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Comment by bemmu | Hacker News Reader

If I could just keep at 1000, that would be great success. I think if somehow the site doubled again, it would become possible to even hire full-time help.

Interestingly not all sweets makers are that interested in selling in bulk. My approach seems to need some tweaking. Currently I would just send an email like "hey I'd like to buy 1000 of these cute candies you make, how much would it be?". But instead of a price, I just get "we don't sell wholesale". It's strange to me as I would imagine they would be happy to sell more of their product, but apparently a more gentle approach is called for here. My first hire would likely be someone who is really good at this, unless I can somehow turn into that person myself during this year.

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Explain what you do. Tell them it's a one-off. A lot of small manufacturing businesses would be happy to do a one time bulk order but don't want to (or can't) scale their business to a size that lets them do large orders regularly. You'll still get a lot of people saying no because some people see bulk orders as compromising quality, but you'll get some successes too.

Speaking as a longtime JP expat, this might be a matter of nuance and phrasing. If you have a business-type salaryman in your sphere of friends, it might be worth getting them to vet your form letter to make sure it conveys the right impression (that this isn't speculative, your business is established, based on response you might purchase again, etc.).

I suspect (and it could alternatively just be cultural business nuances I'm not familiar with) it's likely just not worth the effort for most businesses to create a new, once-off 'wholesale' channel when they're presumably selling tens of thousands of items per month through their existing retail channels. Which is understandable.

Having heard some stories of foreigners in Japan (cf: patio11 being interrogated as a bike thief for being 1/ a foreigner and 2/ on a bike), it is possible a local assistant may have more luck by seeming less 'suspicious'[1].

[1] Not quite the right word - 'less curiously and slightly unnervingly conspicuous' perhaps?

Are there Costco-like outlets in Japan? Places that sell in bulk at a lower cost?

Just signed up for a trial. Really looking forward to it. A couple of things: 1. The sign up process is SO EASY. Fantastic - wish other sites would make it so simple. Choose your level of service, pay, done. Fast and quick.

2. Email newsletter signup? Didn't notice one. Would be a great way to keep people who pay for gift subscriptions in the loop.

3. Provide a custom email for people who have bought a gift subscription. At the moment, it's just the link. If you provided a page or sample email that was like 'Hey, I've bought you a subscription to Candy Japan!!!! Here's what happens... etc etc' - I think it would make the impact of the gift greater.

I don't really know how wholesale works, not sure how to learn more about it.

What I called the newsletter is really just a description of the items that we send to subscribers when stuff is shipped to them.

Good idea about the explanation page for gift subscriptions.

This is American focused, but I think the story is very similar in Korea, so it might parallel how it works in Japan as well.

http://www.wikihow.com/Buy-Wholesale

I know in Korea that some of the big "traditional" style markets have shop fronts that are only wholesalers and won't sell to regular customers. If there's an analog where you live you might want to hit those up. I wouldn't at all be surprised if there's a wholesale confectionary market of some sort that meets once a month or whatever.

My sister-in-law ran a small store for a few years and she'd go to a local convention center/stadium and buy all kinds of inventory at such places.

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