A Little Backstory and New Bumstoppers Announcement

In spring of 2010, I was approached to begin wholesaling with a company that shall not be named, whose name became synonymous with the words "cheat and liar" in the cloth diapering community, although of course I didn't know that's what would happen at the time.  In all the talks that followed, especially when factoring  in the discounts and shipping deals that they were giving, I made the decision  to:

 A....include shipping in the price of the diapers

and

B.  raise the price of the diapers to counteract the huge discount that I was forced to take in doing this wholesale deal. 

Several months later, customers started becoming unhappy with the business practices of aforementioned company.  As a business person,  I wasn't happy with the way they were handling complaints either.  In addition, my payments for the diapers that I was direct shipping, where coming later and later-sometimes weeks after I had made and shipped the diapers out.  After they let go my "manager" within the company, I decided to break all ties and stop doing wholesale with them.....

Fast forward to now.  We have continue to grow at a slow and steady rate, but I never have managed to land another wholesale contract that I was happy with.  Yet  pricing has always stayed at the same rate.  I did separate out shipping costs earlier this year when I moved most stockings over to etsy, just so I wouldn't have to pay fees on shipping too.  Even with this change, Bumstoppers are just a medium range priced diaper.  While I believe --and all of my customers agree-- that they are WELL worth the price, I know that its holding back a lot of potential customers from trying our products. The market has become too saturated with cheap diapers to compete well with our current price point. 


So what does this mean to you, the customer?  We will continue to offer the same customer service and the same quality of diapers, yet do it at a much more affordable rate.  Shipping will continue to be a separate charge.  While I can't guarantee this pricing forever, now is a great time to add Bumstoppers to your cloth diaper stash.

From now on,  you will see more quality diapers being offered every stocking at a great price, and a few customs slots into the  mix.  There won't be lots of fancy coupon codes that you need to remember to use, there won't be this special pricing tomorrow after you have purchased today. Bumstoppers diapers will be at a consistent price range, with the exception of those made with the pricier, hard to find fabrics.

New pricing will be as follows:

Newborn $ 13.95
Sized $21.95
One size $23.95
DryBums™ 29.95 natural and $32.95 for dyed
ai2s-whatever size price applies

This pricing is effective immediately.  By the time this blog post is published, Bumstoppers pricing on all venues will be updated to reflect this.  If you have a customs in progress with me, expect an email today informing you of these changes.  

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Bumstoppers?ref=si_shop

http://hyenacart.com/stores/Bumstoppers/

Customs will be priced a slightly higher price point due to the personalized attention that ordering a custom requires.  

I hope to continue to build this business with your help, and continue offering photo contests, and giveways and other promotions mixed in.     Thank you so much for your time and continued support.  I'm so thankful each and every day for my loyal customers!!

Week one in the featured products-Hybrid fitteds

one size hybrid

One of the new things that I'm going to be doing every week is featuring a product that we carry.  A lot of people might not know all the products that Bumstoppers offers, and this seems to be a good way to show all of the products, plus show pictures and pricing info.  I'm going to apologize right now, as this will probably get wordy.  There is a lot of information that I feel needs to be included here, so this post can be used for cross reference later. 

This week the hybrid fitted is the featured product.  This diaper is a regular fitted, with all the benefits and features of a fitteds, but with fleece as the hidden layer in the diaper shell.  This allows the cute prints to be on the outside, but keeps the outer from becoming wet as fast.  Many users report that they can use them for hours without a cover.   There is an additional layer of fleece in the soaker, to divert the wetness back into the soaker.

All prints in the woven or knit gallery are available in this diaper style.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bumstoppers/sets/72157627427425460/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bumstoppers/sets/72157627302978357/

I try to stock at least one diaper in each print, at each stocking.  Another additional option that is now available is foldover rise.  At least one diaper in each print will feature no rise snaps, with the option to leave as is, add the snap down, or add the foldover rise.

The standard snap down:

and the new fold over rise option

I will have to say that with this option, the option to make the rise really short for very small  babies isn't there.  It will work best for babies that have outgrown the newborn diapers, or at about 15 lbs.  

And this is the no rise option. 

As you can see, it can be left as is for the larger sized babies, or either other rise option can be added after checkout.  No additional cost will be charged for this option.   These diapers sell for $29.  There is sometimes an additional up charge if its a specialty fabric.

Here are a few  action shots and what some of the hybrid users are saying.....

Large side snapping hybrid-20ish lb baby

one size hybrid fitted-17ish lb baby

What the customers are saying:

• I love the fit through the crotch, not too wide, not too narrow. How trim and absorbent they are.
•  I only have 2 of them but I love them and want like... a million more! They are super trim but still will fit him for a very long time. I love the long tabs, they are super absorbent, and just all around well made! G isn't a heavy wetter but I was still nervous taking him out in the hybrid fitted without a cover. But we were gone for about 4 hours, with him being up and down, in the stroller, in the carrier, in the cart, on my hip, etc. and the outside and leg holes never leaked or even got wet. Part of that time he was asleep and he usually wets the most during his naps!

•  Bumstoppers are the trimmest fitteds with closure that we have tried. I always expect them to leak faster b/c they are less fluffy, but they don't. They hold up just as well :) Also I love that you quilted the soakers. They look much nicer after lots of washing. You have a TON of fabric options for customs, too, which is great.  

 Thanks for reading!!  Up next week is the regular Bumstoppers fitteds. 

Tales of the broken serger, or road trip

Today has been well, interesting to say the least.  My serger broke on Friday and I took it in yesterday, only to find out that when I have been paying to have it cleaned, it hasn't been done right.  So years of build up caused one of the main working parts to lock up, and break.  So I went and got the now dead serger.  I traveled 60 miles in the opposite direction for a one last ditch effort to have it looked at, and hopefully fixed.

The good news in all of this, is that I have a borrowed machine and it runs like a dream.  I finally know whats its like to put any diaper, any fabric in and have it come out just exactly like I wanted.  So in that, I have managed to get a fair amount done, even with hours spent on the road.

Part one of anoucements:

My goal is to continue to offer customs in a max time of week turn around, but that's on the far end of the time frame.  I would like to offer a turn around time of 72 hours really, but time will tell if I can maintain that. 

I would like to continue to offer between 20-30 diapers instock, but again that depends on many different elements. 

And now coming back to this entry, which I never published, I have taken it to a different store that is working on it.  It will at the very least be my back up machine.  Expensive fix, but nevertheless.

I will end with the customs pictures that I have finished this last week, and then start on the blog entry that I came here to write...

Thanks for reading....

Radio silence....

Sorry for the delay in entries, I tend to get so busy with life and sewing that I forget that I meant to update this and keep it up and running.....I promise that I will try better....

Another summer came and went-how does it always seem to go so fast?  We ran 2 very small coops, and still maintained semi regular stockings, plus a few customs a month.

Now that school is back in session, customs times are being changed.  Rapidly.  Right now I"m shooting for 72 hour turn around, but never more than a week.  Just because you want a custom diaper doesn't mean that you should have to wait for weeks and weeks.....

I have lots of important info to update here in the next few weeks, but too many things at one time to even start tonight....I will just leave you with some of the most recent customs and come right back with one topic a day until we get them all covered....Thanks for sticking with me!!