In the beginning (1998) there was Chandler's Soaps, merrily making soaps and body care products and selling them via the website, craft shows and mail order. Then in about 2000 a few Oregon soapmakers started on a quest to find a source for malibu tubes and foam pump bottles. "Sure," we said. "We can coordinate a group buy!"
And so from those humble beginnings ForSoapmakers.com emerged. After than initial group purchase (which involved shipping out over 5,000 bottles!) the word spread and more and more people wanted foam pump bottles and malibu tubes. It got complicated to put these products on the Chandler's Soaps website, so a new web store was created just for the containers for soapmakers - ForSoapmakers.com.
In the course of things, Chandler's Soaps needed good powder shakers, so a large purchase was made of specially manufactured powder shakers. Chandler's Soaps used some, and the remainder were put on the ForSoapmakers site. So many soap makers needed them that they are now a stock item and carried all the time.
Along with the powder shakers came powder ingredients, as well as a few other unique ingredients. In order for Chandler's Soaps to take advantage of the lower cost through bulk purchase, large quantities were purchased and added to ForSoapmakers.com. It turned out to be a good business move because ForSoapmakers can competitively price the products by passing on the savings we get by buying in large quantities.
Over the years we have gradually expanded the products that we carry. From one size foam pump bottle we now have three. More ingredients have been added as well. We're not trying to be a one-stop-shop, but rather find specific products that we can offer at a good value and keep in stock on an ongoing basis.
We occasionally find special deals on items enabling us to offer them at an exceptional price. Usually these are "while supplies last" and we can't guarantee that we will be able to restock the item, but sometimes it turns out to be something that we can add to our permanent stock list.
When you buy foam pump bottles 10,000 at a time (that's 10,000 bottles AND 10,000 pumps ... lots of boxes!) it takes a lot of room for storage and shipping. Up until March 2004, the whole operation was run out of a separate shop building located on our family ranch outside of Broadbent, Oregon. That's still where soaps and body care products are made, but in 2004 we ran out of room for all the ForSoapmaker.com stock and rented a storefront on the main street in Myrtle Point, Oregon. In the front of the store we sell Chandler's Soaps products, some locally handmade items, bath accessories and some toys. In the back (which is most of the space) we keep our stock and do all the shipping. Jerry, our UPS driver, is very, very relieved not to have to drive out 8 miles of dirt road every day to pick up shipments from the ranch!
The People
When you contact ForSoapmakers.com you will likely reach one of three people.
Marie Chandler Gale is the owner and founder Chandler's Soaps and ForSoapmakers.com. She makes most of the Chandler's Soaps products in the shop at the ranch and does all the administrative functions (finance, inventory, ordering, website, etc) from her home office. When not handling ForSoapmakers and Chandler's Soaps, she manages the ranch for the family and served as President of the Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild from 2004 - 2009. Recently she has expanded her web-creation skills and occasionally works with Jere Matlock (see below) designing and implementing websites. For more information on Marie, see her website at www.MarieGale.com
Sherri Murray manages the store and takes care of all the order processing and shipping for ForSoapmakers.com and Chandler's Soaps. When you call the store or need to check on an order, you'll be talking to Sherri.
Jere Matlock is Marie's main guy. When you call the administrative office and get a man answering the phone, it's Jere. They've known each other for 35 years, were engaged back in 1972 (she broke it off!), were each married for 22 years (to different people) and have now been together since 1999 out in the backwoods of Oregon. Jere has Words In A Row, a business providing website design, search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), and he helps on all website related stuff for Chandler's Soaps and ForSoapmakers.com.
