US food distributors, with the numbers actually checked

Hate to break it to you, but it’s just part of the job. Some advice: 1)Make spreadsheets for ordering. Can be as simple as products sorted by distributor, can also be integrated into your costs and inventory sheets or whatever you use for that. But making things sortable by distributor and/or order day is helpful. Then you can use the same sheets that you use for other stuff but just sort by “Wed” or “Fri” and you know what you need to check on on any given day. 2)Get rid of some dead products. We do this about every 6 months at one bar and about every 4 months at the other. Sale off your dead products. We always have a “$3 while it lasts” shelf on display and just one single button on the POS for that stuff and some people definitely pay attention to it. May have to be anywhere from $2-$5 depending on your area or target costs. 3)Make your reps come to you and remind you what your selection is. Don’t be afraid of them and don’t make too many concessions to them if it’s hurting your time or attention to other details. If you have more time to focus on the rest of your business. If your business does better, it’s good for your distributors and reps. They should understand that. Make them partially accountable for making sure that you have what you and your customers want. They want to sell more of their products!

How many vendors do you use? I have accounts with 4 broad liners, meat co, produce co, packaging co. I do my best to order the lower cost like items from whoever has them. And if I need to meet a minimum I tell them the price somewhere else. Takes about 1 hr a week to check prices across all of them

I work for a high end restaurant in Cincinnati, we use 3 food distributors and 6 or 7 liquor/beer

We’re a bakery with multiple vendors, every week we take inventory, and order from each vendor on a weekly or bi weekly basis. It doesn’t take more than :15 a day for someone to throw together the necessary order. Make spreadsheets and order forms that do the work for you. Then, every week designate a day for paying bills that have come in, and set up ACH wherever possible, so you never have to worry about missing payment, you only have to check withdrawals against the invoice on hand.

Yeah, pick one main supplier, have a backup to keep them honest, and drop the rest. If you're buying enough they'll give you money back that will pretty much take care of the difference in spreadsheeting every week.

I would say yes you are making things too complicated. Assuming you’re using US Foods or Sysco, they usually will give you better deals for buying with them as your main supplier

Our restaurant also doesn’t use Sysco for anything, but we reside in a major metropolitan area so there are a lot more options. One thing that you didn’t mention is how much more difficult it is to keep bills up to date and product in stock when you order from 15 different distributors instead of 1. The cost difference is obvious, but it’s also a lot easier to just put everything on the Sysco tab and not have to think about it. The quality of ingredients is worth it, but it’s not just cost that Sysco saves you, it’s time.

I use Beverage Metrics for inventory. I do my count weekly (unless I suspect a thief). I have it set to know which distributors provide which products, set pars, and I have just a few mouse clicks. The software sends the order to the appropriate rep, and my products come in their delivery day. (Which I set with them all to be the same day if possible.) Software is very powerful. It imports my daily sales from Rpower, which then lets me compare sales vs perpetual, showing variances on anything. It also shows cost margins based on any factor I choose. It does a lot more, but I have already written a novel. Bottom line: it made product management a breeze!

A good inventory management program can do the ordering for you if you have your par levels set where you need them. Most of our distributors are paired with an app or a website and everything can be automated if you want it to be. We’re a small fish though, 4 liquor reps and 2 beer reps (West Tn) . Personally I just use the BarKeep app for inventory and run usage reports for the week prior to my order and I just order what we’re going through. I just know about other inventory apps because I checked a few out before landing on Barkeep which is perfect for my sized establishment, but the other ones have a ton of bells and whistles for what you’re dealing with.

I'm torn. With how the distributors are doing things now with pushing for online ordering and payment. Probably. But if I had a sales rep like the old school guys, who came to see me and I could discus my business with, I would never "spreadsheeted" those guys. They had my back when I missed something. I knew I might be paying more here or there on some items (and I did check sometimes), but as long as they weren't seriously speeding, the personal contact and care was worth it for me.

Prices are honestly one of the smaller factors, it’s more about availability. They have everything. Yes when you order 10k worth of product twice a week you’ll get a few mispicks but overall the product rotates quickly, they have what you need, they have lots of different levels of quality for similar products, and they have tools and resources that help you be successful if you use them. They have really knowledgeable people, inventory systems, online ordering from your phone, and will deliver 5 days a week if you order enough. Small companies also have benefits like later cutoffs, small minimums, and local reps that will support you in other ways like driving that case of missed mushrooms to your place from 10 miles away. Sysco won’t do that, but you’ll be able to place your order in 20 minutes and won’t have to get on the phone with anyone and it’ll all be on one delivery not 6. Billing will be simple and mostly accurate. Lots of pros for both sides, just really depends what you value more. Sysco will absolutely have great product available for high end stuff, and can get almost anything on a special order.

When I was a KM I worked with a person who tried to get a program like this off the ground and it never did. Sysco and USF/GFS don't want to give their prices out to someone who is trying to cut their sales and the price of items constantly change. Sometimes reps can offer the buyer lower prices on items depending on the overall volume they purchase, so a program like this has to come up with a few creative work arounds.

Use both. Make them compete for the sales. You’ll quickly find out who has a better warehouse and drivers.

Bruv. Little known secret, as long as your volume supports order minimums, use 2+ major food distributors. You can always leverage quality/price that way. Puts a little more control in your hands.

Why not both? Personally, I always keep two of the big ones around. It lets me price check, and gives me flexibility. I have Sysco, which I do most supply and dry goods purchasing from. Then, I have a US Foods equivalent that I purchase a bit from every week. If I see prices start to move around, I price check, and adjust my purchasing accordingly. Then I have like 4 specialty purveyors, actually I think it's like 6. Yeesh. Anyways, this only works because I have a dedicated produce company that delivers 6 days a week with a 10am cutoff for same day. I wouldn't buy produce from these big guys unless you absolutely have too. My purchasing is like 50% Sysco, 20% secondary full category provider, 30% specialty and produce. I've always done it this way, and I love how it keeps my Sysco account honest. For example, I just moved fryer oil away from Sysco because the price went up and I'm saving $5 per cs going with my secondary supplier. I can't do that if I don't have that other option.

I’m lucky enough to have a local distributor that I do 85% of my buying from. All I use Sysco for is coffee, cleaning supplies and some beverages. It’s hard to beat the free dispensers, coffee makers, dishwasher service.

I find them all to be the same. In certain areas, some are better than others. I've opened Restaurants in most major cities in the US and there are some where Sysco does a great job, and some where they don't. And I found it to be the same for US Foods, Performance Food Group, Monarch and others. Your sales rep will have a lot to do with the Quality you get, as well as the delivery times. Some broadliners are better at certain things. For example, US Foods in Minneapolis does an outstanding job with produce - they're actually one of the better companies to buy produce from. But their paper/disposables are always a bit higher than Sysco or Ed Don charge, depending on your order guide.

If Sysco buys restaurant depot, their main competition, now there are only two Broadline suppliers. Currently there are three main Broadline supplier companies and restaurant depot is the only cash and carry brand. The other two require credit departments and aren’t feasible for smaller restaurant operations.

I think if your supplier saw this picture, he would probably replace the damaged product. I know I certainly would. The machines that vacuum seal these occasionally don't get 100% seal and they oxidize. It doesn't happen extremely often, but it does happen. This Modified-Atmosphere type of packaging isn't the exact same as using a normal chamber vacuum sealer, and your supplier probably knows this. I'm almost 100% sure that if your vendor saw this post, they would gladly give you a new package at no charge. And if that didn't work, you could certainly re-post this with the name of the vendor as well as the name of the sales rep. But probably try the nice way first.

I have never had an issue getting a replacement/credit when I discover something after the driver left. I *wish* I had the time to check every single item for quality. If my vendor didn’t credit a nasty package of meat like this I would never use them again.

This, and let your reps know you won’t take bad produce. Once you get a rep for not sending anything back you will always get the short dated product.

If a new vendor wants my business I give them an invoice from my current vendor. Then when they come back with lower prices I take that to my current vendor and ask if they want to beat their prices. There is no shame in that game.

If I were you I would get with other restaurants and build a purchasing co-op. When you are buying food as a group you can make them drop prices because you are buying so much food. I have seen groups do this in the states and be able to drop their food prices significantly.

Sysco (and the other mainline distributors) turned their nose up for years at any restaurant not doing 7-8 figures a year and expected stupid prices for the same undifferentiated core ingredients we could go to Walmart and get for literally 50-75% less. Their indifference to us is what led to the rise of Restaurant Depot finding an easy market opportunity. What allowing that rise did too was teach many of us to get used to Restaurant Depot pricing and convienence and even when we got to that 7 figure mark, we're still using RD for core ingredients. They did it to themselves. Now, they're having to pay up billions for all the customer base they shrugged off for years. I really don't want the sale to go through because Sysco (not the others) have never shown any interest in understanding restaurants that aren't doing McDonalds numbers. We're not interested in botique speciality items or pre-processed everything that the big chains are, we're interested in rational prices for restaurant quantity staple items. I don't see Sysco bringing any positive to it because they've never had any interest in our segment. I fear they're going to try and cram their franchise/corporate chain way of doing things onto RD when that's not who it's there to serve.

100% this. If you're not buying consistently from them the margins are typically higher. Find a rep you trust.