After you’ve chosen the best restaurant equipment for your location, it’s time to choose a good food supplier. Your food distributor will be your partner in making your restaurant a success. Here are some considerations that need to be made when choosing a distributor.
- Local or national?
While national food distributors might have more products available to you, the local ones offer the opportunity to develop more solid business relationships.
- Sourcing
Find out how your distributor sources their food. If they are local, do they have local vendors where they get the items, too? When at all possible, you want to keep your local ecosystem going.
- Offerings
What do they have on offer? Are they only good for coffee, or do they have snacks that go with the coffee? Do they only distribute meat, or do they have vegetables? What about prepared meals?
- Reviews and Feedback
Do your due diligence in finding out what others think about a particular food supplier or distributor. Everyone will make efforts to put their best foot forward, but sometimes the marketing may be misleading. By going to reviews and feedback from objective sources, you can tell who is blowing smoke.
- Pricing
Are the prices competitive for what you’re getting? You want to make sure that the prices are neither too low nor too high. If they’re too low, then you might not be getting the quality that you deserve.
- Certifications and Grades
This is a ‘ducks in a row’ sort of consideration. Make sure that the vendor that you choose is compliant with all of the local and federal health codes. Ask to see documentation.
- Customer Service
Make sure that their claims of customers being the most important aren’t just blowing smoke. You should be treated with respect, and they should give you no reasons to go to another vendor because of not knowing their product or being rude.
Selecting the right food vendors is important, as these are companies where a relationship is established. By making the right determinations beforehand, you have a higher chance of achieving the success you crave.
