The guiness of the GFS store

MikeJ

TB Veteran
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Gordon Food Service as everyone knows is the only broad line food distributor that has it's own grocery store chain, that sells it's products to restaurants and the general public. Here's the thing about the GFS store restaurants go to it all the time even if there not GFS customers. The restaurant I worked at, we were not GFS customers we were Sysco Customers and then switched to Hillcrest Food Service, but that aside we were with GFS at there grocery store all the time. On Sunday when we ran out of stuff guess where we went? That's the GFS store and guess what they ask at the register?
They ask is this for a business or personal? If it's for a business then you tell them who what when and all that stuff they put it into the computer and boom now they have an entire data base of commercial customers who just flocked to them and they didn't even really have to go out and guess and see everyone came to them.

Now how easy would it make for there sales team to now prospect for new business, they have a whole data base of customers and know exactly what they are buying, all they have to do is the usual price point haggling and this that and the other.

How hard would it be for them to compete against a bloated Sysco? I mean Sysco is still the big kid on the block, Sysco has a wide variety of products, tons' of buying power they have all kinds of different levels of products from the Imperial line all the way down to the economy classic Sysco line. Where GFS has more or less one level of products to choose from, but at the same time Hersheys Chocolate Syrup is Hersheys Chocolate Syrup, Heinze Ketchup is Heinze Ketchup. To a certain degree canned stuff is canned stuff, chocolate pudding is chocolate pudding, that's pretty much a product that doesn't change.

Now some meat products might be different from place to place same with produce and stuff like that, but at the same time, here in Cleveland and all around we have specialty distributors, like Blue Ribbon Meats, Chef Cube, Classic Seafood, Sirna and Sons Produce and Premier Produce and Euro USA you know the specialty distributors that drive the smaller straight trucks or regular cargo vans and only drop off a couple cases at each place, but those places have the real specialty cuts of meat or things like that.

However if your talking where can I get 90% of our stuff from well, then it's one or the other. One may have slightly better selection of one thing over the other and one might be cheaper in one area or more expensive in another nobody is usually totally cheaper on everything 100% across the board, but it's a tough business and you have a lot of people all competing to sell the same places forks, knives, napkins, plates, choclate pudding, freeze and thaw desserts, steakum's and bacon.








 
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