By Connor Hammett w/Star Local News
Being an independent restaurant owner has never been easy. Lacking the financial resources and broad advertising of larger chains can make it hard to compete in the marketplace, and when it comes to buying food, the small size of most mom-and-pop eateries can make it difficult to negotiate the kind of low prices often enjoyed by larger chains.
“The chain restaurants, the regional restaurants across the United States, they have an advantage when it comes to buying their food products because there are so many of them,” said Jim Brevard, owner of Reel Thing Catfish Café in Allen.
Brevard and six other Collin County restaurant owners are looking to change all that. They are in the process of forming a county-wide co-op to consolodate their product requirements and solicit bids from multiple vendors, ensuring the lowest possible price on bulk food.
“The vendors come back and say ‘OK, we’ll give you a discount,’” Brevard said. “Because you’re sending them out to multiple vendors, you’re going to get a good break because each vendor knows that the other guy is bidding on it, too.”
The co-op, which is intended to include restaurants throughout the county, already has six member restaurants in Allen: Reel Thing, House Café, El Grande Burrito, Elke’s Market Café, La Finca Chaquita and Big Ray’s BBQ. One other Collin County restaurant, La Colina in Van Alstyne, is also on board.
Liz Trujillo, owner of El Grande Burrito, said the co-op provides local restaurants the opportunity to keep prices low in the face of rising food costs and bring back customers who may have been drawn toward larger chains in recent years.
“What we’re trying to is get those discounts like the big chains do, because being small mom-and-pop shops, we don’t like to pass [high food prices] on to our customers,” she said. “I think the community will definitely back us up once they see that we keep our prices below the chains, and I think, at the end, we’re going to make everybody happy and get those people back to us.”
The co-op is not only a good deal for the restaurants, Brevard said. Vendors like the concept because it affords them the opportunity to pick up new customers who may have used a different vendor before joining the co-op. About four or five major vendors have expressed a desire to participate in the co-op’s bidding process, Brevard said.
“[Brevard] might have one vendor and I might have another one, so once we clump them together, that’s going to be a big, big commission rep for that sales rep from us,” Trujillo said. “It’s a win-win situation.”
Additional benefits for restaurants in the co-op include the abiliity to cross-promote and negotiate other deals with vendors, like the ability to comparison shop for food products online. Owners can also pool their resources to provide food vouchers for high-performing employees at other restaurants and work on “menu engineering” to ensure maximum exposure for certain items.
“There definitely added benefits along with the dollar savings,” Brevard said.
The co-op is still seeking members. For information on how to join, contact Brevard at 469-667-6925.
