sydney link

[tomtom]

http://www.goodvibegardens.com/

not cheap but in sydney ..

has some interesting stuff even hydro supplies very handy .. GOODVIBE GARDENS

[apothecary]

Looks like a pretty poor site all round.

The only way to order is to email? Then what's the advantage of them being in sydney?

Why is everything in CAPS?

How come the store only has a few of each plant in stock?

[tomtom]

calm down dude ..why not just email them ..

oh i see ...competition

[Amulte]

INterseting but ... um ... yeah

:confused:

[apothecary]

Competition? Was I running an ethnobotany or hydroponics store without being aware of it?

[tomtom]

with all the spinnin out i thought you must have had a store or something

 

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The only way to order is to email?

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so what ?

 

quote:

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Then what's the advantage of them being in sydney?

 

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i suppose the packages dont have to travel as far for sydney area people ..unless its quicker from some distant hick town.

 

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How come the store only has a few of each plant in stock?

 

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i dont know ?

plan on buying bulk ? go see

urbantribes.com.au another sydney based supplier who

also take email orders.

[Poobah]

any new ethno sites should be encouraged :D

[Torsten]

I am all for new ethno sites and 2005 is going to be very interesting in that respect.

However, so far all sites are deeply committed to ethnobotany and to diversity. So most of the current traders will have a large range of freaky stuff rather than just the top 10 sellers. The problem is that freaky stuff doesn't sell well, so when the competition increases in the top 10, we all have to scale back in order to keep costs down. The result is what you have in europe and the US where you have hundreds of retailers all selling the same stuff at the same prices. The first casualty in such competition is diversity and as such the real growth of the community.

So yes, please support new traders, but have a look at their offerings first. If they only sell the top 10 most popular items then maybe take your business elsewhere and support those traders who provide you with a better range and all the freaky stuff you can't get elsewhere. You will be doing your self and the whole community a favour in the long run.

I've been saying that a ration of 1:10 is what should be supported. ie, for every one of the top 10 items there should be 10 or so not so popular ones. Wanna know what's popular? just look at all the overseas sites.

[smogs]

thats a good point torsten

and important to support people who are in it for other reasons than just to make a profit as well

i mean if u wanted to only make profit you would sell pedro cuttings peyotes kava and thats about it!

someone interested tho, would have a large range for sale... but not expect to sell a majority of it. Just keep for the sake of having it availible for specialty customers interested and also to be sure that its availble if needed for any reason (just to have).

also you shouldnt judge a shop by its website! alot of small businesses have EXCELENT service and are super friendly but cant afford to pay thousands of dollars on a swisho website that deals with credit cards etc. And they dont know how to make a fancy one themselves

doesnt mean the company is crapola.

[Poobah]

not really an ethno site

looks like a hydro based thing with a couple of plants ..prob someone intrested like us .

i thought prices would come down with more sellers just like the real world or they would die off.

only the consumer benifits ..and so what if a few bad stores fall along the way ..

[apothecary]

smogs a swisho website doesn't cost a lot of money, I'm not talking about it has to be in nice colours and perfect formatting etc just for me to buy from them, but I should be able to navigate it without getting frustrated, or blinded by freaky colours on a white background.

I don't expect it to need to handle credit cards either, how hard is it to do a google for "html forms" and write an orders part of the page that users can fill in? I'm not even talking cart here, just a simple form. It just needs to ask for your postage details, what you want, and how you're planning to pay. That way you get a receipt, an order number, and a few other bits and pieces that can help with order troubles.

Tomtom, the problem with email only is that there's no accountability (for buyer or seller), no receipts, no order status. UrbanTribes does email orders, but they also have a simple shopping cart that I imagine may have taken only 30-40 minutes to set up.

[ 04. March 2005, 12:06: Message edited by: apothecary ]

[narayan]

If your thinking of buying something from them maybe it would be a little more polite to email them first and express your concerns to them personally

[Poobah]

hey apothecary

in its defence ( not that i've ordered from them )

i have ordered from a few different places. goamos being a good one that doesnt have a cart or any of the fancy web stuff ,

maybe you should tell him his site has no accountability (for buyer or seller), no receipts, no order status.

by the way gomaos is a ledgend who emails you ..and keeps you informed on all order details .and delivers top goods.

i have even ordered from those swisho sites with nice easy eye colours you think it made any difference to how long they bullshited about why my confirmed order, whose status was fully paid ,only to be told order sent out bla bla bla ..after a fewmore time wasting emails .. was told held up due to people having time off and bla bla bla ...not the first time from a site .

as long as they tell you whats goin on then i couldnt care less about carts and forms to fill ..passwords ..member crap ..logins etc all time wasting ..

and then i've ordered from one of those top 10 overseas american sites Torsten mentions and got my stuff no probs and quicker than Oz sites ( plug to iamshaman.com)

. :D

[2b]

If your into old school laid back sites try medicine garden.

[ 04. March 2005, 15:03: Message edited by: 2b ]

[caludia]

 

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I've been saying that a ration of 1:10 is what should be supported. ie, for every one of the top 10 items there should be 10 or so not so popular ones.

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I think my ratio at the moment is 1:378

But then again i am not purely ethno.

But definitely support this new site. It can actually take a great deal of time to set up a shopping cart. There are a myriad of problems that can arise during site setup. And working on Linux servers, god bless them, is a pain the arse!

I think the prrof is in the pudding with new ventures... the proof is definitely not in the web site. Place an order, see what the plant is like, what the service is like. And if it's good then let everyone know.

2b, i totally agree, if you want the OLDEST fashion service, head on up to medicine garden

[apothecary]

Uh how can you say that gomaos has no accountability when I can easily look on this forum and eba to see he is a respected member of a not so large community?

Poobah, sure, some pretty sites will jerk you around and mess with you, but with receipts and order status etc, you can easily get your credit card company to put a stop on the payment, or refund your money.

I only shop Direct Deposit on sites I know and trust. Look back to the thread where gomaos thought he bought his daughter a PS2. If he had done it with credit card, he would've had his money refunded or not been charged.

Ebay does some very simple things to allow for accountability. If you're selling online, you need to do the same. It's simple, and a caveat emptor applies on any sites that don't.

[Torsten]

I'd just like to add that my comments were general and not directly about the site mentioned.

Poobah -

i thought prices would come down with more sellers just like the real world or they would die off. only the consumer benifits ..and so what if a few bad stores fall along the way ..

Looks like you did not understand a thing I said. Sure, prices will come down on the 10 or so good sellers. Not by much though. But in =return the businesses will need to scale back and reduce the number of items available - especially the rarer stuff. So what you get is what you now see overseas, ie hundreds of shops all selling EXACTLY the same 20 or 30 items at cheap prices, but with little variety. The way I see it, the top 10 or 20 items have little to do with ethnobotany as they are often just aimed at consumption. We were never interested in that sort of market.

As I said, support your little shops like Guruna, gomaos, herbalistics, planthelper etc or lose out on the diversity. And by 'support' I mean that maybe it's not such a bad thing to pay an extra dollar here or there.

As for order delays in some shops (incl SAB), I am sure they can be eliminated if they all charged an extra 30% or so, but at the prices we charge we do not live off these businesses and hence they are not a priority in our lives. ie, if our staff falls ill or needs some time off for some reason then that's just bad luck. SAB runs at 0% profit, so you get EXACTLY what you pay for. If you demand faster service and a guarantee of no inconvenience then that is going to cost.

Shops overseas (like iamshaman.com) have volumes 10 to 1000 times greater than what we trade, so for them it is easy to have several staff and to work full time in the business themselves. We make do with one staff member to pack orders, while I work for free processing them, keeping track of them and answering impatient emails.

[smogs]

this has turned into a bit of a shitfight thats not about the topic but anyways

firstly apoth i think you misunderstood the previous post... he was saying that goamos is excelent... eventhough he doesnt have a swisho website.

and your wrong about webpages

sure its easy for you and me to set one up in next to no time.

but for someone who doesnt even know how to connect to the internet even (yes there are still alot of people like that out there)

then making a webpage can be an impossible task!

also alot of people have no idea about concepts like complementing colours and layout etc...

Dont forget that this website may just be something new that theya re playing around with inbetween trying to run a bricks and mortor store (which is likely the case)

basically im just saying dont judge a book by its cover, but yes you should always be wary when handing someone money when you dont have the goods already firmly in your hand!

i think con artists would be more likely to set up a swisho looking website anyways to attract more people and makes u feel more comfortable with giving up cash