Suggestion for logistics improvement

[rjlouro]

Hi all,

Let me try to explain my usage and current pains with Queal, hoping that I'm not alone here and my suggestion actually makes sense to a broader audience.

• I don't replace every meal with Queal, so one bag of Queal will actually last for quite a few days or more (see next points)
• I find some flavours too intense, so I mix them 50% with smooth vanilla.
• I like to have a different flavour every day, so I tend to open several bags which will make them last even longer. One bag may last 2 weeks or more!
• Deciding when to order and what to order is actually quite difficult, because I need to check my stock of all the flavours and predict when I'll be running out of Vanilla. This also prevents me from having a subscription.
• I rarely order limited editions as the shipping costs are high for a single package and I want to try first before committing to a bigger order. Usually I only order a limited edition when I'm placing a big order, something that happens once every X months.

Here's my proposal:

• Have the flavours as a separate product and allow bulk order of Smooth Vanilla (like 10kg bags)
• Maintain the current range of products for casual buyers,

Here's why it makes sense:

1. Buying the flavour as a separate product would mean it's a small bag (depending on the concentration), which would result in much cheaper shipping costs. You could simply buy a sample of a limited edition as the shipping for a 5-10g package would be minimal.
2. You could decide the strength of the flavour by adding more or less flavour into your smooth vanilla shake
3. Buying big bags of Vanilla would allow for cheaper and more ecological packaging.
4. You could have a subscription just for the big vanilla bags, and a separate subscription for the limited edition samples. Every month we would receive a small 10g sample of flavouring, and if we like it we would place a one-off order for that flavour. Again because the flavour pack would be much smaller, shipping costs wouldn't be a problem.
5. Subscription just for the vanilla would be a no-brainer, since it's easy to predict your consumption rate and when to order more.
6. If this would prove to be a success, this would also mean a much simpler logistics operation as you'd have less SKU's to handle for the powders.

Obviously this comes from someone with zero know-how on Queal production and logistics so it may not be feasible, but that's exactly why I'm posting this

[MacGuffin]

I share the same experiences and thus I really like this concept, and it's also not unprecedented: at least Jimmy Joy offers a 'neutral' taste (which I would prefer over vanilla) and they recently switched to larger packaging as well. But they don't offer a 'flavoring' option like you're suggesting which I think would give a big advantage: you can create your own flavoring but also allow a wide range of flavor options without having to keep a lot of bags 'open' to allow this.

[Floris_Queal]

Thank you for the great suggestion @rjlouro!

I understand your point and it would even make it easier for us to add new flavours and/or maintain a large amount of flavours. We haven't done this for two main reasons:

1. Many customers do prefer to have the flavour pre-mixed (i.e. one less step, less thinking, easier to prepare)
2. All our logistics and products are geared towards the production of the different flavours (including a large stock of packaging, labels, etc)

[david]

As implied by the first reply vanilla IS a flavour. For your use case you can also just order vanilla and get flavours from other sources on regular supermarket shelves. E.g. concentrated sodastream flavours.

[Dejay]

Has anybody had much success with flavouring vanilla?

I have a lot of flavors from my days of mixing vaping e-liquid. These are basically flavours used in cooking.

I tried adding more vanilla flavour and one time strawberry one or two times but it's hard to get the right dosage. It was rather disappointing.

I really like the idea of separate flavour and bland food packages but it would probably annoy me. I'm extremely lazy. Unless you could make the flavour in some dissolve-able pill / capsule you can just throw in.

Powders are surprisingly annoying to handle. One of my favourite things I bought is a container for coffee powder that dispenses 1 volume unit of coffee from the bottom and a clever mechanism. Maybe something like this could help?

Personally I just mix a whole bag and keep it in the fridge for one or two days.

[rjlouro]

I do use all my flavours on top of vanilla. I did try to use a neutral flavour from other vendor, but I had to use a lot more flavour to make it enjoyable, and I quite like the vanilla flavour as a base.

There are currently several options to add flavours, that's not the case here, what I really want is the flavours from Queal as they are quite unique and most of them quite pleasant.

The idea of "flavour pills" that we would just throw in is excellent! Probably a challenge to have some capsule that dissolve in cold water, but I really like the idea.

[rjlouro]

I've been chasing powder dispensers, but they were really expensive. Which one are you using?

[Dejay]

It's called "DOSO coffee doser by GSD". Not sure if it would work well for queal, a little bit of coffee escapes.

I'd love to find smaller and more "tight" ones for powdered coffee creamer and cacao.