Monday, January 30, 2012

FEARnet Food Review - Haunted Hot Sauce



FEARnet's Carl Lyon did an excellent review of all of my Haunted Hot Sauces. Check it out HERE!

11 comments:

The October boy said...

What a great review! congrats Undertaker. Hope things really take off for you. Love those little coffins...if you ever get too busy and need a supplier for them, let me know. I am a custom cabinetmaker and I am starting to make "haunted wall shelves" for peoples halloween stuff
They are fun to make, and keep me in the mood!
Business is slow anyway..
As soon as it picks up, I will have to get meself some Haunted hot sauce!

The Undertaker: said...

Thanks October boy! I'd love to see your haunted wall shelves! Sounds cool! The little coffins I make are pretty rough...I'm a much better hot sauce maker than coffin maker but the crude nature of my woodworking skills fits the "made from wood harvested from unearthed graves" theme nicely! I'll keep you in mind though becasue keeping up with the coffin making is the most challenging part of my business! I've gotten pretty fast at making them and have "coffin days" where from morning til night, that's all I do! I make about 4 per hour start to finish. I can make them faster but between beer breaks, etc. that's what it always seems to average out to.

The Undertaker: said...

October Boy,

Have you seen this coffin kitchen at CoffinItUp.com?

The October boy said...

That is awesome- I have not seen that kitchen before!
Like the spiderweb effect most of all. I would love to do a kitchen like that with my style cabinetry.
I am trying to get my selves up on a esty page, or maybe their own page soon.
First I want to get some good photos. I am having a heck of a time figuring out shipping or how to ship since the shelves can be on the bigger side too. Let me know if you have any advice on the shipping angle...
I love the idea of "coffin days" but you must maintain that beer break, otherwise it's just work!

The Undertaker: said...

I think the people at coffinitup.com ordered some of my sauce years ago. I remember seeing their website address on the order and was intrigued. Amazing skill and dedication huh?

Shipping is just expensive...there's no shortcut that I've found, especially since it's based on weight. I suggest you first make damn sure that everybody (EVERYBODY) locally knows who you are and what you do so shipping for them won't be an issue. Take a ton of good pictures...post them on the Halloween forums, make flyers, tack them on bulletin boards everywhere. (I used to secretly drop 20-30 small 1/4 page flyers on the shelves in stores where I think people might be interested) I also would blanket mine and adjoining neighborhoods with small flyers advertising a free delivery service! I would send to a special website, they would order and pay (via Paypal) and I'd drop off the order. No fancy boxes and bubble-wrap either. I just wrapped the orders in "butcher's paper". After that, perhaps word of mouth on how great your product is will make it easier for people to pay high shipping prices. My international customers pay more for shipping than they do for the bottles! I try to give them a great value but shipping costs are one thing I can't do anything about. (chatty today aren't I?)

The October boy said...

Undertaker-
Thanks for all your insight- you make a lot of sense.
I have a hard time trying to stomach the high shipping cost to someone who might want to buy my product, and I'm sure it will make or break a lot of sales. I also think that I need to follow your example and "get my ass out there" so to speak. I'm good at what I do- but I may be lacking in the promoting and sales end which is the life blood of any venture. Attack and succeed...or sit and be crushed!
Thanks again, there are really a lot of good people in the haunt community, and I really value your opinion

The Undertaker: said...

October Boy,

My pleasure! Anyone who knows me knows how I love to talk about what I do!

The most inexpensive product on my site is $6.95 and the post office still charges $5.20 to ship it across the street! That's $12.15 for one 5 oz. bottle of sauce! I'm surprised that anybody buys anything from me! So I guess the reason they do is becasue of the "novelty" of it and perhaps word of mouth that my sauces are good. (they're certainly the best sauces I've ever had) I always sell out when I do local events becasue I offer sampling and usually a $1.00 discount...and of course there's no shipping cost! Shipping is a BIG deal breaker! So again, tap that local vein...the rest will follow. I'd be making hot sauce with creepy labels and putting them in coffins even if I never sold one! I'd be giving them away as gifts. ;)

The October boy said...

Yes, the novelty of your product is very cool- thats what good marketing and art production are all about,
but I'm sure the quality of your product is what keeps it going. I hear you about making the stuff regardless of whether there are sales. Thats how mine started..as gifts and for my wife to set her halloween decorations on. Then of course people are saying "you should sell those". Easier said than done. But I'm with you- if I can make Halloween related items, i'm a happy man. If I sell some and it gives me a reason to be in the shop more creating, all the better.

Anonymous said...

Congrats! Well deserved too if you ask me.

The Undertaker: said...

Why thank you Ali!

Alex said...

I like the idea of putting spices and horror in every dish, which is perfect for finger foods during Halloween parties. Perhaps I'll try to see how stingy that little green one is.


Alex Staff