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attyindaburgh said:
Coyote, I just realized that you were the one who mentioned in another post about Yakima doing group buys. Maybe you can talk to Pat about that. Hopefully I will need to do the group buy in March, if I have room, I would be happy to pick up yours and you can just meet me at my place, east of the burgh.
Click to expand...

Sure i can help with yakima valley. and thanks for the pick-up offer. will definitely have to hook up on that.:D
 
Rolling batch is a great idea. I like the idea of the yakima valley group buys too. I currently don't need hops for awhile between me personally buying some and since Christmas is coming up I have about 11 pounds coming my way.
 
I was thinking of a quarterly group buy. I will not have time to monitor all the time and do orders all the time. If this isn't acceptable then let me know and you guys can find someone else that has the time and the room.
 
I'm confused. Have we lost the storage unit? I thought it was payed up for the year.
 
A couple of problems I see with the rolling buy is: first, it sounds like it would be a big time suck which is alot to ask of a volunteer, second is that you never know when a pallet is going to fill. So if you need something and you place an order, is the pallet going to fill in a week? three weeks? two months? From what I saw in the most recent round, a quarterly buy might be the ticket. One would just have to do some planning ahead. As far as the distant location, I do wish it was closer for me, but who doesn't want it closer for them? Having the opportunity to pick up a group buy and pick up items at the lhbs at the same time is pretty cool! Now if we can also schedule a trash mtg at the same time, that would be incredible!!
 
I'm totally new to group buys and have only done it this last round. It's obviously whatever you guys want to do since you are organizing it all. I'm just stoked that I moved to a city that actually sets up group buys.
 
attyindaburgh said:
A couple of problems I see with the rolling buy is: first, it sounds like it would be a big time suck which is alot to ask of a volunteer, second is that you never know when a pallet is going to fill. So if you need something and you place an order, is the pallet going to fill in a week? three weeks? two months? From what I saw in the most recent round, a quarterly buy might be the ticket. One would just have to do some planning ahead. As far as the distant location, I do wish it was closer for me, but who doesn't want it closer for them? Having the opportunity to pick up a group buy and pick up items at the lhbs at the same time is pretty cool! Now if we can also schedule a trash mtg at the same time, that would be incredible!!
Click to expand...

agreed..quqrterly will be better and give you time to set up a brew schedule in advance. also be able to grab the extras from the lhbs that we forget about.
and it would make the distance more reasonable(at least for me) and yes it's a lot of work to set these up with the splits and stacking and stacking...:D
 
trimixdiver1 said:
I was thinking of a quarterly group buy. I will not have time to monitor all the time and do orders all the time. If this isn't acceptable then let me know and you guys can find someone else that has the time and the room.
Click to expand...

Since you already own the space, and it isn't 13x8, quarterly is probably the easiest :). Anything more frequent and the ordering can get a bit streaky. The rolling buy is a bit easier for me so I don't have to try and juggle pallets.

TheHunk said:
I'm confused. Have we lost the storage unit? I thought it was payed up for the year.
Click to expand...


We haven't lost the unit, and I'm still waiting on confirmation for the current pallet being closed. Pat (trimix) has been offering to pick up the buy now that he has a stable location. I'm looking at another 150+ days on the road this year, plus building a case for promotion, so my availability could get ugly. Handing off to him for a March start seems like a good hedge to make sure the buy doesn't disappear. I didn't get a chance to reach out to everyone so he's doing it proactively.

Hopefully this approach could cut some of the fees as well. That's especially true if everyone has their own containers and is up for bulk grain (true bin-o-two-row). You can get a tote of CM-2row, golden promise, and a few others for about $5 less per sack.

My one concern (that I voiced to Pat) is that people N/NE of the city have a long way to go. I'm happy to help folks pursue other options (e.g a "North" location) as well, or keep this rolling, but Pat's offer seems more consistent and could save folks some money as well.
 
Just to make this clear, I will be taking care of the group buy on my own. A&M is just letting me have some space for the pallets.

My hope is someone would step forward to bridge the distance for those that decide the drive is too much.
 
@ Kyle - Thanks for the clarity. Good luck with the promotion and thanks for all you have done for the group buys over the years.

@ Pat - Thanks for stepping up to save the group buys. I also like the idea of a quarterly buy. I am coming from the north as well as some others but if you make it "worth the drive" I'll be staying in. Thanks again for stepping up. I know it's a big commitment, one that I would not be willing to take on.
 
I *may* be able to help with northeast distribution. I have a truck and space at eastern end of Allegheny county. No promises.
 
In more immediate news, the current pallet should be picked and packed by Tuesday (fingers crossed) and available as of Friday. As soon as I have the shipping manifest I'll get the grain on the website (and get the new folks on as well).

I took advantage of this buy to get a bunch of stuff people had wanted in the past but we weren't able to close, like British dark and extra dark crystal.
 
I'm sure Kyle is going to need some help doing the splits. Whoever can, please help. Many hands will make short work of this. I know it being the Christmas season means family obligations, but Kyle has family too.
Let's tear through it and go home and have a great Christmas!

Thanks
Pat
 
Thank you for the offers to help!

Im planning on doing the first group buy, starting on Jan 12th 2015. I plan on submitting the order on March 4th. This buy will differ than when Kyle ran the buy. Due to it being the first buy, I was planning on just doing whole sack buys (55lb, 50lb and 10lb). I will revisit the idea of splitting on my end in the future. If you guys want to figure out on your end who will split with who, that’s fine. We will provide the room needed to do so at the store.
The chemicals will have to be split off site due to ORM-D packaging rules.
A 10% discount will be offered to all members of the group buy on in store items on the primary pick up day March 15th 2015.
The group buy will work like this:
Call A&M Wine and Beer Supply and place your order and pay via credit card or via cash at pickup, a receipt will be provided at the time of pickup as well. 724-222-9463

Thanks
Pat
:mug::mug:
 
How open are you guys to new buyers for the next round? We're pretty dry up here in Buffalo since the Syracuse grain buy has stopped. We could probably fill a half pallet at a minimum.

Cheers,
Marcus
 
The new location, unless someone does a north distribution, is in Washington, PA. Thats another 30-40 minute drive for Buffalonians.
 
mjap52 said:
How open are you guys to new buyers for the next round? We're pretty dry up here in Buffalo since the Syracuse grain buy has stopped. We could probably fill a half pallet at a minimum.

Cheers,
Marcus
Click to expand...

Happy to have you. Now if you were from Baltimore it might be a different story.
 
Yep - I'll email out pickup time and location in the next day or two. I also need to post the extra splits to the website and set up the new folks who were waiting. Right now I'm thinking Fri 1/2 or Saturday 1/3 for pickup.

Also, if anyone wants to help break down the pallet, argyle and I will be doing that around 2pm on Sunday 12/28.
 
trimixdiver1 said:
The group buy will work like this:
Call A&M Wine and Beer Supply and place your order and pay via credit card or via cash at pickup, a receipt will be provided at the time of pickup as well. 724-222-9463

Thanks
Pat
:mug::mug:
Click to expand...

Pat, just a couple questions. Will we have access to a price list before ordering?

I have concerns about giving credit card info over the phone, so would you be able to take a credit card at the time of pickup? How will you prevent people from placing COD orders and then never picking it up?

Will we need to register with you or will anyone be able to call you out of the blue and place an order? It seems that some sort of required registration could prevent orders from not being picked up.

Thanks,

Bob
 
bja said:
Pat, just a couple questions. Will we have access to a price list before ordering?



I have concerns about giving credit card info over the phone, so would you be able to take a credit card at the time of pickup? How will you prevent people from placing COD orders and then never picking it up?



Will we need to register with you or will anyone be able to call you out of the blue and place an order? It seems that some sort of required registration could prevent orders from not being picked up.



Thanks,



Bob
Click to expand...


Sorry for the delay, moving a store sucks.

I will require pre payment, if you can't or don't want to order over the phone, I can take payment on pickup.

For those that place an order and don't prepay and don't pickup the order, after 2 weeks I will assume you don't want the product and will be banned from future buys. Simple as that.

When you call in the order, we will get your info: Name, address, phone number, email address and if you want to prepay I will enter the info directly into the POS terminal, never written down and process it immediately.
 
All - here are the open items on hand that aren't claimed yet. You can grab them off the website by clicking on catalog -> Grain. As items get picked up, they should show as sold out.

1 55lb Sack TF&S Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
1 55lb Sack of CM-Superior Pils
1 55lb Sack of Bairds Pilsen Malt
1 10# bag of Franco Belge Coffee malt
1 10# bag of breiss C60
3 10# bag of BZ-Rauch Malt
4 10# bag of Breiss Goldpils Vienna
3 10# bags of Breiss Blackprinz debittered malt
4 10# bags of TF&S C45
4 10# bags of TF&S C25
4 10# bags of TF&S C120
4 10# bags of TF&S C85
2 6# bags of pre-geletanized flaked corn
10 5# splits of PBW
2 1/4 splits of Breiss Victory
2 1/4 splits of Breiss Chocolate Malt
2 1/4 splits of Bairds munich malt
1 1/4 split of bairds brown malt
2 1/4 splits of Breiss C10
2 1/4 splits of flaked oats
3 1/4 splits of Franco Belge Carmel Munich 80
2 1/4 splits of GW-C60
1 1/4 split of GW-Vienna
2 1/4 splits of flaked rye
3 1/4 splits of BZ-Dark Munich
1 1/4 split of carapils
 
I'm not going to take over the group buys, there is WAY too much of my time and effort to invest to allow you guys to buy at my cost. If Kyle wants to use the store to deliver to and for pickups then great.

I really wanted to help, but I am violating group buy rules by using the store.

Someone needs to come forward and take over for Kyle if you want to continue.

I can do a pseudo group buy at the store, quarterly. But I will have to mark up the items by 20%, which is way under the industry standard mark up.

Let me know
Thanks
 
I certainly don't begrudge a business making money, and if its still lower cost than retail, that's potentially a win for everyone.
Would you be willing to give an example of what the price would be on a full sack of one or two commonly purchased grains, for comparison to the recent group buy prices?
 
bnmir said:
I certainly don't begrudge a business making money, and if its still lower cost than retail, that's potentially a win for everyone.

Would you be willing to give an example of what the price would be on a full sack of one or two commonly purchased grains, for comparison to the recent group buy prices?
Click to expand...


It's going to be close to what Kyle charged.
 

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