By: John Anderson, Restaurant Consultant
My biggest successes when consulting on existing restaurants has always been with the simple concept of service, quality and price. This is what everyone is looking for. However, restaurateurs rarely SEE the value of these concepts when dealing with their own vendors. Many times it is because of a savvy salesman who befriends the owner and gains his trust. Other times it is with a Chef who is too timid to complain to the vendor. Then there is the loyalty to another friend in the business. Whatever the reason, more often than not, these simple concepts get bended and twisted until the restaurateur has no idea why he is not showing a profit.
A few years ago I was working on a sports bar that was very busy at night. They had a great bar crowd and a very busy kitchen. The food was average and there were only cooks and no chef. All of the food products came from one vendor. All the chemicals and dish products from another and all paper products from yet another. The weekly pile of invoices alone was maddening! Add to this the fact that no one was checking anything in and you have a disaster. Deliveries would show up at busy times, items would sometimes just be left out back if they came early and often products would be damaged.
So, here is the simple way that I broke down the three concepts for the owner:
Service. You are paying your vendors to bring you a product. You need to lay out a time frame for your vendor to show up. If the drivers are not able to show up in that time frame, it may cost the salesman the account. Explain that to the salesman. Guaranteed, this will not be the first time he has heard this. When the driver arrives he should be willing to wait for your chef or your manager to check in the product. Weighing it if necessary. Many times the driver knows the restaurants that aren’t weighing or checking and they take advantage of this!
Quality. You are also paying for a quality product that you are serving to your guests. Damaged cans or outdated products are not what you are paying for! If your products are damaged or are not fresh, you are being cheated.
Price. This is where the rubber hits the road! Take at least three quotes a month from other vendors to keep the current vendor honest. Many times the vendor knows you aren’t watching and will raise a price on a highly used item to make a few extra commission dollars.
After having this conversation, the owner allowed me to put this into practice. We found most of our issues with the salesman. One of the items was a $25 box of French Fries that the salesman was invoicing for $35. Going through 20 cases a week, we saved 800 dollars on one item and lowered the food cost dramatically on most of the menu items.
Service, quality and price can make or break the back of house of any restaurant. My suggestion is to always keep these simple concepts in your mind and you will see the product improvement and the increase in your bottom line very quickly.
