Have any of y'all had any experience with this type of scenario?

[Bamabuzzard]

A buddy of mine and I are in talks with some local convenient stores about serving BBQ sandwiches in their store. What would happen is my partner and I would smoke the meat, make the sauce and simply sell the meat and sauce to the store for them to serve in their little "food court" in the store. We would ONLY be providing the meat and sauce. Not buns or anything else.

Does anyone have any experience on what to charge the store? It is pulled pork and bottled sauce. We would sell the meat in aluminum dishes that holds I'd say two to three gallons of meat.

Advice certainly appreciated.

[BBQ Grail]

I believe, and I stress believe, that the requirements for this type of enterprise are much stricter than the normal catering/restaurant venture.

I believe, and again I stress believe, you have to have an FDA approved kitchen instead of the normal county Health Department.

[Bamabuzzard]

The kitchen will be no problem. But I have no idea what to charge.

Originally Posted by BBQ Grail

I believe, and I stress believe, that the requirements for this type of enterprise are much stricter than the normal catering/restaurant venture.

I believe, and again I stress believe, you have to have an FDA approved kitchen instead of the normal county Health Department.

[Bbq Bubba]

How much would they be buying from you?

[big brother smoke]

Good luck!

[Bamabuzzard]

Really not sure. It's in its early stages and it depends on the location. We're talking to three different places. I guess I'm looking for a general price/lb which can change depending on the quantity the store buys.

Originally Posted by Bbq Bubba

How much would they be buying from you?

[blues_n_cues]

pork,beef,or what?

i tried the same thing but it's hard to beat the price of precooked stuff in the tub by sysco or white swan.

not to discourage you but i'd price them & see if it's worth your time & effort.

[Bamabuzzard]

Great advice and I appreciate it. It's pulled pork. I'm not sure why these three stores hadn't already went the Sysco/White Swan avenue. I might just ask. They might want "real bbq"

Originally Posted by blues_n_cues

pork,beef,or what?

i tried the same thing but it's hard to beat the price of precooked stuff in the tub by sysco or white swan.

not to discourage you but i'd price them & see if it's worth your time & effort.

[blues_n_cues]

yeah my closest store uses gfs pulled pork. $7.50 per 3# tub
no way i could beat it...

[Bamabuzzard]

Well, I doubt I could compete with $7.50 per 3# tub. Probably the only shot I got is quality/taste.

Originally Posted by blues_n_cues

yeah my closest store uses gfs pulled pork. $7.50 per 3# tub
no way i could beat it...

[BigBrad]

The local shops here in N. Iowa sell packaged BBQ for $4-$5 per pound. This is for sauced meat. I myself have done some custom cooking for friends and usually charge between $5 and $7 per pound for the meat, this is meat only and no sauce. Just what I have done in the past. The best answer I can say is Know your input costs and charge accordingly. Don't give it away and don't get to greedy. If it's good and people like it it's worth the price.

Good Luck.

[Bamabuzzard]

Well, I do know that most of the pre-packaged pulled/chopped pork/beef such as LLoyd's tastes to me as nothing more than meat cooked in an oven and bbq sauce poured on it. Down south a lot of people are very picky about their BBQ when it comes to quality.

Originally Posted by BigBrad

The local shops here in N. Iowa sell packaged BBQ for $4-$5 per pound. This is for sauced meat. I myself have done some custom cooking for friends and usually charge between $5 and $7 per pound for the meat, this is meat only and no sauce. Just what I have done in the past. The best answer I can say is Know your input costs and charge accordingly. Don't give it away and don't get to greedy. If it's good and people like it it's worth the price.

Good Luck.

[BBQ Grail]

Originally Posted by Bamabuzzard

The kitchen will be no problem. But I have no idea what to charge.

You are extremely lucky to have access to an FDA approved kitchen. Those are hard to come by. And of course you've already started the FDA approval process for your packaging.

It's one set of rules if YOU are selling product directly to customers, it's a whole new set of rules if you are selling product to someone else to sell to customers.

[Bamabuzzard]

It's not who you know but who knows you. It's good to have a partner that knows a lot of people...

Originally Posted by BBQ Grail

*You are extremely lucky to have access to an FDA approved kitchen. Those are hard to come by. And of course you've already started the FDA approval process for your packaging.

It's one set of rules if YOU are selling product directly to customers, it's a whole new set of rules if you are selling product to someone else to sell to customers.

[Ford]

I'm no expert but I think the person with the real problem is the food court vendor. He is buying meat from an outside source for sale in his establishemnt. Now what I do know is he needs SOP's that are going into detail on buying, holding and reheating cooked food for use in his business. He needs to identify where he is buying food from and in the case of cooked meat he's going to need certain certifications from the vendor (you) in order to resell. My bet is when he investigates, this deal will fall thru. He can't just bring your meat in to sell. It's totally different if he cooks it himself.