Sysco cut me off

[HBMTN]

I have been buying from Sysco since we opened our catering/concessions business in April. Every order has been $475-$750 except for my last which was $275, I got the email from my rep below.

" Sysco Rep-I received an email from my manager sent to everyone in our district.

He states –(taken exactly from his email - “A while back we removed the approval process for under 20 piece orders. We as a company have not done a very good job of managing this process. Our orders less than 20 are up significantly and our driver overtime and miles are up for the same time period. We need to get a handle on this immediately in order to control expenses. “

They want me to place a 20 case order which there is no way I can not knowing from week to week what I am doing and not having huge refrigerator space for meats. So back to Sams and Costco for me. I have to find a supplier for chicken leg quarters and whole beef briskets as there are none around here.

[landarc]

Sooo, more of their customers are making orders for less than 20 cases, they see the answer as not taking those orders anymore. Interesting business tactic.

[Jorge]

Originally Posted by landarc

Sooo, more of their customers are making orders for less than 20 cases, they see the answer as not taking those orders anymore. Interesting business tactic.

If Reps have been taking on more small clients, and they aren't clustered I can see the problem for the vendor. Now if existing large clients are cutting their orders back that much, they have larger issues to be concerned about.

Mileage, maintenance, fuel costs, labor, all add up and I'm guessing that Sysco has fairly low margins but I don't know the latter for sure.

[big brother smoke]

I hope you can find a family owned distributor willing to work with you.

[PorkQPine]

You might want to talk to another caterer in your area and combine orders or else get a large freezer. You can also check out the closest Restaurant Depot and see if it makes sense to travel that far. I know they are opening a new one in Virginia Beach.

[Gowan]

There's a PFG location in VA. Might want to check them out.
http://www.pfgc.com/AboutUs/Pages/Locations.aspx

[landarc]

I guess I read into the OP that the reps were taking more orders from existing customers for smaller orders. I may be reading something into that which is not there. I was recently reading that Sysco was looking into trying to serve a smaller order business module due to the trend away from large order service. Out here, they serve many small restaurants that do not bring in 20 cases regularly, but, the density of small restaurants is much larger than many areas.

If I read correctly, they referred to 20 piece orders, not cases. Usually that means buying a case of beans a bag of okra or enough of something to add up to 20 seperate items. Might want to double check with your sysco rep.

[PCDoctor_1979]

Exactly the reason I don't deal with Sysco or any other big distributor. I don't have the cooler space, and I don't always know a week ahead - so I get my stuff JIT from Sam's. I have ordered hot dogs for kiddie events a couple of times via a restaurant friend through Sysco and they are pretty good (for hot dogs)

[EatonHoggBBQ]

Your salesman must not be making enough commission to be bothered with you. We found our salesman overcharging for chicken. A few dollars here, a few dollars there, can put a lot of extra money in his pocket. Our food costs are 25-30k a month so he don't want to lose our business.

[Bigmista]

Originally Posted by HBMTN

I have been buying from Sysco since we opened our catering/concessions business in April. Every order has been $475-$750 except for my last which was $275, I got the email from my rep below.

" Sysco Rep-I received an email from my manager sent to everyone in our district.

He states –(taken exactly from his email - “A while back we removed the approval process for under 20 piece orders. We as a company have not done a very good job of managing this process. Our orders less than 20 are up significantly and our driver overtime and miles are up for the same time period. We need to get a handle on this immediately in order to control expenses. “

They want me to place a 20 case order which there is no way I can not knowing from week to week what I am doing and not having huge refrigerator space for meats. So back to Sams and Costco for me. I have to find a supplier for chicken leg quarters and whole beef briskets as there are none around here.

No restaurant depot in the area?

[HBMTN]

Nearest RD is 3 hours, Costco and Sams 1 hour. Sysco is 20 case minimum. They told me when I signed up in March they no longer had a 20 case minimum due to the economy, the truck come right by me daily it is 75 yards out of thier way and 10 minutes including the unload time to deliver once per week for what has been an average $550 order, my last order was only $275 so I guess that was the deal breaker. I told the rep that I know I am a little fish but little fish become big fish and when I got there I would remember how they helped me with this letter. U.S Foods will deliver a $500 minimum order, I am going to call a rep and see what they can do for me. Until then I'll be adding a 3 hour round trip to Sams once per week. Still have to find a whole brisket, and chicken quarter supplier.

[jgh1204]

IF not for the travel time, I would think getting cut off from Sysco would be a good thing. I remember Sysco products from my college days and I thought they were terrible.

[Jorge]

Originally Posted by HBMTN

Nearest RD is 3 hours, Costco and Sams 1 hour. Sysco is 20 case minimum. They told me when I signed up in March they no longer had a 20 case minimum due to the economy, the truck come right by me daily it is 75 yards out of thier way and 10 minutes including the unload time to deliver once per week for what has been an average $550 order, my last order was only $275 so I guess that was the deal breaker. I told the rep that I know I am a little fish but little fish become big fish and when I got there I would remember how they helped me with this letter. U.S Foods will deliver a $500 minimum order, I am going to call a rep and see what they can do for me. Until then I'll be adding a 3 hour round trip to Sams once per week. Still have to find a whole brisket, and chicken quarter supplier.

Who is 75 yards from you? Can you work a deal?

[big brother smoke]

No Will Call?