Save yourself some administrative headaches
As an operator, the amount of admin and focus you place on it can be the difference between having a life or not in the restaurant industry. You can only give so much or ask the same from your managers or staff. A Prime vendor goes a long way to reducing that load. Ordering the bulk of what you buy from a single source has several causal effects that you will feel almost immediately.
Let’s start with ordering and receiving. You placing and stocking fewer of both each week. The time savings in reconciling orders alone is worthy of your attention. Add to that managing fewer deliveries. This works especially well if you are utilizing a specific person for receiving. You can schedule them against the order and that creates consistency, experience and efficiency.
It also gives you a single vendor to hold accountable. If you are buying any volume, this can be a pretty potent piece of leverage. There is plenty of competition out there and you need only use that fact to get pricing you can trust. You can go so far as to sign a contract for cost plus, which locks in a specific pricing margin for a specific time frame. This is a double edged sword, because you are locked in for that contract until it expires.
Prime vendor can also give you additional perks, like marketing dollars and promotions support. The more you buy the more you are worth to them. You may have some margin ups and downs, but that is ok if you reduce your overall costs. Being a bigger fish, makes your business a better prize, so use your power for good!
Got a cool restaurant hack of your own? Let us know!
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