Restaurant/bar equipment delivery

[Hassouni]

To all owners/managers, how did you get your restaurant equipment? Everything has to be delivered and the cheapest prices for things are found online, but in a lot of cases they won't deliver inside the building, even for a fee, and do curbside dropoff instead. They're telling me to hire a moving company to get the stuff inside, which I find absurd.

 

What have you done?

[Lisa Shock]

I have inquired at a local college's student employment office and gotten groups of strong young people to come in for a very reasonable wage. They're also often glad to get maybe just one hour's work, because they have busy schedules and often cannot work a 4-8 hour shift anyway. One place I worked at, we'd feed and pay them.

[royal123]

On 4/21/2018 at 3:00 AM, Lisa Shock said:

I have inquired at a local college's student employment office and gotten groups of strong young people to come in for a very reasonable wage. They're also often glad to get maybe just one hour's work, because they have busy schedules and often cannot work a 4-8 hour shift anyway. One place I worked at, we'd feed and pay them.

That is really helpful. I will also do the same next time. However last time I also faced the problem in moving equipment yet my staff was really helpful that time. We did all work together with positive team spirit and dedication.

[JeanneCake]

If you have a technical high school near you, you might approach the culinary staff to see if they have strong students and/or equipment that might help you with moving the equipment into your space.  I bought a refrigerated case from Restaurant Depot years ago and the freight company brought it to the front door, but not inside.  It was on a pallet so my contractor brought one of those dolly things and brought it inside after having disposed of the packing material (another thing to think about, because your dumpster company is likely to charge you if there is packing material in your trash) and he ended up setting it up for us.  But the school was willing to bring over a few strong students and a few instructors to help because I had a co-op student from their school at the time.

 

It is also worth investigating if your local restaurant dealer will negotiate a price on the equipment if you buy it from them.  I ended up paying for delivery and set up but the peace of mind that they were responsible for getting it in there and setting it up was worth it.  I didn't have to worry that the Webstaurant Store or Big Tray would leave me in the lurch should anything go wrong.  I would also never buy any equipment from Restaurant Depot again. Ever.

[pastrygirl]

3 hours ago, JeanneCake said:

I bought a refrigerated case from Restaurant Depot years ago and the freight company brought it to the front door, but not inside.  ....

 

It is also worth investigating if your local restaurant dealer will negotiate a price on the equipment if you buy it from them.  I ended up paying for delivery and set up but the peace of mind that they were responsible for getting it in there and setting it up was worth it.  I didn't have to worry that the Webstaurant Store or Big Tray would leave me in the lurch should anything go wrong.  I would also never buy any equipment from Restaurant Depot again. Ever.

 

You wouldn't buy from Restaurant Depot only because of the delivery policy, or other reasons? 

 

I may need to invest in a fridge or freezer, I'm glad for the reminder to factor in the cost & inconvenience of delivery & set-up.

[JeanneCake]

@pastrygirl - I ordered the case to arrive before Thanksgiving and it turned out RD never placed the order with the manufacturer - so it was delayed.  I ordered the larger case but because RD never followed through with the MFG, there were no larger cases available so in order to get something I had to settle for the smaller case.  When I called RD to check a status, I got the runaround and then they tried to say it was the MFG holding things up.  So I called the MFG and got the true story that RD had asked if they had the larger one in stock (only 1) but they didn't respond to the MFG for 3 days so the MFG sold it to someone else.  Then I had to fight with them to refund the difference between the larger and smaller cases.  When we were trying to arrange delivery the freight company didn't have the right paperwork and if I didn't get the right paperwork (which had to come from RD) the case would be delayed for another week.  When I called RD to ask why the freight company was calling me and not having the right paperwork, RD hung up on me.  Mind you, the freight was free, but the aggravation wasn't.  I didn't have the case for Thanksgiving and it barely made it in time for Christmas so the entire season was lost.  I have enough wholesale work that it didn't affect my numbers but it meant I didn't do a grand opening until Easter

 

So I will not go through that hassle ever again.  I would rather pay a few hundred dollars and not have to go through the hassle of where is it, is anything broken, is it the right thing, is it going to get left at the end of our plaza's driveway or will they bring it to the door step....

 

I need another freezer but I would rather buy from the company I bought most of my other equipment from because they will bring it in, set it up, put casters on it and wheel it where it needs to go.  And if anything goes wrong, they will fix it without arguing with me.  That is worth the $ to me!

[Auspicious]

 

On 4/20/2018 at 5:30 PM, Lisa Shock said:

I have inquired at a local college's student employment office and gotten groups of strong young people to come in for a very reasonable wage. They're also often glad to get maybe just one hour's work, because they have busy schedules and often cannot work a 4-8 hour shift anyway. One place I worked at, we'd feed and pay them.

 

I've had good luck with local high school football teams.