Hmm, just thinking about the issues involved with a distribution center… even though we all like it:
o Inventory would have to be shipped in bulk to this location.
o Inventory would have to be stored in this location to be sent as orders arrived.
o One or more employees would have to receive inventory and ship orders for shipping from the distribution center.
o Inventory returns due to various causes have to be costed back to the appropriate locations (measurement and controls).
o Picking and packing costs at the current site would probably transfer pretty smoothly though.
o Products now unable to be delivered to various provinces could indeed be shipped there, resulting in additional sales.
o Shipping costs on individual orders may be reduced, resulting in the potential for additional sales.
So, in reality, I don’t have my hopes up, but it is nice to dream. Unless Canada would be able to support some serious volumes to cover added costs and complexity it wouldn’t pay to hold our breath on this one.
But hey, if and when we do have the volume, consider me an applicant for the job!
To Vroom and everyone else thinking about the dist. centre:
I actually took this idea to the guys here many months ago. It was just about the time of the website redesign. They basically told me that Canadadian orders represent less than 1% of their total sales, so a distribution centre here would be an economic disaster.
While I’m shocked us Canadians make up such a small number, I cant help but agree with them that the distribution centre is a bad idea. I dont believe that once shipping, packaging, shippers/receivers and warehouse space are taken into consideration, the supplements would be any cheaper than what were paying now.
I still say that getting Biotest to somehow subsidize shipping to us Canadians would be the best bet. I understand that shipping to Canada does indeed cost more than in the US, however know for certain all couriers will give greatly reduced rates to customers if they ask and give them enough business.
The only way I see Biotest even consider giving us some better rate on shipping would be for us to simply ORDER, and order some more.
It would be cool to see TC, Tim, Shugs or anyone else on that side of the fence chime in to the logistics of shipping to Canada because that would most definitely allow us to better understand and at the same time work out some kind of arrangement.
I personally would love to buy more Biotest supplements, but I live in Canada and shipping is alone kills me $25 dollars US just to get the stuff here. Also you have to deal a lot of the time with customs which is not fun.
The only time I have ordered directly from Biotest was when I ordered some MAG-10 but I had it shipped to another US destination and my grandparents brought across for me.
TC do you think that it would be possible to work out a better shipping agreement to Canada, I think that you might be surprised at the response. Also directly off of the T-Nation site there is no where that it states the shipping costs to Canada you have to call Biotest to find out that it is $25 US.
Saying (Shipping)costs are the number one reason i cant afford to buy the most cost effective mrp out there, might sound funny but its true. Shipping costs end up making the Biotest products expensive and our customs make the procedure plain ugly.
Ok so I am interested in all the “Canada Biotest Shop” talk, and I think it was VROOM who posted a nice list of considerations to be made about the idea. But it seems to me that SND CANADA as already done this (more or less). You can order Grow!, Surge, Tribex, M, Moystat, HOT-ROX, etc. from them on-line an its free shipping for orders over $100 across Canada. Granted we cannot order MAG-10, the new Maximum Strength HOT-ROX or Alpha Male but I think that is due to legallity issuses only. Now at 49$ & 44$ for Grow! & Surge you can see ordering from the USA + 25$ shipping or ordering from SND with free shipping is only a difference if 5$ or so. So whats my point, well SND is a local place to get Biotest products and they order a greater amount of products than we would because they have outlet stores to move product in as well so would it really get any cheaper for us?? I am not sure. I am going to contact a good friend of mine who works for customs, and a few of the major shipping companies to inquire about cost of shipping from Biotest to Canada (in the hope that if we book the shipping oursleves it might be cheaper) but beyond that I am not to sure what to do. Now I know SND are in it for a profit so that might add to the cost, but I would be more than willing to act as the local point, and I have exsiting employees who can sort the orders and stuff that will not cost me anything addtional and I have the room to store some stock again at no real addtional exp. But as far as returns, etc I would not be making money off the job so I would not beable to handle any losses either. Bottom line, I am will to help out if I can, but I don’t know all the custom laws at this point, I don’t know if it will save us money, i don’t really know if Biotest cares, and I am pretty sure we will still not beable to get MAG-10 and the other products banned here.
So after that long long post, you guys tell me whats next.
PS. excuse mis-types it too long to read over right now, it’s time to head to the gym
I am in for some way of getting bulk to Canada as well.
I mean you say that the Canadian market represents 1% of the current sales, well this is partially due to the fact that we are unwillin to pay the prices for shipping… I wouldnt be buying 10lb pails of “the other stuff” for weight gain if I could get some Biotest at a more reasonable price. I bought some Surge to try it out from a Canadain store and they basiclly charged me the shipping costs anyway! At the current price this trial period will remain just that a trial period.
Bring in a Biotest retail store in Ont that will ship Canada wide.
[quote]SkinnyJP wrote:
Bring in a Biotest retail store in Ont that will ship Canada wide.[/quote]
This is not the issue at hand. Biotest has eliminated all the middlemen so they are able to sell supplements so cheap without having to pay for the rental space, overhead costs etc that are required for this type of setup.
I dont know about anyone else, but I have come to despise SND Canada. Their prices have stayed the same, touting savings of 30% across the board for their prices over MSRP. Seeing as how Biotest no longer has any MSRP considering theyre selling straight to us for the cheapest possible price, has SND adjusted their prices to reflect this?
Especially considering they order in bulk, there is no way I can justify giving SND my business considering they would be charging me DOUBLE what I should be paying. Granted, there is no way I could get it for so cheap unless I order the bulk that they do, but the principle of this whole argument is that I would much rather give Biotest my business. Bottom line.
I support these guys 100%. This is solely because I have never been dissapointed with ANY of their products. If it means continuing to pay $55 USD for shipping on my $250 USD order, so be it, because I’m still walking away with more money in my pocket than if I ordered the same amount of stuff from SND.
All I’m asking from Biotest is if there is any chance of recognizing their faithful customers In Canada and working out some kind of deal, and I’m sure all the Canadians agree.
Just emailed Biotest sales with a few queries about shipping…
and T-Men in NE england? (newcastle-ish)… gotta wonder what size order it takes to get trade shipping/prices
[quote]Cappx wrote:
Ok so I am interested in all the “Canada Biotest Shop” talk, and I [/quote]
I think that most of us know about these retailers. The thing I would want to know is how many of us guys would want to do bulk orders like we did for MAG-10. It seems to me if we were able to get enough folks to order 3 cases of MAG-10 (according to Bob) we should be able to arrange for large orders amongst us for other supps Biotest sells.
It costs me the equivelent of 38$US + 7$US for postage to get ZMA, and the equivelent of 45$US for Surge (though thats if I buy in a group of 3 = 135$US) plus 7$ postage. If you ordered stuff for yourself in bulk and paid the 25$ postage then your still getting a bargain, why complain? =)
Its too bad that Biotest couldn’t have one specific dealer per country for us t-nation members. We could log on, like we do here and have a members-only section where we would be able to order T-Nation exclusive supplements in our own country like the Americans can. Just a possible solution.
If there are any BC folks wanting to do a mass Biotest order, let me know and let’s set it up, I’m in Vancouver…
Plain and simple - the shipping sucks. One the prices all dropped last year I decided to support Biotest directly and ordered some Grow!, surge and a T-shirt, but the shipping gave me absolutely no bargain PLUS my wife received the order at home and had to cough up another $12 to cover some f’n customs duty fee.
Needless to say, I was very disappointed in the entire process and now limit my Surge purchases to SND directly (there’s a store nearby), but I do go with a cheaper protein powder b/c Grow is just a rare treat when I’ve got a few extra bucks in my pocket.
The worst part is, with our dollar sitting so high recently, it still hasn’t been enough to overcome the shipping rates…there has to be an alternative to whoever provides shipping currently…many other online retailers charge no where near as much to ship to Canada, so I don’t see why Biotest is stuck on such a high amount.
[quote]feds wrote:
so I don’t see why Biotest is stuck on such a high amount.[/quote]
Biotest uses a classy company to ship their stash. that way you know your stuff will arrive fine & dandy, and your reputation will be maintained…
downside is, they dont have slow+cheap shipping… I wouldnt mind waiting a few weeks for delivery if it saved me ??? (also I guess setting up new carriers would cost extra, initially at least…)
Another possibility could be, if theres an ebay seller who would buy the stuff from Biotest, (get his free shipping), charge an extra $x, and ship on-the-cheap internationally… could be $$ in it for everyone, eh?
but remember kids, its illegal to have someone unscrupulous tick the box marked “gift” on your package and send the reciept via email (or seperatley on request) rather than in the same package, so that you dont get stung for customs duties…
[quote] edit damnit i wish id remembered theres an edit button instead of making three posts[/quote]
