• working on DNS.. links may break temporarily.

Sysco cut me off

H

HBMTN

is One Chatty Farker
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
2,008
Reaction score
753
Points
0
Location
Virginia
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.
 
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.
 
landarc said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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)
 
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.
 
HBMTN said:
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.
Click to expand...

No restaurant depot in the area?
 
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.
 
HBMTN said:
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.
Click to expand...

Who is 75 yards from you? Can you work a deal?
 
What about these guys?

http://www.stauntonfoods.com/home.html

I think if you called them and told them you wanted to shift away from Sysco, they would bend over backwards to get your business.

Do you have FSA (food service of america) around there? I have seen some pretty good ribs come from them, if you pay the extra to get the better cuts.
 
Another fridge might be worth the investment vs. having to drive three hours any time you book a gig. It's Sysco's gas and time vs. your gas and time.
 
Thanks Daddy's Butt Rub gonna have to give Staunton Foods a call, Sysco has no will call/pick up except for an emergency. The Sysco trucks drive 75 yards in front of me daily, in other words to drop an order to me they have to turn right and go 75 yards from thier planned route to local restaurants. So its not like I am out of the way and costing them overtime and fuel.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
Spider Grills has a new grill for pre-order.
Replies
5
Views
664
SmokyDick
S
J
My Annual Deer Grind.......
Replies
18
Views
631
SmokeOCD
S
S
Hello from Delaware
Replies
6
Views
197
cowgirl
cowgirl
T
Buying a new smoker/grill. Which one?
Replies
1
Views
642
bschoen
B
snadamo
Wild Fork Membership changes
Replies
13
Views
949
sudsandswine
sudsandswine
Back
Top