Do you see "Restaurant Supply" anywhere on our store sign?

[Teysa]

I haven't posted about this guy before but he's a semi regular sucky customer who happens to run a nearby restaurant. He's always buying us out of our family pack pork chops. Now you may not think that's such a bad thing. It is when they're on sale and we have limited supplies. So when he does this we end up pissing off other customers because we don't have what they came for. This week, these particular pork chops are regular price so the meat cutters didn't really make a whole lot of backstock.

Restaurant guy came by today wanting more packs of pork chops than we had in the counter. I told him that the meat cutter was at lunch but he could cut him some more when he came back. He acted annoyed that I wouldn't cut them. Sorry, I'm not trained on the equipment and I like my fingers attached, thank you.

He then asked if I would combine the smaller packs. I told him no as that's considered price changing and we're not supposed to do that. Of course I don't know what I'm doing and people do it for him all the time. (Now while that really is against the rules, we will make exceptions if someone isn't being a jerk about it.)

He asked who the manager on duty was so he could complain. I gave him the name but I never heard anything back. This particular manager,while not without his faults, does have a spine so the guy either never made the complaint or the manager told him to fly a kite.

[MrsEclipse]

I'm suprised this story didn't include the line, "I have a customer waiting back at his table! If I go out of business, it's your falut!"

[BrenDAnn]

You could tell the pissed off customers to go to the guy's restaurant if they want their pork chops, since that's where they're at. As for guy, he sounds like he's trying to run a restaurant cheaply and inefficiently! I'm not sure I'd eat there, come to think of it!

[Mike Taylor]

This idiot doesn't know how to place a bulk order in advance? Most of the grocers I know are more than happy work with those, that way they can still serve their walk-in customers.

[PepperElf]

sounds like he doesn't know how to prepare in advance
and seems to think everyone else is responsible for making up for his mistakes

[Teysa]

In response to Mike, we'll work with those too. We have a chef who calls in to order a large amount of stuff on a regular basis. We're more than willing to work with him. The fact that he isn't a jerk helps too.

[fireheart]

In response to Mike, we'll work with those too. We have a chef who calls in to order a large amount of stuff on a regular basis. We're more than willing to work with him. The fact that he isn't a jerk helps too.

My old store used to do school orders and from time to time we've had community groups do the same. They're nto gigantic bulk orders, they're usually home ec teachers.

[hinakiba777]

A restauranteur that doesn't prepare ahead of time is not the owner of a place i want to eat.

But honestly, I'm shocked at how many people want workers to do something insanely dangerous they aren't trained for, instead of waiting fifteen minutes for someone who knows how the machines work.

[Kristev]

The steadfast refusal to think is something you can always count on with . . . consumers.

[chainedbarista]

i'm thinking this guy has not only no clue about bulk ordering, but about the restaurant business in general. damn, not just inefficent, but inept too.

[Legal Eagle]

How is buying from retail cheaper than buying in bulk straight from the abattoir?

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Is this guy the next in line to appear on "Kitchen Nightmares"?

If so, see if you can get Ramsey's autograph!

[Ben_Who]

If he's buying in bulk, repeatedly, RETAIL, well...I don't think you'll have too much to worry about in the long run. That dude ain't gonna be in business for long.

If all he's buying is pork chops, he may be consistently underestimating the popularity of the item. If he's buying other stuff in bulk, he may have pissed off a supplier somehow. If he actually runs out of pork chops and thus winds up standing in your store acting frantic ("And if my customers start pelting me with meatballs it's YOUR FAULT!") then he plans poorly. And if he's throwing away stock and trying to get it replaced on the fly, he may either be letting his product expire or he has faulty refrigeration equipment.

And since any ONE of those things is disastrous from a restaurateur's point of view (I'm drawing on my vast experience in how to run a restaurant business that I earned from watching two seasons of Kitchen Nightmares on Hulu), I can imagine that there'll be a sign on his door not too far in the future. Nothing burns through money faster than a failing restaurant.

Love, Who?

[Teysa]

He buys a lot of chicken drumsticks too. You may be right about pissing off the restaurant supplier. Knowing him, he was a jerk to them too and they told him to go away. Sad thing is there is actually a restaurant supply store just down the street so it's not even like he'd have to go out of the way.

I'll find out when I go in today whether he actually did make a complaint. It could always be that he hadn't finished his shopping by the time I left.

[JustaCashier]

Speaking of restaurant supply places, we used to have one around here, whose slogan was (seriously): "Enjoy Life! Eat Out More Often!"

They had it plastered on the side of their delivery trucks, and I believe, their product labels as well.

/


Mike