Between a Rock and a Hard Place ......

A big weight on my mind for some time has been the need for our prices to rise significantly over the coming weeks. The price of stock continues up and up, the Australian dollar trends down and down and all the costs of doing business continue to escalate (think insurances, overheads such as utilities, consumables, website, postage, warehouse rent and outgoings). 

It comes down to this: if I put my prices up, I may go out of business.
If I don’t put my prices up I’ll definitely go out of business.

Over the next weeks the prices of most goods will be increasing. If there is anything you’ve been thinking of purchasing, now may be your best time because prices won’t be falling.

Having said that, there is some good news.
There are always items I’ve ordered rather tentatively, the minimum order, because I’m really not sure how well they’ll sell. Then surprisingly they disappear in no time and I’m sorry I didn’t order way more eg fermenting crocks, hedgehog plates, essential oil diffusers. 

But then there are other pieces with which I’m so enamored that I have gone way overboard when ordering but they sit on the shelf for far too long. At other times I have fallen into the trap of recency bias. In the days leading up to placing a new order I’ve sold an unusually high number of a particular shape or pattern, so I convince myself I really need to stock up on that. But actually after the anomalous surge in purchases that item has reverted to its long term sales trend and I’m left with way too many on the shelf.

Stock on the shelf will eventually sell. We’ve always said there’s a buyer out there just looking for this thing and they eventually find it. However, that stock on the shelf is the enemy of cashflow, and without sufficient cashflow you can’t survive.

To this end, I’ve decided that 2025 is the year of more ruthless decluttering for The Cup and Mug. 

​If you like a bargain, keep an eye on the clearance items. You’ll find flawed pieces that are still perfectly functional, shapes I’ve just too many of, clearance items I don’t intend to have again and beautiful pieces where I’ve misjudged the level of customer interest.