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market-farming - [Market-farming] Pricing and Chefs (was: sweet potato wholesale pricing)

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  • From: Richard Stewart <rstewart AT zoomtown.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Pricing and Chefs (was: sweet potato wholesale pricing)
  • Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:26:04 -0400

I disagree with this.  I have found restaurants and chefs to vary as much as the varieties of produce we all sell.  Their purchasing varies as much within the business as well.  Sometimes the prices they are willing to pay vary purely on whether they have a liquor license or can only sell whine and beer.  Other times its based on the rarity of the item.  If they cannot get it from the local big guy then it has more value.  Often times the larger restaurants get good deals on bulk items but pay good money for in season or specialty items.  Some chefs have a varied menu that changes from week to week with pricing changing as a result as well.  Often time these are very small scale businesses with at most 50 settings, usually less.   They purchase less product but are often times willing to pay higher prices for something different (regardless of what that different is).

Part of our jobs is to find good chefs we can work with that run good businesses.  Sometimes that is not even enough...the economy sucks.

What I have seen locally, here in Cincinnati, is that restaurants fail for any number of reasons little of which show a direct correlation to what they pay in terms of food costs.  The current economic realities of our country vary from region to region but I can say that the biggest influence on buying is whether they have customers coming the door.  That has little to do with prices.  If they can afford to eat there they will, be it once a year or twice a week.  

Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, Ohio

An Ohio Century Farm Est. 1855

(513) 967-1106


On Oct 15, 2011, at 10:06 AM, <sunnfarm AT netscape.com> <sunnfarm AT netscape.com> wrote:

The trouble I have had with restarurants is that despite all the talk of paying extra for local grown quality the bottom line always wins in the end and they buy on the cheap whenever they can. The only restaruants to pay better prices usually last only a year or two before going under... Bob.



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