I started to wonder what are the best qualities for a vendor to have. We all have our favourite vendors who we rely on and use on repeat. But what put them there into that top spot holding the gold medal? There's over a hundred vendors and over a thousand products at the time of writing this. What separates them?
I would likely drill it down to these main pillars of great vending from my own experiences. This is what I like vendors to exceed at.
- Great products
- Reasonable prices
- Good communication
- Fast delivery
- Thoughtful stealth
- Reliable service
I'll pick through these one at a time below.
- Great products -
All of these probably speak for themselves. But primarily we want to smoke, vape and eat great quality cannabis products. We don't want to be rolling up ditch weed in a bus ticket. I personally like vendors with relentless quality controls; Where the vendor name feels like a stamp of approval. So whatever I order there is very likely to be of good quality. This is number one on the list for a reason.
- Reasonable prices -
No one likes being rinsed for their coins. One of the key appeals of LB is the great value compared to buying from a local. While I'm sure we all appreciate that a bag of imported jungle boys is more costly than a bag of shake, feeling we are paying a fair price is definitely the winner.
- Good communication -
This is not as relevant when everything has gone perfectly. But eventually, if you order enough, something goes awry so good communication is a must for me.
I'm not looking for a new best mate but knowing we're in some way together in this until the deal is complete reassures me that you'll deliver. I have stopped using a couple of vendors who are unable to tick this box. I understand that vendors can't reply in 5 mins and that their shop is a business so they deserve their work-life balance as much as anyone. But timely replies to valid questions or issues are a must for me.
- Fast delivery -
"I've ordered some lovely looking bits - get them to me right now!" We're all excited when we order but need to apply an appropriate amount of patience and face the reality of logistics. I've had orders delivered inside of one day but generally you can't rely on that level of service particularly as RM is a piece of the puzzle.
However, what I do like to see is vendors routinely hitting the service level they state on their profile and getting orders sent out in decent time, particularly when you fluster your way through moving coins to hit their stated cut off points. I appreciate that I won't be rolling up five minutes after my payment clears but the faster and more reliable a vendors process is, the more likely they'll get repeat orders from me. The main vendors I order from have their order process completely dialled in. I also prefer tracked to signed deliveries as that requires less commitment on my part.
- Thoughtful stealth -
Here's an area where even some of the big vendors could do with improvement. I'm not going to detail anyone's stealth for the obvious reason. I guess ultimately it needs to hit a few key points. Professional / No smell / No touching / What if someone else opens it. The vendors concerned about all these are the ones I trust the most.
- Good service level / rating -
This really follows on from good communication. If a problem has occurred I don't just want a nice chat about it, I want a simple solution. There are vendors I've had problems with that both communicated well and solved the problem that I'd still happily use and recommend. Vendors ticking all these boxes should naturally attain a high rating.
- Community interaction -
It's good to see vendors interact with the LB community. I'm glad they're involved. Often they can shine a light on things us punters know little about and knowing they are here is reassuring for many of the reasons I've mentioned such as service and communication.
However this isn't as essential as the other elements to get me to order weed. If a vendor runs multiple channels and is super busy just by nature of being a great vendor then I'm cool with that. After all it's that volume of sales that give us the great pricing. Some of the core vendors I use don't interact huge amounts with the LB community and I'm fine with that so long as they tick my other boxes. Being quietly fast and reliable while not wanting to draw attention or whip up controversy are all positive traits considering the nature of the purchase we're all trying to make anyway.
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My core vendors:
It's no secret that Green Cat are my core vendor for weed currently.
https://littlebiggy.net/link/9GReqt
They tick all my boxes on repeat and once delivered me an order about 18 hours after I paid for it.
The weed range and price is exactly what I'm after (with the exception of orange flavours) with some top bits and a bunch of bargains. Service is fast. If I have questions they're answered. I've not had a big problem to sort but I'm sure that GC would be all over it if I did. The GC logo is a quality stamp. Trust in the cartoon cat.
I've just ordered some more blue nerds there which is one of my favourite strains. Marked as sent already.
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Dr Distillate would be next on my list:
https://littlebiggy.net/link/7JrVXL
A quietly reliable vendor. I order most of my RSO, D9 and extracts here. I trust the Dr and they've proved reliable. I'm a fan of the crumble waxes too. Very good value and a superbly smooth and flavourful smoke in my dab pen. I've also had orders from here inside of 24 hours.
I quite fancy trying a cart from here when I next need one. Probably a live resin version.
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Other vendors:
I've used loads of other vendors of course and many of them have a tip top service too. I've detailed many before in other topics like the one linked and I still love you all and will be back to buy again in the future. Two recent stand out services though were:
The Hash Collective provided me a brilliant service recently over the Piatella order.
https://littlebiggy.net/link/oQQ9WB
They held me a bit until payday for my birthday treat. They kept their word and so did I. There's very few online shops outside of this world that would do this usually I imagine. It was a great, if bloody expensive, transaction.
They also have really fancy special glass pots. Very posh and carefully selected. One of the best pots I've had on LB. Probably the second best pots in fact :-) What isn't second best though is the range of fancy hash products. Lots have a price tag that will make your eyes water long before any of the smoke hits them but they've got some real posh stuff going on that's worth exploring for a special treat or if you smoke like a gangsta.
The Good Stuff proved themselves a committed vendor to me as well recently.
https://littlebiggy.net/link/LqYu0Y
They went the extra bit to rectify a small mistake that's not worth detailing as I wouldn't want this to be taken as a negative. Unless you've never made a single mistake then please never judge a vendor on their single mistake - judge them on what they do next. Their response showed they truly cared about their service level and reputation. They subsequently did precisely what they said they would to fix it. Top notch stuff. And while we'd all rather have no mistakes ever, knowing the vendor has your back is a powerful indicator of service and engagement with customers. I'll order there again. Not least as they've got a fantastic range of really nice hash at great prices including some very fancy looking static. The bargain mimosa I had previously was lovely and orangey.
Great Vendors:
Going the extra mile to satisfy customers requests or taking the time to fix orders shows a service level that barely exists outside of a platform like this. It elevates us and strengthens us as a community and makes me proud of my little part here in buying and smoking as much weed as I can to help everyone out.
Let Us Know About Your Best Vendors:
If you feel a vendor you use hits all these pillars of great vending or they have gone the extra mile for you then please flag them up to me and others on LB by replying to this topic. Or if you feel there are other key indicators of a great vendor that I've not thought about let me know.
Thank You:
As always thanks for reading my topic. I hope it was informative and if not I hope it was entertaining at least. Please, if you like reading this stuff do upvote the stuff that makes you happy and comment as it really helps. Thanks.
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