Sysco cut me off

Yea, tell the syco rep. that the other reps been callin you every week or two. and he'll bet the sysco price. Then see what he says.
Betcha he says "Oh that was ment for this giuy that only buys once or twice
Play their game

Yep, these guys get paid commissions so they have an incentive to sell, sell, sell. They may be pushed by mgmt. to get larger accounts but I would bet that they can service you.

Do you folks have Cash n' Carry out that way? They have pretty fair stuff, most of the time, and plenty of quantity...also, had you considered checking with local meat producers? We've got some local shops here who can supply as much meat as you could ask for, top-notch stuff, as long as they have a week's lead time- and they'll work with you, because they're so glad to have the business- the smallest hole-in-the-wall (to all appearances) can sometimes be the best vendors to deal with, for quality and reliability.

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...

are you anywhere near chesapeake? i really dont feel like looking on mapquest. If you are i hooked up with a guy down there last week while vending at the chesapeake jubilee and he had good prices on his meat.

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...

Yeah, great thinking...:thumb:
No business is better than some business??

We just picked up a case of chicken quarters at sams for less than 30 dollars. Never seen brisket there. Just ask what the case price is next time you go. There were 36 big leg quarters in the case.

GRIND'EM, each week I place a $300-$600 order with my Sysco guy. They have rumbled about how expencive it is to do small orders like that. Last winter I got a letter much like what your talking about. The following wednesday when my rep showed up "whom I like alot" I told him that we were not going to be doing any more biz together because of the letter and he freaked! It took him about 10 minutes to straighted it out. To date, I have placed orders for nothing more than 2 cases of meat some weeks and they have delivered without fail.
Bottom line is this, they need you as much as you need them. Play hardball with them and watch how fast they change their tune!!!!

I met with reps from both sysco and us foods. wasn't overly impressed with prices, we have a local family owned distrubitor that has no issues going out of there way to help us out. They'll open on sundays if I should happen to run out of product while vending (has happened several times) Delivery is a 100 buck minium, 3 dollar surcharge for less than 100. I'd say look for a local distrubtor and start a good relationship with them. Good luck.

Get in touch with your Rep. That's what they get paid for. In this wonderful day of you being a customer number in a computer many times letters get sent through a system without anyone really seeing what gets sent to who. Your Rep probably understands that there is no real extra expense delivering product to you if you are on route of the truck that services you and you are available to receive product during the delivery schedule they set up. The accountant and programmer who set up accounting software to send form letters do not make their money on commissions and the computer doesn't have "reasoning" with who should and shouldn't get a letter. If your Rep can not solve this problem, consider it a blessing that you know now that you need to change suppliers and are not in the situation of having a quality or availability problem that your Rep is less than helpful with solving for you.

I try to think of all my suppliers as partners. We all need to work together to make money. I need to make money to buy their product, they need to make a profit to provide me with the quality and service I demand. I always hold my end of the bargain (my mistakes are not their mistakes, loyalty and expedient pay) and if they can not do the same the "partnership" is over.

My Sysco rep has the same problem with 20 minimum. We play the game and fine inexpensive items that can break a case and buy those occassionly. Have found that it is worth the drive to go to restaurant depot for a lot of my items. As an example, low temp detergent, rinse, sanitizer from Sysco run $300 (eco labs 2.5 gal) and from RD $75 (5 gal buckets). Other items such as bacon and chicken can be less. Good thing they implemented their 20 item minimum, made me go look and save.
:clap2:

Im like you a little gut that only has the stock on hand that is sold this week. I have US foods exactly 3 miles away and they don't want to work with me cause I'm so small. Sysco is a little over an 1.5 hours away and for short notice jobs it would be a 3 hour round trip for stuff. Here we have a big local first movement so for me finding a meat supplier, produce co and milk guy was easy and most are less than a 10 min drive if I need to pick it up. They are more than happy to give me a better rate than any other place I can go and sending an email to the usfoods rep the other day telling her how much in sales she lost last month got a bit of a wake up call for her and now she is trying to get the business back. Yeah I get 5 deliveries from venders over the week and as I need them. Most are more than happy to drop by more than once a week for more butter milk or a case of chicken cause its suddenly "on sale" Thats nice too only having a 400 sf space!

Sysco cut me off 5 years ago, and it was the best thing they could have ever done for me. I was frantically looking for a new supplier, and could not make the 60 mile one way trip to Sams club twice a week.
I called around to the local grocers, and slaughter houses, and found a great business located locally. The local slaughter house also does wholesale and retail meats. I drive by every morning , after building the fire in the pit, and pick up my meat fresh. By the time I get the other shopping out of the way, the fire is perfect and ready for meat.
I make a Sams club run once a month, for my styrofoam and other non perishable items I need, as well as mayo and ketchup. My accountant has noticed a 20% drop in my costs, even as my revenue has grown 10%. So I am really thankful that Sysco cut me off.
Another benefit to buying locally, is my suppliers are also now customers, and have given me several catering job leads. I can't count the number of new customers who were refered by the slaughter house where I get my meat.

Best of luck to you.

Dave (A.K.A. Meadmaker)