If you are running a fledgling small restaurant you may be tempted to just get your weekly supplies from a local supermarket or a bulk purchase store. It could be one of several reasons that led to that choice.

The cost of buying wholesale is undoubtedly higher and not just the upfront cost of the purchase. Many food wholesalers have strictly large minimum order quantities that could overwhelm your budget and handling capability. Storing large amounts of food can incur an increase in operating costs.

Or you just haven’t found one that you trust yet. As mentioned before buying wholesale food supplies is an expensive commitment. Even if you have the storage and handling capability you have to be sure that the quality is up to your expectations. If you run a grocery store, a small fruit shop, or sell in a farmers market, the quality of the produce is even more crucial. Unlike eateries you do not process the products. They are sold as is. You might even have to do a little “cherry picking” yourself, choosing the best out of the bulk to present at your store. Those that don’t make the grade are either disposed of, or sold much more cheaply to recuperate losses.

But, you should persevere and put in the effort to buy wholesale. Here we would like to dispel some of the worries you might be having on buying from wholesale food suppliers.

Wholesale in brief

But first let us understand a little about wholesale. Wholesale is the selling of products directly from a supplier or producer, and always in larger quantities. Wholesalers are the middle men between the customer and the manufacturer. However some food manufacturers and farms may also be wholesalers themselves, selling directly from their factory or farms to the consumers. The large minimum order quantity means that wholesale is always going to cost more initially. However, the individual prices in that bulk can be considerably cheaper.

This is a stark contrast to retail. At the retail level products are sold by distributors such as grocery stores and markets. In retail you can micro manage your purchases and buy as little amount as you desire. Some distributors even allow bulk purchases that gets you lower per unit prices, but the amount you can buy and the savings you achieve are usually lower than what you can get in wholesale.

Who can benefit from buying wholesale food?

Just about anyone can benefit from buying from food wholesalers. If you need a large quantity of food stuff and produce for a business or self-catering an event, wholesale would be more cost-efficient. It’s a popular misconception that wholesale food suppliers will only sell to businesses. Some food wholesalers even allow smaller bulk purchases.

Benefits of wholesale

Retail products will have extra markups in price. Bulk purchases from retailers are typically smaller in quantity than wholesalers and so are easier to manage for end customers. They may not grant you the savings of directly buying from a supplier or manufacturer, i.e wholesale purchases. When the products arrive at a distributor (the retailer) they are marked up once more. It’s just the nature of business. Distributors have to introduce their own markups for growth and paying salaries of their own staff. Think of the markups as “fees” for them storing and distributing the products to you.

If you have never considered buying from a food wholesaler before you might be surprised at the considerable savings you can get per unit. You might be thinking that buying wholesale could be more than you need and a substantial amount would be wasted. But, that is rarely the case especially for produce such as fruits and vegetables. Not many realize that food wholesalers can also sell in smaller more manageable quantities. You can get the convenience of bulk purchases from retail distributors at closer to wholesale prices.

Wholesalers also have a much greater degree of quality control than you would think. People often associate “mass purchases” with quantity over quality. Not necessarily so with food wholesalers. Food supply handling needs to be taken seriously if you want to survive in the business, and quite often food wholesalers go through great lengths to ensure safe and high quality supplies get through to their customers. Nobody likes losing money over low-quality products more than wholesalers, especially wholesale produce.

Quite often that with produce bought directly from a food wholesaler you can get fresher stock. Fruits and vegetable wholesalers may have daily deliveries of the food stuff directly from the farms and orchards. What you are buying today may only be a day old since its harvest. That is almost as good as having them delivered from the farm itself.

Food wholesalers are also dependable when it comes to supply abundance. They usually have direct connections to multiple manufacturers, producers, and farmers to give their customers a wider variety of choice as well as a reliable supply of produce and other food stuff all year round. As mentioned before fruits and vegetable wholesalers may have supplies delivered directly from local farms and orchards daily, ensuring high variety and freshness.

So whether you are running a restaurant (regardless of scale) or self-catering an event, look for your closest wholesale produce supplier. You will enjoy greater savings without the compromise in food quality and safety.