Nikad, I know about taxes in Argentina however I doubt that Sugar and Spice are paying American salaries, even adding on the high taxes that must be paid here on salaries. Let us imagine, for example, that the owner of Sugar and Spice pays his workers $2,000 pesos a month. In dollars that would be $526. He might have to pay tax which could bring the monthly employer cost to around $790 (almost 50% over the employee's salary). Add one month agunaldo (not sure about taxes on this - let's assume it is taxed equally). $790 x 13 = $10,270 per year employer cost. Employee salary: less than $7,000. DOES ANYONE IN THE US make as little as $7,000 a year? or even $10,270. Seems to me that despite high taxes on salaries it is considerably cheaper to employ people here. So WHY is Pepperidge Farm just 1-2 pesos more as Grazie says, when it is subject to HIGH import tax and transportation costs? I am confused.
Food Review of Sugar and Spice cookie and brownie
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nikad
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Sergio, I have no idea on how expensive it could be to run a business either here or in the US, I had always heard from business owners, that the most expensive thing here were employees, that is why I mentioned it. I have tried Sugar and Spice products several years ago when they had just started, but I never tried Pepperidge Farm products, I honestly do not have a clue about their prices 
It's not really fair or necessary to ask S&S to justify their prices. Like I said above, I have no problem with high price product or services. They have a place. But since I can't afford to buy expensive stuff every day, thus I expect more from them.
Having said that PF is an industrial product not an artisan product as are S&S products. PF churns them out in massive quantities. But they are marketed to people as a high end "import product" doesn't mean it's a gourmet product. Same things happens where ever your home country is.
The other day I bought some VERY expensive cheese. They told me that it was just like the Italian parmigiano/grana. I paid almost 50 pesos for it & I can tell you it was terrible. Most of it went in the trash. I was not happy.
So, I've quite weary of products touted as gourmet. But, it's not at all appropriate to ask for price justifications!
Grazie, thanks for the review. I think I might actually give them a second chance. But I think only if I buy from their own store &/or make sure I check the date.
Having said that PF is an industrial product not an artisan product as are S&S products. PF churns them out in massive quantities. But they are marketed to people as a high end "import product" doesn't mean it's a gourmet product. Same things happens where ever your home country is.
The other day I bought some VERY expensive cheese. They told me that it was just like the Italian parmigiano/grana. I paid almost 50 pesos for it & I can tell you it was terrible. Most of it went in the trash. I was not happy.
So, I've quite weary of products touted as gourmet. But, it's not at all appropriate to ask for price justifications!
Grazie, thanks for the review. I think I might actually give them a second chance. But I think only if I buy from their own store &/or make sure I check the date.
I'm not sure why it's not appropriate. This is business, not a course on etiquette. People are free to ask any question they like before parting with their hard-earned cash; businesses are equally free to answer or not, as they feel fit. If a product is overpriced, the market will be more brutal than any rude comment could be.mini said:
Mini, Just for the record: Pepperidge Farm produces high quality products. They may "churn" them out but they are churning out quality products. High volume and quality are not necessarily contradictory.
Nikad: Labor is probably the biggest expense here, especially when you have to fire people and pay indemnizations. Still foreign companies have opened call centers here so labor must be cheaper.
Nikad: Labor is probably the biggest expense here, especially when you have to fire people and pay indemnizations. Still foreign companies have opened call centers here so labor must be cheaper.
SugarandSpice
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To Grazie and everyone else reading this thread I would like to clarify some things.
First of all, Grazie had a review which she was in all her right to post. I was just saying that I have no way of being able to remedy her situation or experience through this site. I do get feedback from various chains that carry our product and I have not seen anything remotely close to the negative comments I have seen on this forum. I don´t consider Grazie´s comments as negative. I am talking about the judgmental ones that write us off. Those in particular do not make sense to me. They do not paint a picture of reality as I have seen it, or heard it. The products, in general, turn very well in the Jumbo supermarkets. I believe we are their second best brand in gourmet cookies behind their own brand name cookies which we ourselves make for them. To Grazie I once again offer to exchange those products that she had a bad experience with (even in the absence of her bad products she can still get some replacement ones from my store). Even bad news like this is valuable information for me.
When I mentioned Pepperidge Farm I meant it as a show of just how there is a lack of gourmet cookie products. I do not consider them to be a benchmark for a gourmet cookie. They do have a consistent quality that is a product of many years of making those cookies in an industrial plant that churns out very high volume. It is a completely different business from what I am in. Artesanal made products do vary from batch to batch, but that is something that is a positive not necessarily a negative.
There are many factors that go into a pricing of a product. One does not just get to a price just by guessing. Besides being able to cover all the costs related to the plant and the making of those cookies there are the external costs as well which are related to logistics, costs of sales, marketing costs, etc. In this case, the ones that have given us the most headaches are related to logistics. Also, there is the cost of hiring a company to actually take the products from the store´s warehouse area and put them on the shelves as well as do samplings. However, mentioning all of that I am not going to go into a detailed discussion of our pricing. I know that we are competitively priced and competitors are looking very closely at what we do and how we do it. If our prices were out of the ordinary believe me that I would have heard that from the buyers themselves who are professionals in this case. Their job is to know the prices of everything in their stores and in their competitor´s stores. I also would have gotten the feedback from the market itself with few people buying them (which is not the case).
When Jumbo tapped us to make their cookies for them, they didn´t just talk to us, they shopped around. I could also mention quite a few more large multinational companies that have talked to me, and are talking to me regarding our plant, our products and our prices. It would look like name dropping so I would rather not. Let´s just say that I talk to professionals every day and have not heard anything remotely close to what Sergio, and HarryP have mentioned.
Just to make something clear. I do know that our products are in the higher scale as to pricing. It makes sense. We are a small producer of baked goods. I do not have the scale of a Pepperidge Farm that is mostly automated for example. Less volume means that there is a higher cost burden on each cookie.
In this market, we are a benchmark. We do guarantee our products. If you happen to purchase our products and you are not happy in any way then let us know about it. If you just want to whine and cry about it in a public forum thinking the world owes you something, then I can´t help you. (just to make sure this is not directed to Grazie or Mini)
Oh, and one more thing. Our products are not sold in Coto. That chain does tend to have things considerably cheaper than others Grazie. ;-) Also, timing is an issue. If Pepperidge Farm is cheaper now it is a sign that the store is not selling them as well and wants to tweak the pricing. We have not changed our pricing since June of last year for example. That is actually a price decrease that we were able to push through increased volume and better scale. In Jumbo, the price difference has been actually around $4 to $5 pesos when they first came on the market.
Celia, we always have products available to try at our stores. We always do samplings and we even had coffee at one point, but the machine broke so the most we can offer right now is water. Thanks for your suggestions. The bags we use are adequate for baked goods. Again, we have had very few comments regarding product failure. In some cases the bags did fail and so the products were not adequately protected. In general we do not have these problems. If we did, the word would be out and believe me, the people in this industry know what is going on. I run into people who have been studying up on us for years.
First of all, Grazie had a review which she was in all her right to post. I was just saying that I have no way of being able to remedy her situation or experience through this site. I do get feedback from various chains that carry our product and I have not seen anything remotely close to the negative comments I have seen on this forum. I don´t consider Grazie´s comments as negative. I am talking about the judgmental ones that write us off. Those in particular do not make sense to me. They do not paint a picture of reality as I have seen it, or heard it. The products, in general, turn very well in the Jumbo supermarkets. I believe we are their second best brand in gourmet cookies behind their own brand name cookies which we ourselves make for them. To Grazie I once again offer to exchange those products that she had a bad experience with (even in the absence of her bad products she can still get some replacement ones from my store). Even bad news like this is valuable information for me.
When I mentioned Pepperidge Farm I meant it as a show of just how there is a lack of gourmet cookie products. I do not consider them to be a benchmark for a gourmet cookie. They do have a consistent quality that is a product of many years of making those cookies in an industrial plant that churns out very high volume. It is a completely different business from what I am in. Artesanal made products do vary from batch to batch, but that is something that is a positive not necessarily a negative.
There are many factors that go into a pricing of a product. One does not just get to a price just by guessing. Besides being able to cover all the costs related to the plant and the making of those cookies there are the external costs as well which are related to logistics, costs of sales, marketing costs, etc. In this case, the ones that have given us the most headaches are related to logistics. Also, there is the cost of hiring a company to actually take the products from the store´s warehouse area and put them on the shelves as well as do samplings. However, mentioning all of that I am not going to go into a detailed discussion of our pricing. I know that we are competitively priced and competitors are looking very closely at what we do and how we do it. If our prices were out of the ordinary believe me that I would have heard that from the buyers themselves who are professionals in this case. Their job is to know the prices of everything in their stores and in their competitor´s stores. I also would have gotten the feedback from the market itself with few people buying them (which is not the case).
When Jumbo tapped us to make their cookies for them, they didn´t just talk to us, they shopped around. I could also mention quite a few more large multinational companies that have talked to me, and are talking to me regarding our plant, our products and our prices. It would look like name dropping so I would rather not. Let´s just say that I talk to professionals every day and have not heard anything remotely close to what Sergio, and HarryP have mentioned.
Just to make something clear. I do know that our products are in the higher scale as to pricing. It makes sense. We are a small producer of baked goods. I do not have the scale of a Pepperidge Farm that is mostly automated for example. Less volume means that there is a higher cost burden on each cookie.
In this market, we are a benchmark. We do guarantee our products. If you happen to purchase our products and you are not happy in any way then let us know about it. If you just want to whine and cry about it in a public forum thinking the world owes you something, then I can´t help you. (just to make sure this is not directed to Grazie or Mini)
Oh, and one more thing. Our products are not sold in Coto. That chain does tend to have things considerably cheaper than others Grazie. ;-) Also, timing is an issue. If Pepperidge Farm is cheaper now it is a sign that the store is not selling them as well and wants to tweak the pricing. We have not changed our pricing since June of last year for example. That is actually a price decrease that we were able to push through increased volume and better scale. In Jumbo, the price difference has been actually around $4 to $5 pesos when they first came on the market.
Celia, we always have products available to try at our stores. We always do samplings and we even had coffee at one point, but the machine broke so the most we can offer right now is water. Thanks for your suggestions. The bags we use are adequate for baked goods. Again, we have had very few comments regarding product failure. In some cases the bags did fail and so the products were not adequately protected. In general we do not have these problems. If we did, the word would be out and believe me, the people in this industry know what is going on. I run into people who have been studying up on us for years.
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