Both simple and complex…
First week’s business forecast (talk about a moving target!) X .4 ought to cover it for food items but then you will have a bunch of things most of us do not count on a weekly basis that do not come in weekly quantities like dish supplies, napkins, TP, parm and red pepper, oregano, foil and plastic wrap… and things that you do count that still come in larger than weekly quantities like cardboard rounds, souffle cups and lids, hot containers and boxes…
My inventory at any given time if I roll all that stuff in comes to an average of about 1.5 X weekly sales but I run a higher than typical inventory since I have space to store it and we are in a mountain town where deliveries can get stopped by a snow storm 100 miles away all the way into June.
My perishable inventory is about a week’s worth except cheese which might be as much as a month’s worth depending on pricing.
So… take your business plan for the first couple of weeks and start from there. Assuming you have more than one delivery available per week like most places do not go overboard. Your food reps will help you out the first week or two as you get things figured out.
