Here’s a little bit more about why we charge for home delivery - we don’t like doing it but unfortunately it is something we need to do to help towards covering our costs. Tamar Valley Food Hubs was set up 8 years ago on a not-for-profit basis and one of it’s founding aims was to support small growers and producers and help them have an online shop front to get their produce to a wider audience than they may already be reaching through gate sales and attending farmers markets or local events. It was important to us that producers should set their own prices so they get a fair price for everything they sell, that reflects the effort put into growing and making such wonderful produce and to help grow their businesses. In turn, they could then concentrate on what they do best - growing, baking and making whilst we help with distribution and marketing which were often some of the biggest issues that small businesses face. Because Tamar Valley Food Hubs only take 15% of the selling price from all the local produce we sell, this alone does not cover our costs for staffing, premises, light, water, vans, fuel etc. so we have to have a delivery charge for customers requiring home delivery. We try and keep this as low as possible and reflect the distance of how far we have to travel (to a maximum of £3.50 in Plympton and Plymouth). In areas where we have clusters of customers, we try and have free collection points such as Tavistock Quaker Meeting House, Bere Alston Post Office, Calstock and Gunnislake Railway Stations, Drakes Cafe at Plymouth University and even a private home that a customer has very kindly organised in her garage!
If we didn't charge for delivery we would have to reduce the % we give to our growers or increase prices to cover those costs. We feel that by making a charge we are being transparent in the way we charge for this service. Keeping home delivery costs low are really important to us and we hope keeps us competitive for a home delivery service as many larger supermarkets have significant minimum orders for home delivery whereas we will always have no minimum order requirements to deliver to your door and will stick close to our founding values of trading fairly with local producers, waving the flag for fresh local produce and helping businesses grow! We look forward to seeing you soon and if you’d like a reminder of all our delivery information for the Food Hubs, have a look here!
