Lowell Frame

Read the agreement before you do anything else, specifically for a price variation clause. Plenty of wholesale agreements let them adjust with notice, in which case the term you thought you had is a delivery commitment rather than a price lock. If there is no such clause, an 18% jump mid-term is something you can push back on, and pushing back does work more often than people expect: usually not to zero, but to a smaller increase, a phased one, or the old price honoured on your top two lines.

When I have done this the thing that worked was being specific: your volume, how long you have bought from them, and a number you can live with. "This is difficult for us" gets nothing. "We buy 340 units a month, we have been with you four years, we can absorb 8% now and the rest in March" gets a phone call.

One smoothie a day is exactly the case where I'd say don't. I ran a mid-price blender for six years on daily smoothies with no drama, and the trick was letting frozen fruit sit out for five minutes and putting liquid in the jar first. Most coupling deaths are people starting a full jar of solid ice from a dead stop.

Also check whether Monday clients simply rebook to Tuesday or Saturday rather than disappearing. In my shop about 60% of them did, so the real cost was much lower than the headline.

Renting it out for evenings had not occurred to me at all. That covers the 300 immediately even at a modest rate.

It has crept up from about three to eight, so it is climbing, just slowly. That is more encouraging than the raw number felt.