We blend a couple of tomato products and spices and use a drill as described. Works very well. We did try some Stani product a couple of times when we were shopping. I can’t say I saw a difference between them and other quality products. I also never had anyone from the company come after our business. I would be receptive to a company that actually seemed to give a $hit. Maybe we are too far out in the sticks.
I have had a couple of chats with these fine folks and I think I am way further out in the sticks than you. I had a guy show up at my store around 9:00 one night to ask if I had heard of their product. I think he was a broker he gave me the contact info for all the food service companies that handled their products.
When we bought our store in '08, they were using the spice packets. But, I quickly ran into a problem when that company went out of business. I was panicked and had no idea how to make a decent sauce and at the time would have used whatever was cheap, because for all I knew, all sauces were basically the same (just like all mozzarella was basically the same).
My food rep had the Stanislaus rep come by the store and talk to me about their sauce and why I should use it. Not in a salesman’s role, but in a partnership role. He tasted my sauce, told me what he thought of it (not much and he was right in hind sight) and told me what he thought would be a good fit for what I wanted to do…one of their sauces with my own special additions. Then he went to his van, grabbed 5 or 6 cans of different sauces and asked me to experiment with them and see if I could find something I liked. Then he left, came back in with a full case of the sauce he thought was what I was after (with a little personal touch) and said he wanted to make sure I had enough to experiment with, gave me his card and said to call him about anything pizza related that I might need a friend to talk with.
I use a variation of his first suggestion today and will never get tired of the robust, simple depth that it adds to my pies. They also call ever couple months to see if there’s anything I need to talk about with them and they send little “we’re thinking about you” gifts in the mail. The only other vendor that has sat down and talked with me? Grande. Lied to my face about their product, tried to scam me on a kick-back menu program and everything else you would expect from them. I still used their product up until a month ago when it hit $2.97/lb and I found a better option. Every day I look for a different option than Grande, I’ve never once considered leaving Stanislaus.
This site has been invaluable for a new pizza guy and thanks to all of you for your help!