Why Is an Empty Wholesaler Price Check Worth It?

Jean-Denis Greze says a restaurant wholesaler price check is worth running even in the months it finds nothing. Eleven out of twelve months it comes up empty, and the run still costs about a dollar a month.

Do the check at least once a month, and again whenever a price changes. Greze says a daily run might fit a wholesaler that changes prices daily, and then notes that daily changes do not happen. The one month in a year when the check finds something, it finds hundreds if not thousands of dollars. The owner does not care how often the check runs. What matters is the occasional email: move items to another wholesaler that has a discount, or drop menu items because one supplier is raising prices until they get too expensive.

Restaurant owners already understand the business. They are not going to decide on their own that the monthly check is valuable. The job is to show the opportunity and ship a product that makes the move easy. Ask whether they want someone always making sure wholesalers are not changing prices in a way that hurts the restaurant, and the answer is yes.