Jam progress

Jam production and sales have begun! This week has been an interesting one. I made a double batch of "Carrot and Apricot" and another double batch of "Strawberry" jam to begin to test the jam market here in Japan. I made three different sizes to see which are going to be the most popular and as I suspected bigger is definately not best here in Japan!
Despite the fact that the smallest jar is close to twice the price per ml of jam as the biggest jar, the smallest jar is definately the most popular. The reason for this is the Japanese custom of giving gifts. Jam is not something that is devoured for breakfast every morning on a slice of toast here. In fact, I'm not exactly sure when people eat jam here, but..... if it is something a little different, nicely packaged and small then it is a perfect gift for someone. This means that instead of buying one jar of jam for your breakfast toast, you buy three jars of jam to give to others. Perfect for me as it increases my profit margin as well as the volume I can sell.
My first real testing ground was a flower arranging class that I have been going to about once a month. Everytime there are different women who go and this week I figured I would just take some jam along and see what kind of response I would get. Despite there only being four other members there I managed to sell about 15 jars of jam and could have sold even more small jars if I had had any more.... as much as I don't like selling to "friends" I figure it is perhaps the best way to test the market.
I also had a near miss with a tourist bus last week. I saw that a small bus load of tourists had come down the mountain from their hiking and was about to try and convince them that they were in great need of jam made from local produce when I shoved some jars in a box, ran out the door only to see that the bus was pulling away. I will definately be more organised next time (and I'll try to take the children with me as an additional draw card!).
My next testing ground is a local festival next week - I have been asked to sell some jam at the "Green Tourism" stall so I hope I can sell some more. Roll on the real fruit season so I can extend my range!