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Grande Whole Milk Shred Price and Curd price

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slowisfast

New member
Getting ready to open my place and was quoted 3.61 a pound shred, 3.77 curd from my local distributor. I’m in Washington State.

Those of you who use this same product, could you please inform me of what you’re paying?

I think it’s really high but I have no idea if cheese prices have climbed this year or they are just on the high end. Ideally I’d like it to be around three for these products…but…

Thanks for your help.
 
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Most of us are paying around $2.00 for mozzarella right now and even the prices I have heard for Grande are quite a bit lower than the prices you mention.

I suggest you get some different brands and blind taste test with a bunch of testers. Kind of nuts to pay nearly double price unless you can actually get nearly 100% agreement that people can tell the difference and prefer it.
 
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Jeez thats expensive, Grande is usually .60 a lb over most everyone else. Grande isnt worth it. Sure you get to hang their 80’s looking posters in your store for free but I can go and ask the next hundred people in the office bldgs I deliver to if theyve know what Grande cheese is, Id be surprised if 2 people knew.
Go with taste and look (get others blind opinions MOST IMPORTANTLY like Bodega suggested) if it comes back to Grande go for it.
If I used Grande here itd cost me $8000 more a year.
Ps whats the curd for?
 
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Yeah I was a bit surprised when I was quoted.

They gave me a lot of samples and it really worked out well. I run my wood fired oven at 900+ degrees and it melts great without burning.

Thanks for a reference point to work from.

The curd is for pulling mozzarella for a couple pies that call for it.

I’ll see what my rep can get me as far as competing brand samples.
 
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Oooh youre a wood fired guy! Very cool.
I wish I knew more about 00 flour, fresh mozzarella(I buy caputo brand) san marzano tomatos but it intimadates me.
 
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I would also suggest talking to more than one vendor. When the reps know they have you all to themselves they have no incentive to sharpen the pencil.
 
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I paid 2.69 for block grande last week. I believe shredded is 20 cents a lb more.

I opt for grande because it doesn’t burn.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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my last invoice for Grande Whole-Milk diced was at $2.97/LB That was 1 week ago.

But, I live in Wisconsin where it is produced, and my distributor is a dairy specialty distributor so I do not have the multi-national food purveyor conglomerates adding on their cut too.
 
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I don’t think Grande is better but it’s costs more. I think it does have a nice melt, but it not better tasting in my opinion.

Show me where Grande wins World or U.S mozzarella cheese championships.

That list is a great place to start. Most world champs are made in Wisconsin but have national distributors. Google “world championship cheese contest” and there are many more… Roger Krohn from Agropur for example is a 7 time world champion. These are the king of mozzarella in my opinion and what I use exclusively ( $2.20 lb) Foremost and Burnett are other great mozzarella cheese’s. One more thing to keep in mind for proper melt and taste you want to use the cheese between 21-30 days after the packing date.
 
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RobT said:
I opt for grande because it doesn’t burn.
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What kind of bake/oven do you use? We don’t ever have any problem with anything burning… cheese or anything else either but we are doing a pretty conventional style of pizza in a convection oven.
 
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@PizzaLifer also known as The Food Cost Dude has mentioned before few people know this… but you can download price lists from major suppliers every week. They will never refuse prices to (potential) clients.
 
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but you can download price lists from major suppliers every week. They will never refuse prices to (potential) clients.
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This is true… but it seems like the suppliers have nearly as many price lists as they have customers. The prices vary according to how much you buy, whether you shop competitors, asking about substitute products and negotiation. There are also price diversions and incentives available up the channel from the distributors. It is not as simple as just looking to see what price XXXX wholesaler is charging this week.

Put your effort into the prices on the items where your costs are largest… for most of us, that is cheese but boxes, flour, tomato products and meats are all key. It is often possible to question a specific item, shop it between suppliers and save money. It is also the case that prices which change from week to week do not change at all suppliers at the same time due to differences in the timing of their purchase contracts and sourcing. In other words the price of onions or mushrooms or romain might jump by a few dollars a case from one company and not another making it possible to save meaningful amounts of money by paying attention weekly to the prices offered even without negotiating.
 
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bodegahwy said:
What kind of bake/oven do you use? We don’t ever have any problem with anything burning… cheese or anything else either but we are doing a pretty conventional style of pizza in a convection oven.
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Deck. Cook time 8 min .

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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I appreciate everyone dropping by and adding their experience. Thanks BBH with those leads. I’m working with Peterson Cheese out here in WA. They’re an independent and have been great to work with. Carry nice product but their pricing can reflect that with certain products.

But like Bodega suggested, I should probably take on a second and make them go to work.
 
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slowisfast said:
But like Bodega suggested, I should probably take on a second and make them go to work.
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Even if you choose to stick with one in the end, I suggest that you invite another supplier to bid on the business by giving you pricing. I would also let the first supplier know you are doing that.

The suppliers will want to emphasize their service and quality assortment etc and those are important considerations. Just as your customers will base the decision of whether to buy from you on a combination of quality, service, and price so should you base your decisions on those factors. Price is a key part of the equation and your supplier should respect that.

In my experience the “service” level I get from our suppliers is pretty similar if not identical. Even if that service is great it is not a differentiation that justifies a higher price if the other supplier also has great service. When the product is identical (same brand of cheese for instance) that leaves price as an entirely legitimate reason to buy… The supplier may not like that fact but they do the exact same thing when shopping for items to offer you for sale… i.e. they are in the market for onions and will buy from whichever supplier/broker gives them the best combination of quality, service and price. (See my signature line)

As pointed out above by another poster, the difference can be huge. We are not a particularly high volume store overall and even for us a difference of 50 cents a pound would be $15,000 per year… as a percentage of sales that is not giant number… but those are bottom line dollars and as a percentage of profit they are very significant! I believe that our shopping between two key vendors and sourcing things like boxes from a paper specialist rather than buying from our food purveyors is probably worth about 3%-4% of sales overall… and again, those are bottom line dollars.
 
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bodegahwy said:
as a percentage of sales that is not giant number… but those are bottom line dollars and as a percentage of profit they are very significant!
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Understanding that is the key to doing well in this business. 2 percent here and there are not big numbers, but they suddenly become larger when the same number of dollars gets subtracted from the net profit.
 
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$3.20 a pound here in Reno for whole milk shredded. Sladinos is our supplier. They come in around 3am with a key, put everything away, rotate and date everything. Grande has worked great for me since I was born 60 years ago. It was the staple cheese growing up along with Polly O for pizzerias in the NY/NJ areas. It melts so good you use less cheese than with the cheaper stuff, never burns like the cheaper cheeses, and it is dead on consistent every time. Walter
 
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You can really take your cheese up a notch by adding a three finger pinch of romano to the top of the cheese before baking.

Grande Romano is the absolute best. Tottally worth the $4.89lb I paid today
 
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I like Grande because they are what I consider a “Local Provider”
Growing up in southeastern WI, most every dairy farm that my friends lived/worked on was a milk provider for Grande.
I have sniffed around, and Grande is the only Whole-Milk Mozz provider that I have in my area without special orders with huge lead times and huge prices to go with it.
Plus my Grande Rep stops by several times a year to make sure we are happy, and tosses some free stuff our way too.
 
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