Last night I stopped by a chicken place to buy some take out…Chicken, wedges & coleslaw…And for the 2nd time is a couple weeks they were out of coleslaw…How insane is that?..When I inquired I was told that they did not make it in house…Instead they ordered it ready made from their supplier…Now here is a place that is “struggling”…I was trying to explain to them that this was part of the reason they were “struggling”…They would not consider that folks would go elsewhere if they were out of things…
Yeah this is a huge thing at our place. Specialty items we buy from our supplier we always keep an extra case on hand at both locations. Most things can be replaced at a grocery store. I don’t even know the last time we were “out” of something.
I cannot stand when I go somewhere and they are out of things. I went to Mcdees once and they were out of coke! I never understood why they wouldn’t just go buy some but I am sure they aren’t allowed.
Pretty bad they aren’t smart enough to make some cole slaw.
Kris
To me running out of something is a major deal. Since I do the ordering it does not happen to often. One week, way way back, I somehow did not order pepperoni. We did not run out though, thanks to Sams club.
If you are out of something it says one of two things, you are too lazy to make more, or you can not afford to buy it. If you are that lazy, are you too lazy to clean properly, or to put the effort in to make my food right? If you can not afford to buy products, can you afford to throw away old stuff? Where else are you cutting corners? If you screw up on ordering, or have unexpected demand, there are always alternatives to running out. Sometimes it’s costly, like buying chicken tenders at the grocery store, but if you really care you do what it takes.
The only thing I ever run out of, and this happens very rarely, is beer. If a softball team (or whatever) comes in on a Saturday night and cleans out all my Sam seasonal (or whatever) I have to wait for Monday for a delivery. Even this happens maybe only once or twice a year.
Running out of a key ingredient is my pet pieve I have signs all over my kitchen that read If you are opening the last package of something WRITE IT ON THE ORDER LIST. My staff know that I and serious about this because I have taken the time to look through the security video to find out who took the last of somethong without writing it down. I only had to do it once to get the message across.
I try and keep enough stock on hand that if the worst happens and I miss a delivery day from the supplier I can make it to the next order day. However there are times when you get caught. I have a plan for those times too. I have a good relationship with most of the pizza stores in my city so if I happen to run out of something I usually can borrow from them. I also will lend to the others. Pizza hit ran out of box lid props on the day they had a big school order. They called me to see if I had extra. I let them take what they needed and they replaced them the next day. Three weeks later the owner called and ask me to help with an order for 5000 students.
About once every three years we get such a huge storm that the roads to our town are closed for more than a day or so and the food trucks can not get in. When that happens, the grocery stores run out of everything too.
We stay about a week ahead on cheese, sauce product, boxes, flour, pepperoni etc since we can’t replace those things in the quantities we need by borrowing. If I hear the passes are closed, I run to the store and check spinach, tomatos, onions etc etc and go buy out safeway’s supply.
We have run out of things like green peppers at the end of a busy night a handful of times in 10 years, but, I am happy to say NEVER anyting key like pepperoni let alone a store closer like cheese. (Dominos here in town ran out of cheese twice in a week a couple of years ago)
How often? About once every two years for a minor item, for a day.