Ive had MUCH better luck with Fire Mountai n Gems than Rio Grande.
Ahhh… Fire Mountain Gems. Does anyone remember the “good ol’ days”
when FMG was in southern California? They were my favorite vendor
then… great turquoise and coral, silversmithing supplies, and
such. I would practically salivate over their catalog. Now they’ve
moved to Oregon and morphed into primarily a beading supply house.
That may be great if that’s all you need, but it’s a far short of the
broad spectrum of products and services offered by Rio, and other
vendors. I now get that Pavlovian salivation reaction from the Rio
catalogs.
Not to downplay your praise for FMG, or slight beaders in any way.
They’re just not comprehensive enough to be a main vendor for me, as
they once were.
Waxing nostalgic in NC,
Dave
Dave Sebaste
Sebaste Studio and
Carolina Artisans’ Gallery
Charlotte, NC (USA)
dave@sebaste.com
http://www.CarolinaArtisans.com
Hi Judy,
We want to figure out how to sample things like wire, but we haven’t
come across a great solution yet. It seems like a minor thing, but
when you start talking about many thousands of orders each day flying
through the warehouse, it’s just the kind of thing that can get
messed up (inventory, inventory value, or customer expectations) if
you’re not careful.
Strangely enough, everyone seems to be thinking about the same thing
right now. Our customer representatives just this week suggested a
few ideas for sampling some of the products that we currently don’t
sample, and we are all getting together to discuss it in greater
detail next week and see if we can make their idea work. I’ll bring
your suggestion to the meeting so you can “participate” in the
discussion :-).
Andrea Hill
Director
The Bell Group
PS – Judy, how are your tomatoes doing? I’ve finally figured out
how to grow them in the clay of New Mexico, but I sure do miss that
good black dirt back in Kansas & Iowa!
Hi Jim,
Just like the sample option, there are many cases where only one of
an item can be purchased, but the “single” price of the item will
seem high. You can ask your representative about particular items
and whether or not that option is available. This was not possible
in our old systems, but is something we are able to accommodate on
the new. The discussion about whether to have an overall minimum
order or minimums per item is something we have every few years.
It’s hard to say which approach would create the greatest benefit to
the greatest number of customers – to this point, we have been
loathe to implement a “minimum order” requirement. We continue to
try to balance our need to keep costs in line with your need to buy
in appropriate quantities, and I imagine that challenge will always
be with us.
Look for our full catalog offering to be on-line before the end of
the year, as well as a number of enhanced internet features. A
number of you have already made suggestions of what services you
would like on-line, and offered to test the functionality as we
develop it, and I’ve kept a list of folks who want to participate.
We will be doing full beta testing by August, prior to the release of
the live site, and if you want to have an active voice in the
development of features and functionality, I’d be glad to put your
name on the list. Just e-mail me directly so we don’t junk up the
forum. Thanks again!
Andrea Hill
Director
The Bell Group
My last few calls to Rio were answered so promptly that it was
really a pleasure. So was their response to being able to order
small amounts or get samples of items. However, I for one would be
very unhappy with the minimum order idea. There are too many times
when I needed one or two small things, and was happy to be able to
call and get them promptly. I dislike having to pore through a
catalogue to find something I don’t need at the moment in order to
get something I do need.
By the way, with the prompt telephone response now, it is easy to
check on whether an item is in stock or has to be back ordered
before placing the order. Sandra
Just to clarify a point on the minimum order question - I’d rather
not have a minimum order requirement, BUT, for my own needs, and the
broad spectrum of materials, packaging and tools available from Rio,
it is often easier for me to justify an overall minimum order than to
justify purchasing larger minimum numbers of an item. If I need one
sterling basket setting for a job, that is all I need, not 3. If I
need one base metal finding, I need 1, not 12 or 20. Many companies
find a minimum order of some sort (either per item or overall) to
make it worth the effort (financially speaking) of packing and
shipping that order. For us, it is also a matter of shipping costs.
I would far rather spread the shipping cost over several jobs, or
pick up a few items from the tool catalog. I really hate spending $5 or
more to ship a $2 item. Kills profit fast!
Again, thanks for the response to the sampling question, Andrea. I
appreciate your including my interest in the sampling discussion…
and I AM excited to know that the fine silver bezel cups are in
process!!! My tomatoes are numerous, but still green. It seems
that July 4 is sort of target date in our area for tomato ripening.
I was hoping to beat that since I got the plants in the ground around
the first of May and was lucky enough to be frost-free since. The
turtles are keeping an eye on the ripening process, and they usually
get the first few. We are really looking forward to honest-to-God
vine-ripened tomatoes as last year’s crop was minimal to nothing. I
didn’t even get any canned! Best of luck on your tomato crop,
Judy