What Can A Food Broker Do For You As The Owner Of A Small Restaurant?
Posted on: 5 January 2021
If you own and run a small restaurant, then you are likely capable of doing the shopping yourself at a local restaurant warehouse or of having food delivered weekly by a restaurant supplier. You might assume hiring a food broker is something only the larger restaurants or local chains can benefit from. But this is not the case at all! Even if your restaurant is small, you can benefit from hiring a food broker. Here's how.
You'll get better prices
How do food brokers make their money? They negotiate. Since they buy larger amounts of food from suppliers, they are able to negotiate a significantly lower price than what those suppliers would charge you, especially as a small restaurant owner. They mark the price up slightly when they sell the product to you, and that mark-up margin is their earnings. They set the price so that you still pay less than you would if buying directly from the supplier.
You can get foods in smaller quantities that you may otherwise have to buy in bulk
As a small restaurant, there may be some things you don't buy just because they're not available in small quantities. For instance, maybe you would love to buy Cara Cara oranges, but because the supplier only sells them in 50-pound crates, you don't buy them because you would never use that many. A food broker can buy these large quantities and then break them down, selling smaller quantities to restaurant owners like you. This means you can buy more ingredients with less worry about waste.
You'll get access to more specialized, unique ingredients
Food brokers make vast connections with all sorts of warehouses, food suppliers, and farmers. Through these connections, they often gain access to unique ingredients you may not be able to source on your own. From specialty seafood to unique apple varieties, adding a few of these things to your menu can help keep customers satisfied.
You only have to deal with a single contact person
Even running a small restaurant requires you to wear many hats, and the simpler you can keep your responsibilities, the better. When you work with a food broker, you only have to call that one broker, rather than 10 different suppliers. This saves you a lot of time talking on the phone or sending emails.
Food brokers are not just for large restaurants and big businesses. They offer great benefits for smaller establishments too.
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