Better to use Foodservice or Membership Warehouse?

[kimbica]

warehouse club vs foodservice

I use both a large foodservice provider and my local Costco Warehouse. I have found that some things are worthwhile to buy myself and get better prices and others are not realistically worth the effort. For example, I get most all my dairy delivered, including cases of eggs and butter for my bakers. I buy my sugar and sugar substitute packets, cinnamon, some bottled beverages, protein powder, nuts, peanut butter, and health bars at Costco. I also buy cheap plastic cups there to use as courtesy and employee drink cups. (this saves me at least .05 per cup if they would have taken a clear plastic one.) I realize that foodservice providers are expensive and not easy to meet minimum orders for every shop owner (mine has a $300 min.); we buy a lot of extra stuff for our baking that makes it worthwhile to order at least once a week. I sometimes need to buy a few extra regular milks in between orders myself, but it's OK with me. I can get them cheaper at the local supermarket anyway!

I think it can be beneficial to do some price comparisons on products you use a lot of. I did this with soy milk and discovered that the Costco brand could save me a lot over getting Silk from my foodservice supplier. Same with the boxed sugar paskets and Equal, splenda, etc. Much less expensive at Costco and the warehouse is only 10 minutes from my shop.

 

[AJPRATT]

Did you promise to honor and obey?

I made no such promise. I promised to love, to cherish, to honor and to protect. She promised to love, to cherish, to honor and to obey. Anyway, to paraphrase Bill Cosby, I have been obeying ever since I said I do.

I got caught! My husband was doing some reseach and of all things came across THIS thread!! LOL He started asking me about wild horses and I had no idea what he was talking about.

 

[lizzy]

very interesting. I use sysco for almost all our food and shop at sam's club for paper stuff and milk, 1/2 and 1/2 eggs and things I run out of mid week. Also, sysco had things that I can't get anywhere else regardless of price.

I have found all baking mixes, and par-baked items (except for croissants and bagels) to be either too sweet or lacking in flavor.

flour, yeast, baking powder, shortening, fresh and frozen fruits are all we get to make our own muffins, scones, cookies, cakes and breads. we get raves from our customers. A muffin mix is so sweet, has so many additives that you can taste, and really it isn't that hard to premix the dry ingredients yourself.

second hand convection oven, small commercial mixer, a couple of smart kids who can read, and you have good, home-made tasting treats to go with your excellent coffee.

then we added a commercial hot plate a couple of omelet pans, and toaster and started making omelets served with our toasted fresh baked bread and real butter. now we sell a bunch of those.

we slice our own bread and make sandwiches too. But the quality of the meat and cheeses from a food service is much higher than what the club type store sells.

sometime I'd like to figure out what my overhead is with all this extra. in my location, I don't think I could make it on just coffee. My customers are choosing where to eat breakfast that has the best coffee. If we served only coffee, they would probably suffer bad coffee to be able to get breakfast.

But maybe I could, especially if we start selling beans by the pound.

 

[Davec]

Just a thought:

I get the impression that you personally are doing the shopping and are looking for savings, this might or might not be a great idea:

• It's a quality and not just price issue
  Consistency of supply and being able to maintain that supply are important
  If theres a problem, you need a positive and quick response
  If there are shortages, you want to be sure your supply isn't affected
  The time you spend at the shop, might be better employed managing the business (the stuff people don't like to do)

The best supply chain isn't just about the headline price of it's items

 

[jdandtracy]

We get scone, croissant, and cookie dough from a supplier and we bake them on site. The shop smells great, and our customers get fresh baked goods that are of a high quality.

We also serve sandwiches, salads, and breakfast burritos. We started getting supplies from a supplier and making them ourselves, with the exception of burritos, which we got from a caterer. The cost of the burritos, even at whole sale, meant we had to sell them at over $4 each. We have found it is much more cost effective to get raw supplies from Sam's Club and make the food ourselves. We have a system worked out with PAR's set for various items. We make one major Sam's run a week, and sometimes have to supplement with a smaller run later in the week.

We are making very high quality sandwiches, salads, and burritos, and we can charge a fair price and still make a decent profit. We started by doing lots of prep after the store was closed, at the cost of sleep. We have worked it out to where we get prep done during our on shift time. I used to think that small 5 minute blocks of time were for drinking coffee and talking. I now understand that major tasks can be completed, three minutes at a time, instead. Now we get everything done while on shift and don't lose sleep making food.

Our #1 seller is espresso bevs, 2nd is food, and third is Smoothies...

It works for us, but you have to be a good cook, though !!