“It was not my favorite choice for a Sunday afternoon activity,” admits Messer. “To add to the nightmare, we had to then painstakingly label every item and hope the liquids would not open en route to camp and spill all over the clothing.”
What inspired you to come up with this app?
Last year, my wife asked me to take our daughter to the drug store to purchase all her toiletries for summer camp.
We went with a list in hand, and walked from aisle to aisle, looking through 1,000’s of products for the 30 or so items she needed. We went from aisle 1 to aisle 7, to aisle 2, back to aisle 1. At that moment I realized there has to be a better option than this.
We waited in line, checked out, went home and started to label all the items —,not a fun Sunday afternoon.
I decided to create Bunk Supplies and Beyond.
In 15 minutes you can purchase all the camp toiletries that are needed, plus have the items labeled and shipped to camps that allow packages or sent to your home to put in your camp trunk.
A week into camp, the dreaded letter arrived. Not the one that says, I hate camp! The one that says: “Mom or dad, when we went shopping we forgot all of these items from the list, please get them to me tomorrow.” When you use our app or website, you see every item you need, it is hard to forget anything.
How long have you been in business?
This is the first year we are in this business.
What is the turn around time?
Our original business plan was to take orders several weeks before the packages were needed. This is a much more labor intensive business model. We have to take products out of the boxes, print out the labels, label the items, tape shut liquids so they do not open when other bags are placed on top of them.
Who puts all those name tapes on?
We have a fulfillment center that specializes in this type of work. They work for many of the top tier product companies and many of the award ceremony events. Much of their business is putting together packages in a professional manner.
Is there a charge for that?
To have the items label there is a flat fee of $10.
Do you send it to the campers home or directly to camp?
We prefer to send to camps that allow the packages. This way, if an item were to break, it does not get a camper’s clothing dirty. There is nothing worse then unpacking the first day and finding that your shampoo spilled in your bag.
Can you send my kid hair gel if he runs out?
Our business model was really built around the first purchase, where parents are buying all the items needed. If someone runs out of something we can certainly make arrangements for that.
What’s your most requested item?
I will answer the question strictly on the five items that had the most purchases, however it might not be accurate and I will explain why.
1) Off Family Deet free Bug spray. 2) Kleenex tissues 3) Tooth Brush Holder 4) Revlon nail clipper 5) After bite
Those 5 items had more orders then anything else. Keep in mind though, we offer 6 or 7 varieties of each item. We sold more shampoo across the product line, then any of those individual items. In some cases, such as after bite, the tooth brush holder, the nail clipper, we only offered one brand.
What’s the turn around time?
The turn around time can be as fast as 4 days from the time the order is place to receiving the shipment. However, we are not trying to compete with the Amazon Primes, where orders can be shipped the next day. We are offering service that takes items out of the box, labels, tapes the items, packages the items in a tote bag that you can lift out of the UPS box and place right into your trunk. We are a luxury service, offering the same prices as the drug stores. With the camps we are working with and with charities we are working with, we offer discounts and also a portion of the sales are donated to many different charities.
I have a special kid. Can I special order items for my special kid?
Depending on what that special need is, it is possible.
We broke the virtual store into two categories – boys shop and girls shop. If your shopping for a boy, you don’t need to look through all the girl products and vice a versa.
This is an example of how you just scroll through each section and add an item to your cart and scroll down.
The beauty of this app is it is fast, it takes 10 minutes for boys and 15 for girls, you do not have to walk aisle by aisle with a list in your hand and most important, many parents receive a letter the first few days of camp telling them about items that were forgotten. It is hard to forget anything using the app or website – everything is right in front of your eyeballs.
