The Bay Bundle is back by popular demand for its third year.
Approximately 30 volunteers were on hand at St. Joseph-Scollard Hall over the weekend, helping to pack 500 pre-sold bundles, and getting them ready for pick up by customers.
“Most of the people here are graduates from St. Joseph Scollard Hall in 2015, but we’ve expanded our team in the last two years, and now we have a number of Nipissing University business students as well.”
Each bundle is comprised of an assortment of locally made specialty goods, and while they sell for $70 each, the actual retail value is $95.
Three St. Joseph-Scollard Hall alumni spearheaded the project as a way to “try and support the small businesses of North Bay during this tough time with COVID.”
The project was created back in 2020.
Sierra Mercer is one of the three co-founders.
“Basically this was going to be a way that we could support smaller local businesses. We’re all from North Bay, we grew up with these businesses. So even though we graduated, all three of us had actually moved away at that point. We were at university, we were working, but we still have ties of course to North Bay and we wanted to do our part to give back in some way.”
Nicholas Waltenbury, who also sits on the committee, went on to say, “The project is really about making it easy for customers to shop local, to support local businesses, to learn about local products while making a donation to the Santa Fund.”
Walenbury explained the cost breakdown for each bundle.
“Sixty-four dollars and 50 cents went back to our vendors and $5.50 went to the Santa Fund. Caisse Alliance is our sponsor and they covered all of our overhead expenses.”
The success of the project is largely due to the quality of the bundles.
“We have sold out very quickly every year for the past three years. A very large number of our customers have come back year after year. We do a little bit of marketing online and through local media, but we also let our previous customers know when the new bundles are available, and usually, they’re snatched up pretty quickly,” Waltnebury proudly shared.
This year, the bundles feature items from 13 local vendors.
Customers are told in advance which businesses are participating in the bundle, but the items are kept a secret.
“So, we work with our vendors to build what we hope is a curated package of products that complement each other, with products that are truly local. And then it is a surprise for customers when they open them up.”
An example of some of the many items included in this year's bundles are pickles, wing sauce, a candle, spices, bagels, cinnamon sugar chips, pepperettes, cookies, and fudge.
“The vast majority of our products are locally made, so there are products that are unique to the vendor,” said Waltenbury.
It was another sellout year for the group.
“We have a waiting list of customers who didn’t get one and we’re constantly getting emails from people saying they just learned about it and if they had known about it earlier, they would have gotten one,” Walternbury stated.
“Customers can join our mailing list on our website and then we will send an email to all of the people who sign up on the mailing list before sales start.”
Reaction from the participating merchants has been positive.
“I think they’re thrilled to be involved because it gives them a chance to showcase some of their best products, to 500 customers. We handle all of the marketing and the logistics for them, and it gives people an opportunity to sample a number of products that they may not have known that they can buy locally,” said Waltenbury.
“Our goal is that you try something in the bundle and you love it and then you go into the vendor's store and you purchase more. It is an opportunity to keep dollars local because our vendors also reinvest in our community.”
The total number of bundles sold since the project’s start in 2020 is 1,650.
Revenue generated for local businesses over the past three years is $102,600 and the total amount donated to the Santa Fund since the project began is $9,500.
