Specialty Food/Market

[GordonCooks]

Any members possessing such a business. Looking for general start-up advice - spec supply chain management.

Thanks

[gfron1]

I'm in my 5th year. You're a different shipping zone, but I have a lot of distributors on your end of the country. What do you want to know?

Edited October 2, 2008 by gfron1 (log)

[Pam R]

What kind of specialty foods?

[GordonCooks]

I'm in my 5th year.  You're a different shipping zone, but I have a lot of distributors on your end of the country.  What do you want to know?

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A good friend is looking into a opening a small specialty grocery store with take away. The hot end of the business is handled but I would like to advise moreso on the grocery end. Do you deal direct with your suppliers? Or manufacturer's reps? What was your initial turnaround time from negotiating your price to getting the product on the shelf.

Product wise - oils, vinegars, dry goods, pastas, sweets,, etc. Think along the lines of William Sonoma

[gfron1]

A good friend is looking into a opening a small specialty grocery store with take away. The hot end of the business is handled but I would like to advise moreso on the grocery end. Do you deal direct with your suppliers? Or manufacturer's reps? What was your initial turnaround time from negotiating your price to getting the product on the shelf.

Product wise - oils, vinegars, dry goods, pastas, sweets,, etc. Think along the lines of William Sonoma

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Sounds exactly like what I am doing. Realize that location means a lot in this question. If your friend is in a major city, things change, but here's my response anyway.

I deal with some 80+ producers/manufacturs v. distributors. I deal with less than a dozen distributors. The plus is price and relationship. The negative is my time. I often have reps call me only when their month is short and not when I need them so I try to go directly if at all possible. A good example - I use Harolds Imports for much of my small inventory gadgets (based in NY). I have a rep in Sante Fe. I rarely hear from my rep, yet the get a cut of all of my purchases - why?

As far as "negotiating your price," that depends how big of a store this will be. I don't have much negotiating power unfortunately. This goes back to relationships. Many of my supplier "Friends" will email me when inventory runs low or if they have something that they'll be putting on discount shortly to allow me to beat the rush.

A few specifics from the northeast:

Taste of Crete ExV Olive oil - my absolute favorite for taste, value, packaging...Esther is a gem.

European Imports out of Chicago had a nice overall selection but can be pricey.

Raja Foods is my go-to Indian distributor

Chicago Importing Company for European goodies.

Carl Brandt for mass produced high quality sweets.

This could go on forever, so let me know specifics and I'll share what I can.

Cheese - Cheeseworks East, unbeatable selection.

Peters Imports - When I need specialty foods but don't want to buy too many. They're a bit more expensive but I meet a lot of customer requests through them.

I avoided some of your topics because I get them from the west coast and I have no doubt that you'll have better sources in NYC or NJ.

[gfron1]

I should add that there is nothing better your friend can do than get to the NY Fancy Food Show next summer. That's where they will meet all of the people they need to meet.

[GordonCooks]

I should add that there is nothing better your friend can do than get to the NY Fancy Food Show next summer.  That's where they will meet all of the people they need to meet.

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Thanks for those great leads!

[chezcherie]

if your friend is starting up soon, you might consider the fancy food show on the west coast, held in san francisco in january, rather than wait for summer in ny. most, but not all, of the east coast vendors participate.

[Pam R]

My specialty store is pretty specialized, so I'm very limited in terms of suppliers. Having said that, shop around. Request product lists from lots of them. During a holiday season this year, I was able to save at least $5000 simply by buying certain items from one supplier and other items from another (I'm talking about the exact same items that both suppliers handled).

As a small store, you're not likely to have a lot of negotiating power. We ship everything in from out of town -- one thing we've been able to do is get a couple of suppliers to agree to pay for shipping. Another company gives us a certain % off of everything we buy to help pay for shipping. Shipping costs are astronomical. Some of my larger suppliers also supplie grocery store chains across the country so my single independent store has no negotiating power with them.

If your suppliers are local, you can get same day or next day delivery. If they have to travel, you might be looking at a week. I live in the centre of Canada and items from Montreal and Toronto take 3-8 days to get here by truck. If you are in NY, you should be able to get most things in a couple of days.

It used to take a while for credit applications to be processed before suppliers would start supplying. Now, with a credit card, you can be in business in an hour.

[gfron1]

Pam reminded me of two other things. First, there are buyers groups that they can join. I haven't found their prices worth the membership, but its an option. The main perk is that you can buy in smaller lots if you don't want to get cases - not an issue for most stores.

The other is that many of my suppliers are giving shipping breaks right now because of the economy. I just had one of my favorite suppliers, Ritrovo Regional Italian Foods, give me a freight break because they know that's the sole reason I haven't ordered from them in a while.

[Beanie]

Tree of Life and United Natural Foods are national distributors that carry many specialty products. I have a small shop in the Mohawk Valley and they both delivered to this rural location. Negotiating power will probably be zero, order minimums will likely be high, and most products will be available only by the case. Depending on the size of the store and sales volume, this may not be a problem. It was for me. I agree that the Fancy Food Show is a must. Some of the products will be available only thru distributors, but many vendors will ship directly to stores. Also, the Fancy Food Show runs a workshop on "how to start a specialty food business." With growing interest in buying local, I'd suggest tracking down locally or regionally produced items. If the store will be in NYS, check out the NYS Dept. of Ag and Markets "Pride of New York" web site, here, to search for local products.

[GordonCooks]

Tree of Life and United Natural Foods are national distributors that carry many specialty products. I have a small shop in the Mohawk Valley and they both delivered to this rural location. Negotiating power will probably be zero, order minimums will likely be high, and most products will be available only by the case. Depending on the size of the store and sales volume, this may not be a problem. It was for me. I agree that the Fancy Food Show is a must. Some of the products will be available only thru distributors, but many vendors will ship directly to stores. Also, the Fancy Food Show runs a workshop on "how to start a specialty food business."  With growing interest in buying local, I'd suggest tracking down locally or regionally produced items. If the store will be in NYS, check out the NYS Dept. of Ag and Markets "Pride of New York" web site, here, to search for local products.

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Noted, thanks!!