New Herb Shop in Byron Bay - Grand Opening party

[Alchemica]

Oops, hope I didn't cause any hassles by ordering prematurely online. So far, I'm very impressed with the way things were dealt with. Friendly staff member, quick notification of any problems with items in stock and quick dispatch.

I hope Koda thrives and other SAB members make use of their interesting range of products.

[lofty86]

Looks great T, i wont have to order 5htp and l-dopa o/s anymore at those prices looks like the cheapest in oz ive come across so far.

will SAB still be stocking its usual range or are you doing the herbs etc through this place now?

[Torsten]

Alchemica - Koda Phytorium became a sponsor for EGA and the wrong link got sent out to the EGA mailing list as a promotion. So there had already been quite a bit of traffic on the site the last coupel of weeks. But you are definitely the very first online order. Thanks!!

Looks great T, i wont have to order 5htp and l-dopa o/s anymore at those prices looks like the cheapest in oz ive come across so far.

We try and make sure we are competitive on the international market, not just australia, so this will obviously benefit our local customers greatly.

will SAB still be stocking its usual range or are you doing the herbs etc through this place now?

SAB will keep going as before. In fact, now that Koda Phytorium is up and running and the workload is getting a little more managable I will have a lot more time to build SAB more. We're starting the webstore redesign in the next week or two so hopefully we might launch early in january sometime. There is obviously a small amount of cross over between the two businesses, but they are very separate entities with very different objectives. rather than being competitors we hope that the extra turnover volume will allow us to buy bigger bulk and make things even cheaper for both shops.

[coin]

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Edited January 21, 2011 by coin

[Yeti101]

Cool T, there's a few things I've been looking for on there. Only thing I would have added was Turmeric extract of some description.

[Torsten]

5kg tumeric extract arrived last week, but we're a bit too busy to get too many new products on the shelf before xmas, so not sure when this will be available.

coin - yes Daniel used to be a chef [working with Bill Granger], so he is very fussy. I do most of the ordering at the moment while we are still building the stock, but he tells me if it isn't up to standard. We have very high grade culinary products and our packaging prevents leaching of aromas out of the bags and hence into other bags, ie our spices are as pure as we can source them. though, there is sometimes a trade off between 'organic' and 'quality', but if the difference is too great we'll actually stock both.

[coin]

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Edited January 21, 2011 by coin

[Yeti101]

No rush

[santiago]

does the webstore send to WA?

[Torsten]

does the webstore send to WA?

 

Koda Phytorium is not above the law so will not send any items prohibited by WA Quarantine. But the staff there are in the same position as we are at SAB in that the WA quarantine website is VERY difficult and time consuming to mine for information on each product. So the same rules will apply:

1) All non-herbal products can be sent to WA.

2) No plain herbal material and extracts to WA without a written confirmation from WAQIS that the item is permitted in WA [ie something to indemnify the sender]

3) Some items such as tinctures and essential oils are exempt.

[santiago]

2) No plain herbal material and extracts to WA without a written confirmation from WAQIS that the item is permitted in WA [ie something to indemnify the sender]

 

i agree the law is a fickle beast and you must be commended for making it as far as you have when most of us peers get paranoid about sending 10 rivea corymbosa seeds via mail.

the WA comment i made was simply a bait in jest, possibly you may/maynot remember i have been quite negative about this in the past but its not your fault is it torsten. thanks for your accurate and logical answering.

in regards to indemnifying the sender however wouldnt simply not attaching a reverse sender or barcodes or whatever you use as branding solve that problem? yes i understand you run a legit business and its probably to confusing to do so....but if the payee is willing to take responsibility for postage delivery and technically there is no information on the sender whats really the problem?

[Torsten]

the problem is the complexity and the fact we don't really know who is on the other side. 5 years of SAB's annual WA profit wouldn't even cover one maximum fine [and if you are caught deceiving WAQIS then the maximum applies]. So all it takes is one person to change their mind when they get WAQIS knocking. Also, paypal and Visa will not protect the vendor if there is no sender address.

Sending to WA might be fine for private trades, but it just isn't worth it for any business.

[t st tantra]

got some products from koda yesterday....very good packaging ....those stiff plastic bags should keep my herbs in good condition until finished....i was impressed!

t s t .

[Alice]

Torsten, not sure if you are aware but Koda Phytorium got a bit of a free plug in the Nov/Dec Organic Gardener magazine. Page 17. Listed as a source of seeds for the not widely available mouse melon vine.

[Torsten]

yes, we certainly noticed. sales for that seed have gone nuts. I gave Jerry his first Melothria scabra plant and he was so thrilled to finally have a cucurbit that doesn't suffer mildew in the subtropics, but I was a bit surprised when he wrote a piece about it. It's a great plant though. It's my favourite thing to forage on in the garden. I put one cherry tomato, one Moringa leaf and one mouse melon in my mouth and chew it all up. yum yum.

[Kee]

Cool as site! Compliments yours very well Torsten. When will some images be up for the glassware / other sections - that would be a huge selling point imo.

[Alice]

yes, we certainly noticed. sales for that seed have gone nuts.

 

Ah good to hear.

cheers

[Torsten]

Cool as site! Compliments yours very well Torsten. When will some images be up for the glassware / other sections - that would be a huge selling point imo.

 

we just took all the pics of the NON-glassware items and working on getting these onto the site. The glassware is a bit difficult as we can't shoot the pics in the white lightbox. Might have to make a matt-black surfaced lightbox.

[Marcel]

I visited this cool little shop a few months ago. Very impressive. I didn't realise this was your establishment, Torsten.

[Torsten]

I visited this cool little shop a few months ago. Very impressive. I didn't realise this was your establishment, Torsten.

 

It's actually a partnership between my partner Daniel and his best friend Kobe. I just seem to get lumped with Daniel's share of the work ;)

But yeah, it's like a plantfreak's candy and toy shop ;)