Some thoughts on the "Art of Pricing" for our particular situation.

One of the hardest aspects of becoming a merchant can be devising and then maintaining a "profitable" pricing strategy. It's an art, long studied and difficult to master. With the QH Co-op the intention is to profit in a number of ways including having fun & interacting. Slaying the "competition" and/or hoarding Coins will definitely be detrimental to this goal. We want to keep the economy growing and the money circulating.

I have a few thoughts on how to accomplish this and we'll just have to see how they pan out.

RETAIL PRICING

In most cases, the Estate Manager will be setting the retail price of Co-op items fairly high. I've been scoping out the current pricing from one of the largest G&S markets and intend to use those as a base.

The intention here is to allow regular merchants some breathing room where they can set their prices lower (how low is another discussion & ultimately up to the merchant) and therefore attract interested buyers first.

Co-op items sold by the Estate Manager may also be made available for L$. This would benefit someone new coming into the community who has no intention of farming. A chef, for example, could still buy all the ingredients needed to prepare a meal.

Some exceptions to "higher pricing" are necessary at this stage of the game the best example being the sale of Fish. Their price is currently rock bottom compared to the world at large but it does help our poor pioneers gain energy as they wait for their first harvest. It will be interesting to see if fish prices should eventually be raised as the community matures.

Another exception will probably be the sale of grain. Right now farmers can sell grain to the Grain Merchant for around 30c and buy grain for around 40c. It may be more strategic for the Co-op to sell at least some of our own grain back to the community for 30c. This will allow us to keep our hard earned harvests in circulation but requires a Wholesale Pricing strategy.

WHOLESALE PRICING

Once the Co-op has accumulated enough coins (we're not there quite yet), the Estate Manager may offer to buy items at wholesale prices directly from the producer (farmer, artisan, etc.). This will allow producers who are not interested in selling to the public an income. It should also keep the economy moving. It's a theory ... let's see how it eventually flies

Questions? Comments? I really should have paid more attention in that one Economics course. It would have come in really handy now!

--
Proprietress of Tatiana's Tea Room ~ Owner of the Provence Coeur Estate ~ Webmistress of this site

updated by @tatiana-dokuchic: 20 Oct 2016 10:00:51AM

If you don't want to be bothered selling it yourself, the Co-op may buy it from you at wholesale prices. We're trying to fill up the boxes already out so if you see some that are empty there's a good chance the Co-op will purchase it. Check with Tatiana before just to make sure there's enough funds for the sale.

If you want to sell meals yourself, yes you put it in the appropriatevendor (see Becoming a Merchant: Setting up Vendors ). The vendor scripts send you a message when something has been purchased. You can also look at the "Units Available" to see how many remain in the vendor.

I hope this helps to answer your question. What else are you trying to keep track of?

--
Proprietress of Tatiana's Tea Room ~ Owner of the Provence Coeur Estate ~ Webmistress of this site

How do we sell gourmet meals at the market? Just put your cooked food in the box and wait for someone to buy it? I don't think that would be very easy to keep track of.

It really is fascinating to study. One bonus of using G&S is that the larger community is very mature, i.e. they've been around for 8? years now, so it gives us an idea of where we're heading if we're successful.

I wanted people to understand the thinking behind the Manger setting some prices which seemso out of range right now while others are more reasonable.

And yes, the bait is insanely low in price. I'll have to pick some up for myself.

--
Proprietress of Tatiana's Tea Room ~ Owner of the Provence Coeur Estate ~ Webmistress of this site

It's a market ... I've been looking at some of the G&S markets as well, some prices vary and others seem to be pretty solid, to have an agreed value. While our market is new and "unknown" and we all have little coin, we can play with prices, noting what the Manager sets and working from there. Eventually we'll start learning the value of different things - the people at the big markets have all been doing this a while, but we're just starting so this is one of the things we have to learn by experience. For example, I am selling my bait creels at an INSANELY low price compared to the big markets, but 1) it is the price I feelour market can support and 2) it's kind of a service to my fellow co-op members. Hint: That price will go up as we all improve - but not for a couple of weeks or so.