Beating up vendors

About eight years ago I decided to hang up my chef coat, and get back my nights and weekends, and pursue a new line of work, route sales.. it's great, nights and weekends off, I get to see my wife, and actually get to enjoy going to restaurants to eat, and the best thing about route sales is that I still get to go to restaurants to deliver, so I get to stay connected to the business in a smaller capacity, talk recipes, and build great relationship's with local chefs, owners, cooks, dishwashers, etc etc, and I must say that most everyone around our fine city is a pleasure to deal with, but for the small minority of restaurateurs out there that enjoy treating your vendors and delivery guys like surfs, peasants, and basic annoyances, keep this in mind, us truck monkeys have money to spend too, and trust me mine will be going to the right people, and of course I would not lack the class to call anyone out, but just keep this in mind when you feel like taking out your bad day on a vendor/potential customer.

I'd have to agree with ya Mike. It's never a good idea to treat anyone bad, especially the guy that could be helping you out (or not helping you at all) with special sales and vendor promotions......

I recall a section of Kitchen Confidential where Bourdain goes off on some delivery guy. I wonder how many folks who do this now are just trying to emulate that behavior? No place for it.

While I understand Mike M's position, it works both ways. I dealt with a company whose driver tried to run us. He would show up at all different hours and be mad if no one was around to take in his delivery. Even going so far as to wake up my chef at her house at 7am so that he could get his route done early. My response to him was- who is going to pay her overtime for bringing her in on her time off. That coupled with the sales guys constant up selling and add on’s led me to a new vendor. Business relationships like love relationships work both ways. Do unto others.

Will, how feasible is it to simply stop using a vendor if they pull that type of stuff on you? I wonder if some think they can get away with it because the restaurant has to use them.

[quote="Will Crawford"]While I understand Mike M's position, it works both ways. I dealt with a company whose driver tried to run us. He would show up at all different hours and be mad if no one was around to take in his delivery. Even going so far as to wake up my chef at her house at 7am so that he could get his route done early. My response to him was- who is going to pay her overtime for bringing her in on her time off. That coupled with the sales guys constant up selling and add on’s led me to a new vendor. Business relationships like love relationships work both ways. Do unto others.[/quote]


your right Will, not that I would ever forget, you are the customer to a vendor, and much like you would treat your guests in hope that they return, vendors should also maintain top notch service and attitude to keep you as a customer, and if a vendor is out of line, rude, what have you, then you as the business owner have rights to let the vendor and his company know about it, I was speaking from a stance of unprovoked attacks, one of which I was a victim of just yesterday, hence my venting here..

Will, how feasible is it to simply stop using a vendor if they pull that type of stuff on you? I wonder if some think they can get away with it because the restaurant has to use them.

Ron,
It is a total pain in the butt to change vendors. It is something that you do not want to deal with because you have a million other things to do. But if you and your staff are getting treated poorly then you have to say hit the bricks. Just as there are always other restaurants there are always other vendors that want your business.


Will

While I understand Mike M's position, it works both ways. I dealt with a company whose driver tried to run us. He would show up at all different hours and be mad if no one was around to take in his delivery. Even going so far as to wake up my chef at her house at 7am so that he could get his route done early. My response to him was- who is going to pay her overtime for bringing her in on her time off. That coupled with the sales guys constant up selling and add on’s led me to a new vendor. Business relationships like love relationships work both ways. Do unto others.

your right Will, not that I would ever forget, you are the customer to a vendor, and much like you would treat your guests in hope that they return, vendors should also maintain top notch service and attitude to keep you as a customer, and if a vendor is out of line, rude, what have you, then you as the business owner have rights to let the vendor and his company know about it, I was speaking from a stance of unprovoked attacks, one of which I was a victim of just yesterday, hence my venting here..

Mike,
I totally understand. Sometimes us Restaurant folks get a bit testy and take stuff out on the ones who do not deserve it. Not sure what you can do in that situation. it's like the customer that you can not please. You try and try but no luck. It is like they are looking to get in a fight when they walk in. I just try and make them happy. If not then ... oh well..Good luck and keep the smile on your face.

For the largest part (the very largest part), my experiences with chefs and restaurant staff have been overwhelmingly positive, like 99.9% positive, so I don't have much room at all really to complain, except that the .1% negative experience can sometimes pack a real whallop.

One was more confusing and irritating than anything. A chef who kept me in the kitchen for what seemed like an hour one day, pulling extraneous kitchen staff in to taste and exclaiming over my breads and telling me how he wanted to use them and that he was thrilled to see a new artisan bread alternative in Louisville, and he was 100% committed to my stuff. He said he'd call, but that if he didn't by X day because he was so busy I should call around X time on X day. So I did. He came to the phone, said he'd been so overwhelmed he hadn't had time to talk about the new stuff with the owner, please call back at around X time on X day. That went on for about three weeks. I finally emailed the restaurant, noted that a simple yes or no was really all that was necessary and that any response at all would be helpful by saving me time and energy. Never heard back from them.

A couple were sort of minor annoyances, chefs who said, yeah, great, come in next X day at X time and I'd be happy to meet with you. So I do that and they're not in that day. Nobody knows I'm coming, nobody knows anything. Guess what? My time really is important to me. If I make an appointment with somebody, I either keep it or call to say I can't. I expect the same courtesy.

The worst was a run-in with what I think of as a celebrity chef wannabe who was so outstandingly rude I nearly walked out after about 2 seconds. He took one bite of the butt end piece of what he'd ripped off of one loaf (and admittedly not even my own favorite of the lot, but because so many people like it, I brought it in), told me it was bad, that I'd never be able to compete with the noted baker in town, and then proceeded to rip the loaf apart, as if digging through a purse looking for a lost hanky. I stood my ground, responding politely while trying to keep my face from registering my extreme alarm, and then he began to ask questions. I explained how my own product is different in many ways and why, and then he asked if I'd be willing to do a signature bread for them, something exclusive only to them. So let's review, boys and girls: my breads are godawful, I'll never be able to compete, but maybe I could produce a special, exclusive bread just for him?

I reiterated the very weird and decidedly unpleasant experience to my husband, noting that when I approached a man in the place who'd asked me if I was there to see X, I said, "Who?" X being the celebrity chef wannabe who happened to be standing just a couple of feet away. My husband said, "Well that explains it. You as much as told him he had a three inch dick."

Mike, I couldn't agree with you more. Nobody wants to go to work in an environment that demeans them or in some way makes them feel inferior. At least I know I don't. We have to know that people have a choice on where to spend their hard earned money and we want that place to be ours. We can ill afford to run off business in a day when there are 100 places to eat within a mile of each other. What better compliment can be paid by a vendor than to want to dine at one of your stops. So Mike, I want to just say that I appreciate what you do for us and hope to see you around for a good long time. So, the next time your out for dinner, stop by and see us.
DWayne