I was asked about our stock levels elsewhere, and this was my reply:
No further news on the Bernard’s, I’m afraid. It’s been “any week now” since the start of the year. So, any week now!
Last week we booked in Sir Walter Scott. Also Gawith Hoggarth, so lots of Pöschl apart from Red Bull. Mullins and Westley arrived, and we have restocked all our GN products, and increased the reserves there to cater for the growing demand.
We have a big 6 Photo order that is a few days away (it’s arrived in the UK), including Snubie’s new World Tour range. Also, a large German Pöschl order waiting to be picked up. So, they should all be booked in over the next few weeks.
We also heard from Gawith that they finally have some Red Bull back in stock, so we will be laying in a strategic reserve of that as soon as possible.
In short, nothing to worry about. We ran the warehouse a bit too lean and got caught out by a series of coincidences that caused us to run low or out. We have fixed that now and will be fully restocked over the next few weeks.
One good thing that came out of this is the new “notify me when back in stock” feature. I hope it never needs to get used, but running an efficient warehouse does come with risks that chaotic events catch you out. It’s a fine balance, one we have nudged back towards holding more stock to cater for unexpected events.
To quote myself when I was feeling frustrated: “I thought black swans were supposed to come individually, not in bloody flocks.”
Buying is an art in itself and an enjoyable one when all goes well. The level of detail posted here about the day to day running of Mr Snuff is unusual, but also engrossing - for the most part I think it’s a great strategy!
It never ceases to amaze me how many people on facebook go into a flat spin when Red Bull or Gletcherprise is unavailable - especially when in parts of Europe they’re available in every village and not the sort of snuff one expects people to get excited about, but I guess they’re the Rich Tea and Digestive biscuits of the snuff world. The odd shortage probably does no harm and reminds customers who buy small quantities of 7g or 10g tap boxes not to be complacent.
On the McChrystal’s front I just happened to notice this posted on Twitter 5 days ago, so it does appear as though things are moving along, although that might not mean they’ll be ready for your order just yet. I imagine there’s going to be some serious quantities moving across Europe, if your recent post about their own range is anything to go by.
“The alchemist is in the blending room. All doors are shut, nobody is allowed in! He has started to blend the Bernard Schnupftabak at last.”
Good to know. Our initial order is in, has been for a good while. We are second in line, sandwiched between monster orders destined for the continent and the colonies I imagine. We will be the first online with it when it does come on, so that should be fun.
I’d be surprised if there isn’t a serious dent put in that order within a day or two, followed by years of debate about differences between original and McChrystal’s versions of each snuff.
Took a look at stock levels of random products across the site and it never ceases to amaze me the quantities that some snuff must sell in. Thousands of many Gawith/Poschl tappers - almost 4000 Gawith Original alone! Then I look at snuff I reckon no one should leave the house without and it’s low to mid double digits. Clearly there are a lot of deviants out there
That’s an insane amount of Red Bull and I’d wager a good few of them go to people who post questions about snuff with high nicotine content. I guess it’s all good if that’s what makes them happy, but can’t help feeling many of them might find the world of available snuff revelatory.
Edit: I can’t help wondering how revised pricing might help continued sales of SWS. I’d guess they’ve provided a boost, alongside recent reviews and internet chatter, but it would be good to see a continued lift for the range.
I don’t have any thoughts on price as the production is clearly labour intensive, but feel that recent reductions would most likely have provided a boost to sales.
Too low a price might negatively impact a niche product, but also too high a price places it out of reach for many. Whether or not the current pricing is just right I could not say, but it seems considerably more reasonable than before.
Thanks for the input. I agree completely on striking the right balance. The price reduction did lead to a significant and sustained boost to Sir Johnny’s sales, which not only helps him, but also solved our issues with product freshness.
That hand crafted snuff is distinctly more opinionated about its storage requirements. Having a higher throughput goes a long way to fixing that.
Getting into more hands might lead to future chatter from folks who don’t store it appropriately. I don’t think you can win The old adage about pleasing some of the people some of the time generally rings true, no matter what efforts you make.
He has started to blend the Bernard Schnupftabak at last.”