Mixed Splits

[bfcoop]

After years of allowing us to order certain items only in cases of 6 or 12, not one but two of our suppliers have suddenly decided to let us order mixes of those items. (Must be a conspiracy!) For example, if we wanted coffee gelato before, we had to order 6 cartons of it; so we set size=6 for that item. Now we can get an assorted mix of flavors (coffee, cinnamon, ginger, etc.) as long as we order in multiples of 6. The only way I can see to accommodate this change is to set size=1; then after the ordering is closed, the source admin sends out an email indicating how many more orders are needed to fill a case, members reply with their revised orders, and the source admin edits the orders on a first-come-first-served basis to reach the required multiple. But I'm hoping there's a less cumbersome way to handle this. Any suggestions?

[support]

So you still have to order in multiples of 6 or 12, the only difference now is that you can mix and match flavors?

In that case, I'd recommend doing it as before, but enabling item comments (see CSS Bag o'tricks) and instructing users (in the item description) to put their desired flavor in the comment. Maybe have a default flavor if they don't specify.

Comments will come through onto Group order, but not on Final order or Submit order since those don't show who ordered what. So when you submit the order to the vendor, you'll have to get the info from Group order and then put it in a note at the top of Submit order. (i.e. a Submit order comment)

[bfcoop]

Well, each flavor has its own product code now, so the user already indicates the desired flavor simply by selecting the item and specifying the quantity desired. The problem is that, even though we may have enough of an order to meet the supplier's requirement, we may not have enough to meet the sizes we've set in the product DB. For example, Member A orders 1 coffee and 1 cinnamon; Member B orders 1 cinnamon and 1 ginger; Member C orders 1 coffee and 1 ginger. We now have 6 gelatos ordered (which meets the supplier's requirement), but each flavor falls short of the size=6 in the DB.

[support]

If the items need to have different item codes, then you may be better off just having users order them on their personal Order, instead of Splits. Then the person submitting to vendor will have to manually look through the Group order and adjust appropriately - dropping unfilled cases, and keeping or reducing filled ones.

Either that, or keep using Splits and do the manual adjustment by filling splits that you have enough of with other items. You can manually fill a split by editing it, and editing its "size" value downwards to whatever is currently ordered.

Unfortunately, it will take manual editing by the vendor coordinator, whatever you do. (unless you can merge them all into the same item code, and do it like in my previous post)

[bfcoop]

That's what I was afraid of: no easy way to do it. Just wanted to make sure I hadn't overlooked something. Foodclub is amazingly versatile, but I suspect this kind of mixed splitting would be almost impossible to program.

I had considered merging all the flavors into one item code, but that would force us to list all the flavors in the description so users would know what choices are available. That might be OK for a small number of flavors, but in this case the extensive list would make the description too long, and I'm afraid processing orders via comments would lead to errors and confusion for both users and admin.

Under the circumstances, I think your suggestion of manually filling splits by editing the "size" value down to the actual ordered quantity is probably the best tactic. It sort of "fools" the system without screwing up the DB settings. As you say, the admin will have to make manual adjustments anyway (which may include adding certain flavors for extras) to ensure the total quantities are multiples of 6, and this approach would seem to require the fewest such adjustments with the least amount of confusion. Thanks for your suggestions!

[support]

Yes, it's probably possible to program a solution, but it's just a matter of the difficulty compared with how much use it would get.

Foodclub's main purpose is to save people time (e.g. over spreadsheets: google docs or offline), and by extension make the cooperative buying-club model more sustainable, and help clubs grow bigger to benefit more people. So all the features it has are things that save lots of clubs lots of time.

A built-in solution for this would definitely save you some time, but it's a cost-benefit question. If it only helps 1 or 2 clubs every once in a while, then it doesn't get prioritized (especially if it's also difficult to implement).

[szimmermann123]

Your questions and comments are very timely. We have the same issue in NCFC. For two of our sources, we have to order exact case sizes, but we can mix and match to make up the case. We are going back and forth between using the css "comments" - or - simply letting the user's put in their requests on the ORDER page. Then the source coordinator will have to look at the GROUP ORDER page and hover her mouse over the names to see the timestamps of everyone's orders. The first 6 timestamps would make up the first split, etc.

Sally