Cafe: I think that number is pretty standard in our market.
poison: It doesn't sound like you really understand the topic at hand. There is nothing easier about packaging 12 oz of coffee. It's a pain in the butt, imo. And to say that it has anything to do with the weight before processing doesn't make any sense.
Fleece customers? Customers are charged for 12 oz of beans, not a pound.
It's mostly about price point. Grocery stores know what their customers will pay for a product. And if a market wants beans packaged in 12 oz bags, I'm going to give them what they want. Its' called customer service.
On the other hand, I polled many people who buy coffee from stores and asked them how much they bought and how much they paid per pound. Most folks knew the price they paid but almost all of them thought they were buying a pound of beans. So if put a pound of my beans on a shelf next to the rest of the brands in 12 oz bags, our product appear to be more expensive.
A lb, as our unit of measurement, was the standard bag size for coffee, up until around 5 years ago. I'm not sure who initiated the switch, but a lot of specialty micro-roasters started switching from 1lb bags to 12oz bags. Interestingly, it coincided with the economic troubles. Some were up front about the switch, some weren't. Some adjusted (ie lowered) prices to reflect the lesser amount, some didn't. Yes, the whole '1lb green is approx. 12oz roasted' was tossed about as a reason for the switch, among other things. The fact is a number of roasters indeed did it to fleece unsuspecting customers, charging the same for less product (or not lowering the price by an equivalent 25%). You can see people's reactions to it here (I'm not dissing Klatch, they dealt with the issue, it's just a readily available example):
CoffeeGeek - Espresso: Espresso Blends, Klatch Belle now only 12.oz?
Eldub, you started your business long after that, I think, and people are aware of the 12oz bags. I wasn't saying you are getting sideways with your practices, haha. I've been selling coffee online and to cafes since 2005, and remember when it came up. I even had customers ask me if I would switch, and I'm pretty sure my answer was 'hell no'.
I may, however, start packaging it in 150gr bags and selling it for $17. 150 has to be a lot more than 12, right?
EDIT: When I said 'easier', I didn't mean the act of filling bags. I meant that you are accounting for shrinkage up front. Buy 100lbs, sell 100 'bags' (which happen to be 12oz) for $10; or buy 100lbs, sell 75 1lb bags (loose numbers there) for $13. It's just easier math to account up front (supposedly).
