buying food to sell!!!

September 10, 2006 12:51 PM

Is it possible to buy pre made food in bulk to sell on to your own customers??

Ok I am starting my new business soon and to help attract extra customers I would like to offer some cafe style food. Stuff such as sandwiches, quiches, salads (potato) etc. anythng that doesnt need to be cooked by myself apart from a little reheating if the customers so wishes.

The problem is Im so tied up in my original business idea that I really dont have the time nor capital to start personally making the food (eg. buying ovens etc) - in the beginning anyway.

So what i want to do is buy these quiches and sandwiches, and sell them on either at a breakeven price or with a slight mark up. Im not expecting to get rich off this. Im hoping the food will bring me other business. I thought of caterers but i always thought they did weddings etc and if they found out im reselling their food under my name they may get cheesed off. Maybe im wrong... who can i turn too?

Any help would be appreciated.

posted by thegeezer3 to food & drink (15 comments total)

Sam's Club and/or Costco in your area? Don't these places have a large "bulk items" section devoted to vending machine folks, sandwich wagons, etc.?
posted by jbickers at 12:59 PM on September 10, 2006

It's possible some caterers would get upset if you resold their food under your name, but do you really need to do that? If you put up a sign saying "food provided by XYZ catering company" or something, they'd likely see it as a great opportunity for free publicity.
posted by needs more cowbell at 1:04 PM on September 10, 2006

(call caterers and ask if they'd be interested...)
posted by needs more cowbell at 1:04 PM on September 10, 2006

I would call a few caterers. In my area (Portland, OR), I know of several coffee shops that have some or all of their food delivered by caterers and bakeries. The catered food tends to be wraps and Italian sandwiches. The shops often have those little panini grills for heating the sandwiches. I've seen the caterers making their deliveries... they don't seem to care at all that the shop is selling the food as if it were made in-house. In one case, I know the caterer even arranges the food nicely in the deli case, and removes the older, unpurchased items.
posted by thinman at 1:17 PM on September 10, 2006

A bakery might be a better idea than an only-catering place. If you get a little selection of breads/pasteries/sandwiches/etc from a few different places around town, that could be an advantage in and of itself - all the good specialty food in one store.
posted by devilsbrigade at 1:24 PM on September 10, 2006

Where I live (Australia), there is a hell of a lot of red tape involved in selling food: license, tempretature food is kept at, hygene standards. I strongly suggest you look into restrictions/regulations in your area before committing to this.
posted by b33j at 3:16 PM on September 10, 2006

This is done all the time. The are caterers who do it. I would call the ones who supply the airlines. Seriously. They will be able to point you in the right direction (or do it themselves.) If you are in a large metropolitan area, I am sure this can be done. There are many restaurants that pass other company's deserts off as their own.

The costco suggestion is a good one. They would probably label it for you if you are willing to sign a contract for some length of time or for some total dollar amount.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 3:18 PM on September 10, 2006

Check out the local culinary academy. Up and coming chefs are just waiting to put their talents to good use. You're likely to find someone who's happy to have a steady gig that they can work on at odd hours, and they're likely to be less expensive than traditional caterers with business overhead.

If you're in the SF bay area, I can even recommend one. Are you?
posted by nadise at 5:25 PM on September 10, 2006

Not only is this done all the time, it's the standard operating procedure for small coffee shops that have a case full of baked goods, salads, and sandwiches. Very rarely are those items labelled with their actual point of origin, but they're almost never made in-house -- even Starbuck's contracts with local bakeries (though they do also make some things themselves). I used to work at a bakery/cafe, and I think about 75% of the baked goods I made every night were sold by other businesses, ranging from portable food carts to catering vans to coffee shops. None of them credited our bakery unless customers asked directly.

While it's true that there's red tape involved in selling food, you'll avoid a lot of hassle by going this route. The less prep you do, and the less contact you have with actual unwrapped food, the easier it will be. As for finding a place to buy stuff, just find a smallish cafe that obviously doesn't have a large kitchen and ask where they get their baked goods. Even if some food is made in-house, few small cafes are willing to hire an overnight crew to bake muffins and whatnot. Said purveyor of baked goods will very likely be able to provide sandwiches and salads and such, or direct you to someone who can.
posted by Acetylene at 6:41 PM on September 10, 2006

Sysco or CBI (Cheney Brothers International) definitely provide premade desserts to restaurants of all stripes, as well as par-baked breads, juices, single serving milks, well, everything you need ingredient wise to run a restaurant. So it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they also sell premade wraps and sandwiches in some form. Though these would not be the freshest option for you, they might be passable in a pinch.
posted by bilabial at 8:43 PM on September 10, 2006

Wow thanks for all the info. Actually I kinda of guessed this to be the case just wasnt sure. I was thinking of going up straight to a cafe and asking them where they get there food but i thought that would be a little abrasive, im sure a lot of them think they are fooling there customers into thinking its actually homemade.

Acetlyne - do you think its rude to ask them where they get their food?

nadise - I like that idea a lot. Sourcing talented students is always an option for whatever idea you have. I may look into it. The thing is its not going to be a one off job. I need reliable students and in the uk there mostly still drunk out of their heads in the early morning when a delivery should be made.

jbickers - costco hmm never thought of that and we have that in the uk. But im not sure if they have this sandwich scheme... and whats the quality like? Are we talking a wedge of spam between two pieces of bread?

Thanks all for the help!!!
posted by thegeezer3 at 12:43 AM on September 11, 2006

The coffee shop I used to work for did this exact thing. All the pies, pastries, etc. came from costco.

You may want to look into your local health code laws, though. I know that a restaurant in my neighborhood (in the US) did get into some trouble for buying wine from a grocery store instead of through the proper channels.
posted by frecklefaerie at 7:19 AM on September 11, 2006

I don't think it's rude at all to ask where they get their food. Some might be reluctant to share their sources, fearing competition (if you wouldn't be in direct competition with them, it wouldn't hurt to explain the nature of your business), but generally they'll remember what they went through when they were getting started, and will be glad to help.

As an aside, when I worked at that bakery I was constantly amazed at the level of cooperation and helpfulness most other small restaurants showed. There was a fairly upscale restaurant next door that we knew we could always ask for help if we ran out of something (and vice-versa, of course -- for some reason, they were always running out of onions). And I don't think we ever advertised the business-to-business end of our trade; new business customers were always referred to us by existing ones. Anyway, all of this is just to say that although your mileage may vary, based on my experience I don't think most small restaurant owners will have any qualms about talking to you about this sort of thing.
posted by Acetylene at 4:23 PM on September 11, 2006

All good advice.

One thing about approaching other businesses -- make sure you tell them you're x months away from opening when asking business-related questions. You wouldn't believe how many people come in and ask questions ("I'm thinking about opening up a sandwich shop/coffee shop/shoe repair business"), waste 45 minutes of your time and then never act on it. Only 1 in 20 of these interrogators actually do anything with the information. My wife and I don't mind answering these questions, but if it serves no purpose other than to waste our time it's really irritating. We could be making money instead of answering questions. Keep this in mind if you get the brush off. If they know you're serious you'll get further.

If someone's open to talking to you, be sure to ask what days/times work for them. Early mornings, obviously, are a bad time to go to a coffee shop and ask questions, for example. Set up an appointment and you'll probably get more information.
posted by Atom12 at 11:55 AM on September 12, 2006

And hardly anyone makes their own food in the US anyway. Yeah, they might have ovens and fryers, but 9 out of 10 places (and I'm being generous with that statistic) aren't actually preparing the food. More often than not they're just reheating, thawing or assembling something made in a factory in New Jersey six months ago and flash frozen.
posted by Atom12 at 11:57 AM on September 12, 2006