Duke's News
September 2, 2008
As
we mentioned early this summer the big increase in the price of gas, including
the new carbon tax, has raised our costs directly and indirectly. Anything
transported to our suppliers by truck, like vegetables, is costing us more and
our own direct costs for picking up supplies, raw materials and delivery have
gone up as well. So the price increase we warned about is here. We’ve waited
this long to let things settle down a bit and so the increase isn’t too
bad – just a few dollars a month.
Even
after the increase our large meals with bones works out to less than $1.80/lb
and the XXL meals and bones works out to less than $1.60/lb!!!
We have been told by one of our beef
suppliers to expect a significant increase in the future but they won’t say
when or exactly how large so hopefully this is our last increase to you for
the foreseeable future and in the meantime we are looking for alternative suppliers.
August 6, 2008
The increase in oil/gas prices and new carbon taxes are taking a long time to
percolate through the economy so our suppliers are still adjusting prices. Which
means we are still waiting for the to settle down so we know how it is going to
effect our direct and indirect costs. Therefore we're going to extend the July 9
offer below until August 23rd, 2008 to give our customers a better chance to
save money!
July 9, 2008
In the Fall of 2007
we had to have our first price increase in two years. But we managed to keep
it to less than $5 even for the XXL orders and even less for the smaller
sizes. Unfortunately since then the price of gas has gone up almost 50%
increasing our direct costs for transporting raw ingredients and making
deliveries. But it also increases the prices of most of our supplies since the
suppliers are also dealing with directly increased costs themselves – for
example our meat supplier just raised the cost of our meat by more than 15%.
As we warned in
the March Duke’s News we will have to increase prices again. We are
waiting a little bit to let the direct and indirect effects of the new
provincial carbon tax work its way through the system before we decide how
much of an increased is required. We may implement it as a fuel surcharge on
your bill, which can then be lowered if the price of fuel goes down again.
We know this
isn’t great news so to help soften the blow we are making the following
offer: until July 23rd
you can pre-pay for as many orders as you want at the current price (but
payment by cash or cheque no credit cards please) and that price will be
honoured until you have used up the pre-paid amount after which we will switch
you to the new price.
April 17, 2008
We
have a new phone number! At some point this year we will be shifting to a new
phone system and will then have our “final” number. Until then our old
number (604-724-4980) has been replaced by 778-227-9703 – but as
always email tends to work much better than phones so please use that
if you can.
Also we’ve had several requests to be able to pay automatically through
automatic debit or credit card charging and we are looking into that with the
hope of implementing it during this year!
And all the changes announced in October 2007 are still on track to be implemented
this year!
March 2008
As you know we
recently had to make an interim increase to our prices. Our costs had greatly
increased and this was the first price increase in over two years but even so
we kept the increase to less than the rate of inflation. As we said at the
time this was a stopgap measure to give us time to try and prevent a larger
increase – we had been hoping to come up with ways to reduce costs so we
don’t have to raise prices again. With the provincial government’s new
carbon taxes this is looking even harder to do since it will directly increase
our costs for procurement, supplies and delivery to you the customer.
However we still
hope to avoid another increase for the immediate future and we expect 2008 to
be a great year. Later in the year we are planning on introducing a new
production process, which will lower our costs (hopefully preventing any
further increases to you). Even better, the new process will also make the
blocks a more uniform size, which will make our packing/delivery and your
storage easier, increase the use of recyclables and reduce the amount of
plastic we use for bagging etc.
Also - good news
for those of you with smaller dogs (or cats) – we are also planning on
re-introducing the medium size meals during 2008!
We want to thank
you for your continued patronage and please remember, if you have questions or
concerns never hesitate to email us at info@dukesdinners.com!
October 15, 2007
We haven't raised prices for over two years but our costs have been going
up the whole time and now we are forced to raise out prices. The good news is
that even for an XXL order the increase is less than $5 and it's even less
for the smaller sizes. We hope that with the changes we have planned for
2008 (below) that we will be able to avoid any further price increases for the
next year.
October 1, 2007
During 2008 we will be introducing new packaging designed to cut our use of
plastic, reduce costs and provide a more uniform size of block to make storage
easier and more efficient for our customers. We plan to re-introduce medium
size meals to better meet the needs of customers with smaller dogs or cats. We
are also considering a new meal with a combination of beef, organ meat,
chicken meat and ground bone and cartilage (the bone/cartilage is nutritious
and will also help keep stools firm).
August 15, 2005 Prices Change
We've been saying for several months now that rising costs of raw materials
(20% in some cases) and especially gasoline ( almost 35%!) might force us to
raise our prices and unfortunately that has happened. But by finding new
efficiencies and methods we have managed to keep the increase very modest, for
example a Large order has increased by only $5 and an XX-Large is still less
than $1.65/lb (for the meals - not including the weight of bones!). We've also
implemented a zone delivery system - more information here.
August 13, 2005 Extra oil/veggie/fruit options changed.
We've merged the options for extra Salmon and and extra Veggie/Fruit mix
into one option since everyone wanting one has always wanted the other.
May 19, 2005 Delivery when nobody is home.
As all our customers know one way we can keep costs lower than our competitors,
while offering more to the customer, is by having no local storage facilities.
Each delivery day we pick up the orders in the valley and then deliver them in
Vancouver. If nobody is there to receive the order it presents us with a
problem because we have nowhere to store it! On the other hand sometimes
people just need to step out for a brief time when they thought they would be
home. One thing we can do for those who have pre-paid their order is leave the
order at the door. This requires keeping the meat cool - two possibilities are
customers buying picnic coolers or insulated foil bags (Safeway and other
stores sell these for about $7 and they will just fit a complete large order).
Obviously we can't be responsible for what happens after we drop off an order
so doing this is entirely up to the customer. Let us know if you would like to
do this in future!
May 19, 2005 Zone delivery system coming!
As another step to keep price increases as low as possible we will soon be
implementing a "zone" based delivery system. Likely this will mean
deliveries on different days for each zone and a different number of free
deliveries (but always at least one free delivery per order) depending on
zone. As our customer base widens the zones and number of free deliveries per
order will of course increase!
May 18, 2005 Fee for PayPal use.
As part of finding ways to trim costs and limiting the size of price
increase we have decided we must pass along a fee that we are charged for
receiving payment from PayPal. The minimum fee we usually pay is over $2 and
increases with order size. So we are now charging a flat $2 fee but will
continue to absorb the portion above $2. We are unhappy about doing this but
it is only fair to other customers who don't use PayPal and would otherwise be
facing a larger than necessary price increase in the future.
May 13, 2005 Chicken Carcasses in Short Supply
We are still planning on offering our chicken carcass option but the good
quality meaty carcasses we were getting are currently in short supply so if you
want this option please check first as we may not always be able to
provide it.
May 13, 2005 Possible Price Increase
As much as we would like to avoid it may soon be necessary to raise the
price of Duke's meals. Over the last year some of our suppliers have raised
prices by more than 20%.
And as most of our customers know one way that we work to keep prices down
is by having no local storage - we calculate the number of meals needed for a
delivery day and then have that many made and ready for delivery that day. Now
the price of gas is anywhere from 25% to 50% higher ($1.10/L !?!) than a year
ago and that heavily impacts on the cost of the initial pickup in the valley
and then the delivery in Vancouver.
We're looking for alternative suppliers hoping to get a better price
without lowering the quality of our product and we are looking at ways to make
delivery more efficient. Hopefully we can minimize the need for a price
increase but it is likely that some increase is inevitable.
We'll give as much notice as possible of any price change so stay tuned!
March 25, 2005 New meal option
Many people place a high value on the nutrients found in chicken bones as
well as the enjoyment their pets receive from eating them so Duke's is pleased
to announce that you can now have chicken carcasses substituted for meat blocks
in some of the meals!
Subject to availability we can substitute bagged chicken carcasses for some
of the meat blocks in your order. Four meal option - we will substitute
chicken carcasses for 4 chicken meals out of the 28 meals in an order (4 out of 28). Eight meal
option - we will substitute chicken carcasses for 4 beef and 4 chicken meals out of the 28
meals in your order (8 out of 28). Note: the meals with carcasses don't
have any mix added because of the mess if your pet takes them out of the bowl
and because there is no way to really mix in the veggie/fruit/supplement mix
with the carcass .
The carcasses have substantial amounts of meat on them as well of lots of
chicken bone. How many carcasses per meal? Medium meals will have one, Large
meals two, X-Large meals 3 and XX-Large meals four carcasses. Pick an
option and try it with your next order!
March 21, 2005 Spring special for new customers!
We'll take 10% off the price when you place first order with
us and take delivery by April 8, 2005!
November 1, 2004 Duke's phone changes
We are now at (604) 724-4980.
October 20, 2004 New website opens!
Duke's now has it's own domain and website!
September 30, 2004
You can now order extra salmon oil and extra fruit/veggie mix with the meals. Contact us
for details!
February 6, 2004
Sample packs!
We know ordering an entire month of food that you have never tried is asking for
a big leap of faith - so we have introduced sample packs to allow you to give Duke's a
trial run! Click here for more information.
December 17, 2003 You can
download our brochure and Christmas Special flyer!
Just click here.
December 13, 2003 Duke's
now takes credit cards!
You can now enjoy the convenience of ordering with a credit card through our website.
Duke's has added secure credit card processing through PayPal, one of the most trusted
names for secure transactions on the web!
December 5, 2003 Duke's is
now available for delivery in Kitsilano, Point Grey and U.B.C.!
December 1, 2003 Duke's
Christmas Special for new customers!
We want you to be able to give Duke's a good try with your pet so in the Christmas
spirit we are offering a 4 week supply of our beef meals at 25% off the regular
price!!! Special price applies to orders made before December 31, 2003. Click here for more information!
Web Changes
This is where we'll announce the most recent additions to our web site. If you've
visited us before and want to know what's changed, take a look here first.
