It is not a period of the most optimistic, at least for those who do not have a mountain of money behind them.
The war, Covid, the energy crisis, the much feared supply crisis - which is itself a crisis - but also the "crazy" increase in prices of practically all products, electricity and gas bills, etc. etc. are now on the agenda.
There would be enough for yet another Hollywood "disaster movie", were it not that this time it is not a disappointing script but a very unexciting reality.
In our little world of gluten-free things are not very different : everything has increased, from 10% up to 300% for some raw materials . And when we say "everything" we really mean everything. From rice flour to yeast, from adhesive labels to energy bills, from scotch tape to pack packages to bags for packaging. Everything skyrocketed within a few weeks.
So what now?
Increasing the prices of our gluten-free products would be the simplest and most immediate solution. Too bad, however, that we are all in the same boat and it is unthinkable to impose a price increase on our precious customers, especially since gluten-free products are certainly not among the cheapest!
Decreasing the quality of our products would not make any sense: trying to save money using poor quality ingredients and raw materials would only ruin what good we have built up to now. It would be stupid to even think so.
We have only one way to keep our prices and quality standards current, and that is to compromise with everything else.
Or save and optimize, where possible.
It means, for example, to change the type of packaging and use larger bags that can contain a greater number of products, to use less and save.
It means to sell a minimum of 6/8 products by type, offering a discount on purchases greater than each individual sales unit, so as to optimize production and energy consumption but still allow the customer to save something.
It means delete the paid SMS notifications that the courier sends to customers, and leave only the notifications via e-mail.
It means slightly increase the threshold from which shipping is free: from € 75 to € 79.90.
Of course it is certainly not a "painless" approach, but as written before, it is a matter of accepting some compromises in order not to absolutely affect the quality of our artisan offer and above all to continue to do research and development, to offer even better products, handmade, without dyes or preservatives, with enthusiasm, curiosity and genuine interest in our work.