Supermarkets and Christmas

Supermarkets sure do have to prepare a lot for Christmas.. That sure is a lot of food, booze, and turkeys they have to deliver..

It’s a good thing that I’m not in the supermarket business, see the mass amount of planning and shipping that’s involved.    Though if I was supplying the supermarkets I’m sure I would be able to sell things cheaper due to the old economies of scale..  but of course the ingredients probably wouldn’t be as good as the supermarkets wouldn’t care as they just want to hit the right price point..

Sales.. hmm..

Well I’ve emailed quite a few people that I know regarding my Christmas Cookies.. and had a few orders, but no way near as many as I was hoping for, and none from any workmates of friends..

A lot of people have been surprising quiet about things as well.. Does this mean people didn’t get my emails.. or all these people that wanted to be “tasters” of the cookies don”t want to be “buyers”..

Hmm..

I probably will have to go back to IT work in 2009 at this rate.. 🙁

The websites lives!

After a bit more tweaking, fixing, and overview from friends (that spotted some areas that could be made a bit clearer).. the website is finally officially live!

I feel like I should be having a party, but not quite yet.

Have to see how many orders I have to fulfil first, but go on check out the homepage and order some yummy handmade cookies.

They smell and taste great!

Website ordering configuration fun

Well Dan helped sorted out a few problems I was having with the template over the weekend, and I’ve spend the last couple of days battling with a number of different eCommerce applications.  Trying to work out which one would be the simplest and easiest to implement.  After a bit of looking around I’ve gone with Google Checkout.

Still even with Google Checkout while they do make it quite simple for you they almost have two different options, one for the simple stuff you want to do and one for the more complicated integration into eCommerce applications.

Of course the problem is that when your looking through the documentation, sometimes its not all there, or it refers to the more complicated solution when your using the easier one.   Even more fun is when you want to try and use both bits!

Took a while to read through and try a number of the different options that can and can”t be applied.  Had to hunt around the documentation as well to find what code I needed to add in so that I could use the Google test system to go through and check out the complete process without charging something to myself!

For that system you have to register separately, and with a credit card number as well.  After hunting around on the Google documentation site again I found that they have three different test credit card numbers that you can enter, which was good, didn’t want to give my normal credit card details on a test site.  You never know it might accidentally process it!

Shipping

I wanted to setup the shipping so that if you order one tin there is a basic charge, and each tin after that is a cheaper price (postage is high to begin with but then a fixed rate after).   However I also wanted to have an option so that if people are ordering five or more tins and they live or work within Zone 1 or 2 in Central London then we would deliver to them.   The first part of this shipping Google calls .  This is easily available in the simple Buy Now type option they give you.

The second part however would be similar to offering an “Instore pickup” (Google do allow you to automatically specify the region in which your free delivery might occur, however this nice bit of code is only available to US customers.. Grr…)  But of course this option means that you use slightly more complicated (HTML API functionality) code.   However after playing around for this for a while I eventually worked out that I could combine both and it actually seems to work ok.  Great!

Just have to hope that all the shipping information is correct now when it comes through…

The tins arrive..

After a bit of thought, calculations, and numerous visits to lots of different shops, and websites, I decided to go with some nice round metal tins from The Box b.v.

I had to order a minimum $ quantity, and they only come in boxes of 6..  so had to work out how many I should go for that would take me over the right amount required.

Ordered them on Friday and thankfully the couriers they use actually provide a proper service (See Royal Mail are Merde), so they turned up today in all their glory!

So next step is to finalize the labelling for them and what kind of painting I’ll be able to achieve with them…

Also have to find some place to put them in the meantime!

(and yes I know the wallpaper is pretty shocking)

White Chocolate and Cranberry cookies

Decided to try making another variety today, previously had some details on a white chocolate and cranberry cookie.  So went off to the supermarket and brought all the required ingredients to give it a go with.

Different type of sugar in this batch, and the cranberries that I ended up finding (and buying) come coated with a sprinkling of cinnamon.

After the usual cooking and then a wait for the cool down, I munched in…  Boy they are really yummy!  That cinnamon add”s a nice touch of spice to the whole cookie.

You can look, but you can”t yet eat..

Royal Mail are merde

Yes you read that right.  Royal Mail couldn’t deliver their own paychecks. (Well actually they might be able to do that, but they probably would keep your paycheck as well)

When looking into what to package the Christmas Cookies in I came across a company called Boxmart.  They look like they do lots of cool different boxes, some that could be the right size for putting cookies into.  So rang up and got them to send me out a sample.

That was Wednesday.  Nothing had arrived by Friday, or Saturday.  So rang up and got them to post me out a sample again on the Monday.

Also on Monday I found a good tin supplier that was going to be able to send me out some sample products so I could see what they were like.

Nothing Tuesday, Nothing Wednesday.  I phone up the Tin Supplier and find out that the package was posted on Monday night (initially I thought maybe it was posted on Tuesday)

Thursday, nothing in the morning mail drop.  So I phone the Tin guy again to confirm that it was send just via normal Royal Mail.  Yes it was.  So I phone the local Post Office depot.  They “check” and there’s nothing there, told to try phoning ParcelForce (though I’m sure they won’t have it as it wasn’t sent via them).  Phone them (on an 0870 number!), nope nothing there.

Hmm..  I’m starting to wonder who’s stealing all my mail.  When suddenly there’s a buzz.. Royal Mail with a delivery.

I then have three packages – the first one from Boxmart that was send over a week ago, then 2nd one from Boxmart, and the third one from the Tin supplier.   So much for “First class/Next day” mail…
Of course I’m sure my phone call had nothing to do with my mail turning up..  yeah, right.
Well at least now I’ve got a few samples to choose from.

Website changes

An old workmate of mine, Dan, kindly offered to help me with the website setup for the Mighty Moa Cookies.  So I sent him over some of the designs and colour schemes that I’ve been working with already and he’s been able to implement it into WordPress really nicely.

So what you are seeing at the moment is the new design!

If you’ve got any work that require’s some clever coders then check out Jeff and Dan at Coedit!

Hopefully shortly we’ll be able to integrate some eCommerce into the system as well so that you can purchase the cookies online.

Business Cards!

I’ve been working with help from my designer Alison on doing some business card”s over the last few weeks.  Should really have had these done age”s ago, but it takes a while to sort thing”s out.

Finally got the design”s all sorted out the way I wanted them and sent them off to get printed at a place that I used once before – everydayprint.co.uk They print Business card”s (and lots of other stationary) for quite a reasonable price.

However over the next few days I ran into a few problems with the actual delivery.  Courier companies fault, apparently they are so bad that everydayprint are changing companies, this week.  But I just missed getting my order delivered by the new couriers, and get the the idiots.

My initial delivery they mistyped my address (for one that didn’t exist) so they weren’t delivered.  The next attempted delivery the next day, apparently someone had tried to deliver yet they weren’t even able to leave a card (and even though I was at the address the whole day! – Hmm..)

While finally the day after that they turned up, at about 4pm…  So many day”s sitting waiting for the damn deliveries.

See the design”s yourself, and let me know what you think.