I am guilty of not watching my food costs. For several months, when I did my accounting, I would enter invoices by totals instead of entering individual line items which was a little more time consuming. When I finally got around to entering by individual line items I found that some of my food costs had tripled and almost all were at least 25% higher. When I talked to my Shamrock sales rep about this he brought in his boss to have a heart to heart. The boss basically said, “food costs are increasing, so raise your prices on your menu”! I responded by saying “I haven’t heard anything in the news media about food costs increasing 100 to 300 percent. I think you’re raising your prices every week to see what you can get away with”. So, I checked out prices with Sysco and found their prices to be lower all across the board. So I switched and haven’t placed an order with Shamrock for the past three weeks. Has the Shamrock sales rep called me to ask what’s up? No. I don’t think he knows we stopped ordering. My Shamrock sales rep is interesting. When you think of the definition of a “salesman” you think of someone motivated to get you to buy what he sells. I entered my own orders online and never saw my salesman. So he wasn’t even an “order taker”. When I forgot to order tomatoes and lettuce, my wife called the salesman to get it the next day and he said “we can get it on another truck, but that will cost you a $7 delivery charge”. We called the Sysco guy and he brought it himself! No charge! Service. Its all about service. Shamrock is a take it or leave it company, while Sysco goes all out to get you what you need. All at a lower cost. Shamrock has some good products, but nothing you can’t get from other suppliers. You would think that in this economy food purveyors would be stepping all over each other for your business, but not so with Shamrock.
Would you like to compare costs? It seems every food purveyor’s online ordering systems have the ability to have separate pricing schemes for each client. So, I can buy 50 pounds of yellow onions for 16.06, but the next guy might have a different price. So, here’s my prices for some everyday products. Leave a comment with your costs so we can compare prices. Thanks!
Granny Smith Apples, 40 pack, 21.04
Butter, unsalted 30 1lb, 82.99
Carrots, jumbo 10bs, 15.43
Eggs, xlg,6-2.5 dzn, 23.95
Lettuce, Spring mix organic, 2-1.5lbs, 13.44
Onion, yellow jmbo 50 lbs, 16.06
Pepper, red bell 5lb, 20.6
Let me know where I stand and if you have any other pricing questions let me know. Lets help each other lower our costs so we don’t have to “raise our prices on our menus”! Thank you.
One Response to “Fellow Retaurantuers, Are You Watching Your Food Costs? I switched from Shamrock to Sysco!”
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Here’s an update. I’m currently going back and forth with Sysco and Shamrock. There’s somethings you get from one you can’t get from the other, or a certain item is better from one company than the other. So, I suggest having multiple vendors for cost and quality issoes!