Non-food items

Up until now I have talked about suppliers of food products. Whilst these are very important don’t overlook non-food items.

1. Cleaning materials

This includes floor cleaner, washing up liquid, residual sanitiser (to be sprayed over surfaces last thing at night), cloths, paper towel dispensers, paper towels and so on. A lot of the things under this heading can of course be bought from the supermarket or the cash and carry. However, it might be advantageous to buy them from specialist suppliers in larger, commercial quantities. They will deliver to you and once you have an account with them you have a degree of control over when you pay them. They may also be cheaper than the supermarket or cash and carry. They will also be able to give you advice on new products coming onto the market.

2. Lightbulbs

The cost of some halogen spotlights can be frightening. For our second shop we had a hanging strip of spotlights installed above the food prep area. Absolutely wonderful -until I found that the cheapest price in Edinburgh for one replacement bulb (the strip has ten spotlights) was over £11! Fortunately I then discovered a specialist mail order company which sold the same bulbs for under £4. Not only that but their prices for the many other light bulbs were highly competitive; and on orders of £50 or more, next day delivery was free. As they say, it pays to shop around.

3. Packaging

Packaging is very important from both the aesthetic and practical points of view. Take coffee cups. Clearly they have to keep the coffee hot – but they should also be easy to drink out of when you are walking along the street. Hence the desirability of sip lids which allow you to drink tea or coffee without having to fiddle about with two hands taking the lid off and then replacing it.

With cold drinks such as fruit smoothies or milkshakes it’s more important to see what’s inside – the colours are so nicely garish! So polystyrene won’t do; it has to be clear. The lid should be made in such a way that you can push a straw through a hole in the top.

For sliced bread sandwiches you want triangular plastic boxes which will hold sandwiches made with your preferred kind of bread. The correct size is vital; a sandwich made with thick sliced bread and lots of lettuce will not fit into every such box.

For salads you will need a clear plastic box possibly with a ‘spork’ attached (a cross between a spoon and a fork). Bear in mind also that you must get the size of box which fits in with your notion of how much salad you plan to include in one portion. A half-filled box does not look like good value.

A company that specialises in packaging will probably be able to provide you with carrier bags (and also coffee cups) with your logo on the side.

As with everything else, think it through well in advance. You don’t want to be scrambling about looking for the right size of sandwich bag the day before you open.

4. Stationery

Clearly you can buy paper and pens from numerous outlets. However, as with light bulbs there are specialist mail order firms which will supply every conceivable stationery need at prices well below those in your local shops. This can be particularly relevant if you are going to print your own menus, notices, staff handbooks, temperature charts and order forms; you will go through prodigious amounts of paper. Again you have the benefit of ordering goods but not paying for them for a few weeks. Credit cards are generally acceptable. Delivery is usually free if your order is above a certain amount (generally around £30.)

Paying bills

I hope I haven’t given the impression that opening accounts with suppliers is a licence to avoid making payments. You will come across small-business people who think that good credit control means ordering things and then not paying for them until legal proceedings are about to begin. I deplore this attitude. It is both selfish and short-sighted, because suppliers will simply refuse to have anything to do with people who do this. Conversely if you usually pay your bills within a reasonable time suppliers will be flexible if, for instance, you hit a quiet period and need some extra time to pay.

Used sensibly, credit accounts with suppliers are beneficial because you have some degree of control over when you make payment. They also mean that you only have to make a payment once every week or fortnight for example.

No matter how small your business might be you will find yourself dealing with a considerable number of suppliers. Finding the right combination of suppliers for your operation will take time. In fact the process never really stops. One firm might go out of business, another might put it’s prices up prompting you to switch to another one recommended by a friend.

Using a cash and carry

Cash and carry wholesalers are not all the same. When you have a good idea of the sorts of ingredients you will require for the sandwiches you intend to sell, go and visit a few in your area. They will be happy to show you round. Pick one that seems to have a lot of the things you will regularly need such as:

mayonnaise

drinks

tea bags

chocolate and other sweet bars

ice-creams

baking ingredients such as nuts (if you intend to do any home-baking)

chewing gum

plastic spoons

pickles

crisps

biscuits

tortilla wraps

Try to make sure they have a selection of things beyond the routine and the well known – this will allow you to try out new things from time to time.

Before a cash and carry will allow you to buy things you will have to register with them. This usually involves them taking up bank and trade references. When starting up, trade references can present obvious difficulties. You will have to satisfy them that you have started in business in the sense that you have a business bank account, headed paper or indeed some invoices addressed to your business. This will set you apart from Joe Public in their eyes. Initially you might have to make payments in cash until a trading pattern has been established.

Try to organise things so that you only need to go to the cash and carry once a week. They are usually open long hours so you should be able to go at a time most convenient to you.

Despite this, loading up a trolley at the cash and carry is a bit of a chore. Some cash and carries will make it easier by loading up your order for you. To do this they will usually require a faxed order the day before. They can even put it all through their till but leave it untotalled. This way if you want to add on something else when you get there you can.

Buying from supermarkets

Why do you need to buy things from a supermarket when you’re dealing with so many suppliers? The fact is there will always be some things which it’s better and cheaper to buy from supermarkets.

Soon after we opened we decided to introduce a bagel with taramasalata and seedless grapes. I assumed we could get taramasalata from the cash and carry or from a specialist delicatessen supplier. We did get some but it was utterly disgusting – and we had to buy two dozen jars at a time: far more than we needed. We were left with no alternative but to buy it from the supermarket – in quantities that suited us. Similarly, we did not need many seedless grapes and it would have been inappropriate to order one small bag from our wholesale fruit and vegetable supplier.

There are many other similar examples when you want to buy smallish quantities of reliably good quality items. For instance:

• Avocados: notoriously difficult to get just right for sandwiches. Buy a few regularly and your customers, like ours, will marvel at your ability to serve them up consistently with the correct degree of ripeness.
• Tinned olives: black, green, sliced, pitted – it’s unlikely that you will want to fill up a lot of your valuable storage space with boxes full of these things.
• Pastrami: we have an excellent butcher but the one thing he doesn’t seem to able to produce consistently is pastrami – but our supermarket can.
• Tinned strawberries and raspberries for fruit smoothies: if you buy large catering tins from the cash and carry and the weather suddenly turns nasty you find yourself with the challenge of trying to keep a lot of tinned strawberries and raspberries fresh. They will take up space in the fridge and might pick up other, less appealing, flavours. Raspberry and smoked mackerel? I don’t think so.
• Apples, oranges and bananas: as I mentioned before if you buy a whole box of these from your wholesaler they will all be ready at around about the same time and if they don’t sell, it’s wasteful. At the supermarket you can take the quantity you need and ensure good quality.

There are many other examples. Frustratingly you will find that even the supermarket doesn’t fill every gap. You will probably find yourself ordering certain of the more obscure drinks, as well as some vegetarian patés or houmous or trendy little tray-bakes from small or large specialist suppliers.

By the way: if you’re comparing prices at the cash and carry with those at the supermarket remember that prices marked on the cash and carry shelves don’t include VAT.

Supplying yourself

There are two ways of doing this, from cooking facilities either in your shop or in your house.

I have already talked about the complications of installing full-scale cooking facilities in your shop: architects, planning application, ventilation, time, money and so on. There are advantages, however, not least the fact that production is all contained within your business unit, so you don’t need to take your work home with you.

If you don’t want the expense and trouble of what this involves, there is another option: namely doing some cooking at home. There are a number of advantages:

• You can produce quality items which are unique to you. Take the case of chocolate cake. You can go into any one of hundreds of sandwich-coffee bars and be served exactly the same kinds – often mass produced in a factory and full of additives to increase shelf life. Alternatively, you can find a really good recipe and make it yourself. Customers will come to appreciate the difference. And there’s no ordering or invoicing involved.
• You can save money. You buy ingredients in bulk from the cash and carry and don’t have to pay somebody else to do the actual baking or cooking.
• You can prepare food in batches at times that suit you. You then freeze it ready for later use. Do remember to mark the date on frozen items; to ensure the quality is maintained I do not recommend freezing anything for much over a month. Always remember: first in, first out.
• It’s the kind of activity that could be fitted round a part-time job. If you or your partner want to maintain a job but also make a useful contribution to the new business, preparing food in the house at flexible times could be the perfect thing.

However, it’s not all plain sailing.

In general terms the food hygiene and health and safety rules are the same as those applicable to your shop. These are dealt with in Chapter Nine. There are particular points which apply in the case of food preparation at home:

• You can’t carry out ‘domestic activities’ which might present a risk of food contamination at the same time as you prepare food for the shop. This includes handling laundry. I have in fact been told by an environmental health officer that you should not prepare food for the shop in a kitchen containing a washing machine.
• Pets must be kept out at all times.
• There must be effective separation in your fridge of items for the home and those for the shop.
• You may conceivably have to stop cooking in the house if any member of your household contracts an infectious disease.
• When you deliver food from house to shop the correct temperature limits (see Chapter Nine) should be observed. If your shop is a considerable distance from your house, this might mean having to acquire a refrigerated van.
• Food surfaces must be cleaned and disinfected regularly.

While it may be possible to observe these rules in your home kitchen you have to admit it won’t be easy – especially if you have children (particularly teenagers) and cats or dogs. It would be a great deal easier if you could create a second kitchen in your house. This would of course result in not inconsiderable expenditure. You have to decide how important it is to your plans.

Bear in mind also that health inspectors have the legal right to inspect the premises after giving one day’s notice. Do you like the idea of them poking around your kitchen?

My wife and I have created a second kitchen in our house purely for the shop – and very successful it has been, too. We prepare grilled, barbecued and curried chicken breasts, bacon, boiled eggs, salmon, aubergine caviar, soup and cakes. We like to think our ability to produce items with our own recipes gives us something of an edge over our competitors. The only drawback has been at holiday time. If we want the shop to continue operating while we are away it means someone has to come into the house and prepare food and then transport it to the shop. Nothing is ever simple!