farmers grow the crops that
they can grow well or is better suited
for their land corn potatoes that type
of thing if you're on a quarter acre
you're probably not going to grow those
crops at least profitably so source from
the farmers that do you can get citrus
you can get apples you can get eggs milk
could be involved there's many different
products you can do if you're looking to
get into farming or supplement the
income on your farm watch what max is
doing in this video on
sitter taking a look at this farm
aggregator model it's something that I
think has a lot of potential
we'll continue showing more of it during
this video and there's also a whole
podcast that I did with max on this
topic link to that below so here I am at
one of my farms that I pick up for the
web store I pick up here every Tuesday
morning I place the orders around 7:00
come pick them up around 10:00 or 11:00
and right now we're sourcing from about
six or seven different farms down from
10 to 15 about a year ago we we way
simplified it and it's been a lot better
we just load it up take it back to our
farm if it's same day Tuesday we don't
even put it in the walk-in we just pack
it straight into boxes some stuff I pick
up yesterday that goes into the coolbot
trailer and waits overnight staying cool
so max I mean I think one of the big
advantages of this aggregator model is
you get to support other farms in the
area the idea of supporting other farms
how important is that to you in the
greater scheme of what you're trying to
do oh it's crucial it's part of the
mission for us
honestly it's yeah besides making a
living for ourself and selling our own
product it's really what makes us most
excited about the business when you look
around at farmers markets and all the
traditional avenues for selling
small-scale local produce you know see
SAS roadside stands a lot of those
markets are getting saturated it's hard
to get into farmers markets there's only
so many customers willing to do with CSA
and willing to take that box so we feel
like we're tapping into a new market
offering customers more convenience and
then taking that business and turning it
around and growing more farms that is
totally part of the mission of what we
want to do last stop at the day here max
this is one of the farms that you also
worked for in your past not on the farm
but it got you some experience at the
farmers market working the booth for
them would you learn coming out of that
and how valuable was that experience I
was incredibly valuable I mean basically
I was on the ground in the market scene
I learned what sold in that market and
what didn't I learned what there was a
need for I got to know the manager and I
got to see how a very very tight farmers
market booth was run and all that
Fighting's our current market boos now I
mean the cool thing about that
experience is a lot of times I think
people put all the value on learning
production at other farms they don't get
to see the business side of things
here's one where you got the opposite
side you didn't necessarily see the
production you saw you know the business
end of it and that's very valuable like
you said you can integrate it into your
business today at the farmers market and
they're also now a customer for you for
the farm store absolutely absolutely and
you know you do learn the production
side too just from seeing what comes
through the market you see you see how
things are bunched you see what's
growing when you see you see all kinds
of things it's on the end of it
but you can learn a lot that way too and
I could pick his brain I'll market long
that's it and it seems like more and
more I get into this like a lot of that
learning is just using the eyes to
really pay attention like so how its
bunched how big the bunches are how
clean the product is what products
coming through when these little nuances
that may not be obvious and nobody's
teaching you this lesson but if you're
paying attention you can learn the
lessons just from the experience totally
[Music]
now we're back at Max's farm site and
it's time to unload the produce this
produce is all boxed up this is stuff
that he's aggregated throughout the week
it was in his walk-in cooler at his
house
we've now driven the five-minute drive
to his farm site and it's gonna be lined
everything up in the structure right
behind me on
to get everything distributed out into
equal boxes for each customer and
they'll be ready tomorrow for delivery
this is where all those produce boxes
are going it's inside this vinyl
structure here this is just a harbor for
810 it's like 10 by 20 feet long it
keeps everything nice and cool there's a
breeze going all the packing won't take
place in here what's been harvested on
the farm today is already here and the
stuff that he's aggregated throughout
the week that's in the truck that's all
coming in here this is where all the
packing takes place right behind me
right max how many customers you have
today today we've got 104 about how much
does that represent sales um let's see
order sizes really vary but I mean we're
doing around in around $2,000 a week in
sales $2,000 a week and it's all gonna
be packed here now I'm sure 104 boxes
like I'm thinking that's gonna be really
confusing but you've systematized it out
what's the basic flow for how this works
well it starts with the paperwork which
we have right here we have a label
printed out for every order so first
thing is the label goes on the box and
they're color coded according to which
delivery route they go on so that we can
see at a very easy visual which box is
going which pile so that's the first
thing then there's there's a different
list for every order and this is all the
items in that order and the lists are in
the same order as the labels so when
someone picks up a label they pick up a
list they go they pack their box within
that list the order of the items is the
same order that they're lined up here in
the tent
so everything moves in circles not in
jerky back and forth so you grab your
label you label your box you go to the
end of the tent and you start getting
items and you move in a straight line
down you never have to backtrack then
when you get to the end you put a lid on
your bin and it goes to the correct pile
for its route the customers box is
what's in motion the inventory is fixed
exactly and customers box weighs maybe a
half pound
40 pounds or 50 pounds so we're not
lugging anything heavy around they set
maybe the biggest of orders by the very
end and we have this table here to
actually rest the order on while you put
things into it you can slide it along if
you want so it it makes the packing
process a lot easier I think you're
saying didn't you use to do it the other
way yep just do it the other way and it
was kind of a light bulb went off one
day inspired by Ben Hartman that we
don't have to be taking the heavy boxes
around we could actually take the light
boxes around one thing they could get
confusing really quickly is all these
vegetables and all these customers how
do you make sure all these vegetables
get into the right boxes and the
customers get what they're asking for
and keep it efficient so people want to
bumping into each other wasting time
wasting steps for the hundred floors you
gotta systematize it and that's what max
has done when you're selling you know 30
separate products or so how do you get
all these vegetables lined up in the
right order because ideally what you
want is a whole continuous line so
somebody starts at one end and just
works their way down it may sound simple
but it gets confusing because not every
single person is in order every single
item on here so max has to do a little
bit of backend manipulation to come up
with this list to get these products in
the right order so you can have all of
his products on here so when he comes
down to get in order for John Doe who
might only order 10 of these 30 he can
just walk down and they're in a
standardized order sounds confusing I
know we'll show it on video when he's
doing it it'll make a lot more sense one
other thing that's really interesting
that he's done is he's really tried to
unitize everything so when he's selling
say cherry tomatoes he's selling these
by the unit not by the link that way you
don't have to deal with Wayne he's on
the spot which just takes up time adds
to confusion so this is one unit that
one item goes
when he does have to wait things one
thing he did that I absolutely love is
everything that has to be weighed gets
its own scale right in front of it that
way you don't have a central way station
everybody's not going to that one way
station at once it's gonna avoid
confusion the scale goes right in front
of the product that needs to be weighed
so as that person who's packing is
moving down the line they can weigh
their product out see what the way it is
BAM into the box scale stays there they
move on this is a manufacturing problem
this is really lean when it comes down
to it this is all about efficiency of
getting this done and a lot of thought
went into this process because I know
from talking to max you struggle for use
on this but now they have it figured out
this is where this aggregator model can
get bad so pay attention there see how
he does it now it's time to start
picking orders max run us through a
typical order just to show what this
process is like okay so it starts with
grabbing your label in your packing list
and they are listed in the same order so
you just have to double check with the
name on the list it's the same as the
name on the label you got the two of
those by looking at the length of the
list you can pretty quickly determine
whether you need a small bin which is
about eight inches tall or a larger bin
which is about twice that or in some
cases we have a couple very large bins
for very large orders which doesn't
usually happen sometimes it does we're
always happy for the extra orders so
yeah I'm determining I can probably fit
this order in a small bin you can grab a
clipboard to make it easier as you go
around you just click your list onto the
board and what I do is I just pop in the
box come over here you slap the label on
the bin you want to keep it somewhat low
down because when you're looking at the
boxes from above you want to be able to
see the name on the label very clearly
one simple piece of tape that here's the
label we don't use expensive sticky
labels or anything number one because
they're expensive number two because
they'd be a pain in the neck to be
peeling off the boxes all the time
because we reuse these boxes every week
then what I do is I just stand up the
clipboard in the Box like that I'm just
airing my order right here and I walk
down to the end of the end of the table
and start first thing this guy ordered
was a pound of apples so I go I can set
my bin down right here I know about
three apples or a pound
so I'm gonna eyeball this and I'm right
on there we go put it in the box
move on now one note about the order of
things on this table heavier items are
at the beginning things that can be at
the bottom of the box without being
crushed lighter things which are you
know better on top of the box are listed
down the way so we don't have to be
rearranging in the box as we go next
thing he ordered a cucumber cucumbers we
sell by the unit one cucumber in the box
carrots sometimes we do these by the
pound sometimes by the bunch we happen
to happen by the bunch today so once
again very easy you just drop it in the
box move on he ordered a dozen eggs here
move on he ordered two leeks right here
pounded yellow squash that's right here
I'm just moving down the table I don't
have to backtrack I can eyeball the
squash and that is a hair under a pound
but it doesn't matter it goes in the box
anyways he ordered Roma tomatoes those
we sell by the basket but we don't
necessarily put them in the basket so
what I've written down here on the box
based on the size that I've seen they
are today five to six each so I'm just
gonna grab six because I have a couple
small ones it's awesome in the box I'm
gonna cushion them with the carrot
greens so they don't get smashed
next item once again the list is right
here in front of me I can hold the box
and I'm looking straight at the list
he ordered a jalapeno right here and it
goes a head of red leaf lettuce right
here
Gesell that on top and one more item you
got a red bell pepper that orders done
you come over to the table here pop your
list out lid goes on and then we go over
to the the Ojai delivered route so far
seeing this aggregator model live I'm
really impressed by it I first heard
about it on the podcast again max and it
was a little bit confusing but now
seeing it in place it makes a lot of
sense and I see a lot of benefit to it
for somebody who's looking to grow their
farm or get somebody else in their life
a brother a parent a spouse involved in
the farm who doesn't like the field work
this type of work is very relational
it's a business there's no field growing
here it's just simply aggregating
products from other producers in the
area assembling them and selling them
csa style or through a web source style
like max has the benefit of this is you
get to go out and support other
producers out there and for somebody who
can't work in the field or doesn't like
working in the field for whatever reason
this might be a better fit for their
business and I think it stacks perfectly
onto a field based business that's
selling into a CSA or farmers market
just like on Max's farm he has this
two-pronged approach the farmers markets
in the aggregator and that's one thing
that helps make his farm more resilient
you're using Sterilite totes here do you
charge a deposit for the tote or you
just rely on the customer to put the old
one out when you drop the new order off
the ladder if we rely on the customer
and in a couple cases we have to chase
people down but most of them are really
good at it we did initially charged it
deposit we charged a $10 deposit which
is about what the bin cost a little less
but yeah we charged that deposit
initially and we just thought it was a
barrier to entry and we wanted to make
it really easy to join and we realized
that out of the delivery charge that we
charge
we actually have have segmented a
portion of that to pay for the bins and
last time I ran the numbers our cost per
bin per order was $0.50 and if I were to
run those numbers again it's going to be
lower because obviously your cost per
bin is higher upfront because you bought
most your bins
the beginning now we're only buying in
maybe six or twelve new bins a month and
we're just reusing those old ones and as
long as you keep them out of the Sun
they last a long time they get brittle
if left in the Sun and so we try to
explain that to our customers not to
leave them on their sunny porch all week
but you can get a lot of life out of
them they stack the small ones stack on
the big ones so you know you can stack
them interchangeably and these sizes
work out pretty well we can fit a lot of
orders into this small bin and most of
the rest fit into the large one I mean
one thing I like about this small bin is
if you're looking at this it's it's
jammed full like sometimes you get a CSA
box and it'll be a big huge box that you
know like a 13-inch TV would come in or
something an old-fashioned 13-inch TV
and it's like you know about that fall
and you feel like you're kind of getting
ripped off like this box if you look at
it on the inside you know it's mostly
fall I think that helps from like a
visual marketing standpoint is you're
giving somebody a full box versus using
a bigger box and there's the same amount
of product in there so just less space
and you know a couple cool things about
these crates they're clear so you see
all the beautiful fruits and veggies in
it when you pick it up you know it's not
it's not opaque but the tops are white
and so if it's in the Sun for a while
the white is gonna be reflecting the Sun
but you can still see inside the box and
see what's in there right the snap lids
are nice too you know they're not gonna
fall off and delivery they're not gonna
fall if somebody's carrying them you
understand it helps keep moisture in the
air in there's a little microclimate in
there now totally and you know the other
thing about keeping the bins as small as
you can in as full as you can is when
you start putting things on a delivery
vehicle you do not want to be shipping
dead space you want to be shipping veg
and the smaller box we can get it into
we do we sometimes even use these boxes
right here we can we fill that box and
it looks pathetically empty we will
actually transfer the label put it in
this small box which we call minis and
it will go out in the mini now for one
thing I noticed in this order here that
you pick somebody got one jalapeno
they're getting two squash I think there
was one of something else in there how
do you charge based upon all this stuff
it's just
unit so somebody's getting one jalapeno
they're just literally paying for one
jalapeno and they're getting a total so
all these orders are a different price
or is it that way or do people have a
certain amount of credit you know $20
each week to spend and they allocated it
a certain way
now each each order is a different price
and they're charged for that order
yes it's obviously not-it's no different
than any other online store where you
know you go and you fill up cart and you
see your total at the end of it and that
total is what you pay when it comes to
delivery how are you building that
charge in because they know that that
could be a turn-off for a lot of farmers
out there they don't want to be driving
some customers are gonna live close some
customers are gonna live far how have
you managed to handle delivery well for
one thing we keep it within a specific
zone there are three different cities
all within in half an hour or less from
the farm and we don't deliver outside
those cities or unincorporated areas in
between them which we can access easily
so we're not we know we're not driving
too far for any delivery and by
concentrating over a period of time in
that zone the more stops we pick up the
more efficient it is to send a driver
out on the road because he's making
multiple stops within the same small
area we charge a flat rate of five
dollars per delivery and out of that
cost I'm able to pay the driver and I'm
able to pay for the bin and I'm able to
pay for the software that I use to
configure the routes and we even have a
little bit left left over to cover other
miscellaneous charges that come up
associated with delivery and packing you
know when it comes to delivery do you
also have part of the product price
factor in the delivery charge light so
there's not a delivery charge built in
you're charging five bucks for delivery
which covers those things but you also
factor in delivery when you price these
products or these products just priced
upon you adding a margin on what you
wholesale them for until recently I did
not factor delivery into the cost of the
product one price that I one item I did
raise my prices on recently it was
lettuce the reason being that a head of
lettuce takes up a lot of space in the
bin and you can sell a head of lettuce
for a dollar fifty dollar seventy-five
or you can you can sell a little clam of
cherry tomatoes for $4 so I'm getting
much better value per space than the box
with the cherry tomatoes the name with
that big head of lettuce is taking up a
lot of space so this system is
prejudicial towards smaller items it's
or micro greens for example you know the
smaller the item and the higher the
value the better it is in this system
because it's being shipped and you know
heavy big items like well lettuce
because it's bulky some of those
butternut I don't have squash because
they're heavy you know when we're
lifting your three orders at a time
which we try to lift them in groups of
three if there's a lot of heavy things
in that bin that can get pretty heavy
it's often like I guess thinking of
field space in a bed you know you're
looking at what's the dollar value per
linear foot of bed space you're trying
to maximize that in the case of box
space when it comes to delivery you're
trying to optimize like the dollar value
per cubic inch in that box but like you
said it I wouldn't ever thought of that
lettuce it's light it takes up a lot of
room and you're not going to get as much
for it as tomatoes which you could fit a
lot more of in the box
and like when you only have a delivery
vehicle if it's limited in space
standardized box sizes efficiency
becomes a big part of the delivery route
and packing it to make sure it's all
gonna work exactly we've even gone as
far as to tell certain farmers that we
want smaller bunches because we're
trying to fit it all in the box and yes
sometimes a bunch would show up so large
that we would have to because of that
one item upgrade it from a small what
would normally fit in the small box has
to go to a bag and then it's just taking
up that much more space on the delivery
delivery drivers vehicle for somebody at
home that's watching this and they're
thinking about doing this aggregator
model let's say you're sourcing
microgreens from a local grower you have
two different prices to think about when
you price your product you have the
wholesale price so this is the price
you're buying this at from the grower
they're gonna charge you some amount to
wholesale it on the other hand if you
grew this or you sold this in a farmers
market you'd have price B which is going
to be higher than price a because the
wholesaler is giving you a discount
presumably because you're buying a bunch
in one shot on
when you compare wholesale price to
retail price and build it into this
webstore model how do you figure out
where to price your product for the farm
store and how much margin you want to
add to this to have it makes sense it
really depends there are a lot of
factors that go into pricing we try to
stay within a mid-range pricing level
and we we do not charge top dollar for
most of our products so friend says this
from your farm store is going to be
cheaper than if they bought it at your
farmers market booth or some products
well if so so in the case of microgreens
at the farmers market we do four dollars
or three for ten for a while I tried to
do quantity quantity discounts in the
webstore and it turned into a total
headache because suddenly an item which
takes up one space on the table is now
taking up two because you've got you've
got the one pack and you've got the
three pack or if it's if it's taking it
the same amount of space then you're
counting on workers to notice in the in
the flurry of packing that that was a
three pounder and not a one pounder and
oh oops I gave this person one pound
instead of three pounds so we did did
away with product variations within the
same product and so what I do is I
charge 375 for what I charge four
dollars for it it it's a little bit less
than if they buy one in the market it's
a little bit more than if they bought
three and it kind of evens out that way
with that particular example you know
with it's a generic vegetable carrots
squash what factors do you use when
adding your margin to the product well
you know wholesale price is the first
one you know I see what the wholesale
price is and then I have a target for a
retail price that I want to hit
sometimes the wholesale price is so high
that I have to go higher on the retail
price in order to get the margin that I
want I'm never gonna sell something for
less than a 20% margin I tried it at one
point we were actually selling meat for
a while we we dabbled and selling me
from a grass-fed Rancher and he was
giving me his product at fifteen fifteen
percent we agreed to sell his retail
prices and he was giving me a 15%
discount we tried to make it work then
finally when I ran the numbers I
realized I pretty much have fifteen
my operating costs are pretty much 15%
of the retail price so if I'm not
getting at least 20 I'm not even making
money on it right so it's the absolute
low-end and there you only make it 5%
when you factor in costs exactly exactly
not really worth it
so 20 is the minimum I want to see and
if I can push it to 60 or 70 on certain
items that we can then push a lot of
like when tomatoes are in full
production in the summer farmers are
selling them really cheap I can hold my
retail price if I'm getting 70 percent
margin on those items then that makes
the a little more worth it to sell the
30 the eve even in some cases the 20
percent items and you know balance is
out to more of a 40 percent margin
overall in operating this over the last
few years have you found vegetables that
don't really work well in this model
that you stay away from yeah watermelons
is one I tried one week selling
watermelons and simply the size high
unless it's gonna be one of those mini
watermelons one of those newer hybrid
smaller watermelons
I just can't sell them because of the
size I can't fit it in the box we tried
doing it separate and then writing on
the outside of the box that they had a
watermelon waiting for them in this box
over here and ultimately I realized it's
too much of a headache it's not
confusion lot of room for mistakes yeah
you know that's something I've taken
from you just being around the farm
today within this system and outside in
your growing area it's eliminate
confusion simplified down try and make
it as straightforward as possible if
there's areas that seem like they can be
misinterpreted or go awry just eliminate
them like there's no need to add that
confusion to sell the watermelon because
it's not gonna make a lick a difference
at the end of the day for your business
and there's enough stuff that you can
sell that works for the model so why
force it for stuff that doesn't exactly
flowers are another example flowers just
don't work with packing the box
basically anything we used to sell a few
items outside the box the watermelons
happened for one week we used to sell a
10-pound bag of oranges which we would
deliver alongside the box and there
would be it it would be a label on the
front of the box and we have a system
for it it worked okay but too many times
the oranges we get left behind or the
driver would forget them because he's
used to just dropping a box and not
grabbing the
item we were definitely doing it for
meat meat was packed separately in a
cooler delivered straight into the
customers cooler and I'm interested to
try to get into the future but for the
time being we just eliminated anything
outside the box in terms of non-veg
products you have some eggs here you
have duck eggs chicken eggs too I think
I saw a few in there
are there any other products that aren't
veg that you carry beyond veg and fruits
we've carried we've carried dates I used
to call it fruit we carried a locally
made granola at one point we did bread
for a while but that got to be a hassle
too because we had to rebuy get such
that it didn't get wet and the Baker
wasn't really able to deliver to us when
we needed it so that too proved to be
too much of a hassle but I mean our
dream would be to offer any number of
value-added products that were locally
produced either on farm or by small
businesses how well do eggs work in this
model for you I mean between the mark-up
that you're able to get in terms of
margin and the demand for them um kind
of so-so
I mean right now we're buying you an
eggs at four dollars a dozen from a
producer and film or I'm selling them
for six and what about the duck eggs
what's your what are you selling duck
eggs for well this is our this is our
first week doing the duck eggs we're
buying them in four dollars a half-dozen
I'm selling them for 550 okay so in
margins not the biggest margin not the
biggest margin and not a huge demand
either at least not for duck eggs the
chicken eggs we could sell more of if we
had them regularly we only have that
wholesale price if the producer has
extra so on weeks that we have eggs we
put them in the store at least that we
don't our customers realize we just
don't have them with 104 orders this
week in this amount of product behind me
where is that in terms of capacity like
how much more could you scale this do
you think with the equipment and
infrastructure you have with the current
equipment and infrastructure I mean we
packed as many as I think 125 orders
that's been our maximum for a given week
it's usually highest in the spring into
the fall so what
we're getting into a business owned now
if we want to cram into the tent we
could probably go up to 140 or so orders
into this curtain tent here but the
beauty of the tent is that you know this
is two tents put together we could put a
third one on we could put a fourth one
on and basically you would need more
space to you need well don't I take you
back you know I take it back if we if we
kept offering the same number of items
that's what determines the tent space is
the items lined up here we can have more
of the same stacked under the table or
even waiting outside ready to come in
here and be put up on the table once
that box is empty
the real limiting factors delivery
drivers at the moment I would have to
get more delivery drivers because both
the drivers I have are pretty much maxed
out in terms of vehicle size but
honestly we can hire another crew member
if it takes too long to pack so you know
we can add more add more crew on the
packing we could hire another driver
just be a matter of finding the person
if we want to offer more items we could
extend the tent the software can handle
an unlimited number of orders at this
scale we are now with the money coming
in buying extra bins is no problem that
it's spread over all those orders and
even if we bought had 550 pins we can do
that in software is one of the things
that makes this model really working if
you were trying to do this all by hand
or in Excel it'd be a nightmare trying
to organize this so you use farm you go
to keep it all systematize for you and
that's what makes your life a lot easier
come packing day it makes it doable I
mean I literally don't think I could
keep my sanity and pack 104 custom
orders without without the software and
the reports I certainly couldn't be
farming the same time one thing I can
see a lot of farmers saying like I like
it but but the delivery I don't want to
do the delivery even if I'm charging for
it how do you handle delivery drivers
are they employees what's made that work
I've tried to avoid hiring them as
employees and I used to do all the
delivery myself and I actually I
actually appreciated keeping that
five-dollar delivery charge for myself
from the beginning it was like it was
like I built myself a delivery job
on top of the on top of the webstore and
I was getting paid for that and I
appreciated that okay came to a certain
scale I didn't want to be on the road
eight hours a day and there was one day
where I had to take over for both the
delivery drivers who were who were
missing that day and it was literally an
eight-hour day
delivering and I was probably 80 orders
you know it's 10 per hour not bad but
it's eight hours on the road what what
we do now is we find people who have a
vehicle large enough that they can use
their own vehicle so I don't have to buy
a delivery vehicle and they are treated
as independent contractors they show up
within certain time parameters but they
show up on their own time I have one
lady who comes literally before before
dawn she comes loads up in pitch dark
does a bunch of orders dropped her son
off at school and then finishes up the
orders afterwards and she's done in
about three hours
and she's paid per stop so they're not
paid by the hour as an employee would
their page simply per stop to pay for
their service they get paid depending on
which route they're doing about three
dollars a stop goes towards the driver
they have to pay their own vehicle
expenses you know they own the vehicle
they maintain it that's all on them and
they're paid for stop and basically it's
as fast or slow as they want to go they
can get paid according to how quickly
they deliver yeah it's brilliant it
takes that added burden of having an
employee off and it's kind of open
source business or freeform very much of
the over model like we talked about on
the podcast totally yeah yeah uber uber
was what inspired it alongside seeing
these professional companies like Golden
State overnight which is a you know
they're kind of I think a California
only shipping company and on track which
is in several different western states
we were getting things from Amazon they
were showing up in this guy's personal
vehicle with a little on track sticker
on it and yeah I asked him I said is
this your own vehicle and he said yeah
I'm a contract driver for on track and
that just that was the light bulb right
there
all right so Apple is one pound saw you
do it before so we're gonna go with
three and we're close so we're in yep
this is the range of the red cucumbers
one each beats punched one bunch carrots
one bunch
I am so that's done now it's in going
table your lid on it all right lid it up
I guess you pull once up we didn't cover
like what do you do with this now
support stays on this cycle back through
all right right on easy makes sense like
the alignment is total key and I love
the fact that there's a scale at each
station where you need to be weighed
like you've pulled a lot of the
confusion out of this and made it really
simple to do so not bad at all
originally we had everyone to finish
their order and then run it to the
proper pile for the route that it was
going in then actually the goal here
suggested why don't we stack up three on
the table or whatever you know maybe
four if they're small and the person to
stack that third or fourth picks them
all up runs them over at the same time
so you're doing 1/3 the running so
there's out the greens or all one route
exactly yes so and and they're they're
organized such that they're together in
the labels so it's going to be all
greens for a while than all pinks and
all yellows and so you just have to
check that they're the same color which
you can see at a glance because it's
color-coded and you run it to the
appropriate route it max how do you
think it's going so far going great here
we've got it
got a good crew four is a pretty good
number for the size of this tent we're
probably how do you say girls little one
halfway through right now the number
boxes it's been about an hour oh yeah
about that
and it takes a little longer to get
started so now they're on a roll it just
flows
you're all packed up how do you think it
went I'm great you know there's always a
few little glitches that you gotta
handle in the moment like we we left
some lettuce in the walk-in cooler
someone had to run home and get that but
other than that we packed over 100
orders in a little under than an hour
and a half now we're ready to load the
trucks now that Max is all finished
packing orders for the day the next step
is to just consolidate everything that's
leftover leftover produce that needs to
go back into the walk-in
it's reboxed up condensed down that'll
go back to Max's house into the walk-in
and stuff that can stay outside like
garlic at this temperature will get
consolidated and put in the pack shed
here then it comes time to take all the
piles which have been sorted per
delivery route they're color-coded so
that I think there's four different
piles there they get sorted out based
upon delivery order kind of in reverse
order so when they go into the vehicle
the first thing in is the last stop on
the route so when the drivers delivering
they're essentially just pulling from
the front all the time working their way
through the route working their way
through the pile there's also a pile
that goes back to Max's house which is
for a local pickup right here in Ojai
people come pick it up tomorrow if they
don't get the delivery so now we sort
all that out
it's just about 6 o'clock right now
everything has been packed the orders
are all set in the trucks and the
vehicles for delivery the orders that
stay here stay here we're done it took
about 2 hours to do the packing and
loading up the orders for delivery
probably took another hour of prep by
the time we unloaded the walk-in cooler
drove here and got the site prepped but
not a bad days work 3 hours plus all the
pickup time so I think Mexico spends
about a day and a half a week dedicated
to this business but now that this part
is done the best part about it is he
doesn't have to touch any of this again
the delivery drivers take it where they
need to go the home pickups come and
pick it up where he lives and that's it
but it's a unique way if you want to
sell more product locally if you want to
get involved in local food scene you
don't want to be a farmer here's one
model to do it if you want a way to
diversify your income stream on your
farm here's a way to do it check out the
podcast that I did with max talking more
in-depth about this episode link to
those below but that's all for this one
from Ojai thanks for listening more
tomorrow until next time be nice to be
thankful and do the work