As the owner of a restaurant in Kamloops BC, one thing I was always surprised about was the loyalty people in the food service industry had for big businesses such as Sysco and GFS. I never understood why a pub in Kamloops looking for supplies would continue go to these big shipping companies for supplies which could be secured locally and at much less cost. When I first purchased Stemel Supply, I was shocked to realize that the same garbage bags I bought for my Kamloops restaurant were one third of the price from Stemel Supply as they were from Sysco. That's the same brand, the same size, the same quanity per case. What was it about Sysco or GFS that would compel a coffee shop in Kamloops to continue buying consumable supplies from companies which have no problem charging prices on supplies which are clearly gouging?
One thing I have realized is the power of local sales reps in convincing Kamloops businesses to buy supplies at a greater cost for them. I have often seen sales reps from big companies actually get angry at kitchen managers or ordering managers when they want to switch their Kamloops businesses away from costly products through the big businesses to more reasonably priced products from a local supplier. I have also heard that sales reps from Sysco and GFS will use blatant untruths, suggesting that a local Kamloops supplier can't get the same products as their big companies. This is manifestly false. Yet for some reason managers at Kamloops restaurants will continue to be loyal to Sysco or GFS sales people even after they have been lied to or talked down to. Another slick trick that Sysco and GFS like to apply in selling over priced supplies to Kamloops businesses is the shipping card. The basic strategy here is to offer free shipping on all orders as long as those orders are over a certain amount. If you're not at that amount, you pay a massive shipping fee - usually around $120. A lot of Kamloops food service businesses will top up their food orders with expensive supplies from the big companies in order to avoid that charge, but in the end this tricky tactic ends up costing more money, and effectively it is rewarding a company who threatens you. Stemel Supply offers no shipping fees for Kamloops businesses on orders of $50 or more (and sometimes even less depending on the regular volume of the Kamloops business in question). This also allows a lot more flexibility for a Kamloops restaurant, as you can get supplies outside of regular delivery days without paying an extra fee. Contracts are another tactic that big business reps will use to trick a local Kamloops food truck or Kamloops restaurant into buying supplies. The suggestion here is that there is somehow a contract pricing at play, wherein the cost of food will go up if you do not buy supplies which are priced at a huge mark up. This is also untrue and business owners should test it. Unless you signed something, there is no contract. The big food delivery companies make their money off of food - they will not actually risk business because someone is buying their restaurant supplies from somewhere else. And in the big picture, the thousands of dollars (not to mention the hassle) a Kamloops pub can save buying supplies from Stemel Supply over a year as opposed to from the food delivery companies will always mean the business saves money, even if the food delivery company actually raised food prices in retaliation (again, a very unlikely occurrence). There are lots of ways in which big businesses bamboozle local Kamloops businesses into buying their products over that of a local supplier such as Stemel Supply. Big business reps are counting on Kamloops businesses not crunching their yearly numbers to find out the actual costs. So don't buy that red checkered paper you use in your Kamloops pub on wing night from Sysco, when you could buy it for a much better price, in a much more convenient manner from Stemel Supply.
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As we have seen in previous posts on plastic alternatives, not only are most alternatives a regressive move environmentally speaking, not all plastics are created equally. In all cases, paper bags or cloth bags used as an alternative to plastic in a Kamloops grocery store will add to your environmental footprint, not detract from it.
However, there are alternatives to conventional plastic bags at your Kamloops grocery store that will reduce your environmental footprint. This can be hard for a consumer to see as these alternatives not only look like plastic bags, and feel like plastic bags, they are made from what falls under the broad category "plastic". However, some plastics are on the opposite side of the scale when it comes to environmental issues. Some of those alternative plastic bags are degradable, such as the black bags labelled degradable which you will find in many Kamloops liquor stores. Another type of plastic which is an environmentally sound option compared to paper, cloth, or other plastics is PLA. PLA stands for Polylactic acid, which is derived from renewable resources. As with other types of plastic, the base materials used to make PLA products are byproducts of other activities - food harvesting or secondary wood processes, for example. PLA can now be found for virtually all plastic compositions. As an alternative to plastic straws in Kamloops coffee shops, PLA offers not only an environmentally sound option to paper straws but also have the smooth texture of plastic rather than the pulpy chap that comes with sucking through a paper straw. PLA also has applications when it comes to garbage bags for home use, plastic bags for holding produce in grocery stores, and even in harder plastics such as display and carry containers for cupcakes and other baked goods. There are even PLA bags specifically designed to hold and decompose along with your kitchen compost - a major breakthrough in plastic science. If you are a plastic conscious consumer or business, it is important not to label all plastics with the same broad strokes. Plastics such as PLA have all the same benefits as what we traditionally think of as "plastic", and with much less environmental impact than traditional plastic or the go to plastic alternatives like paper and cloth. That bacon in the picture is the product of a local butcher.
Up until about 5 years ago, I was a pretty dedicated big box guy. I'm not really ashamed of that, there is a lot of good things about big box stores. The biggest for myself, as a person with 4 kids and a very busy life, is that they provide convenience and decent prices for the goods we need every day. However, I have since come to realize that when it comes to some products big box stores just don't measure up when it comes to price, quality, value, and health consideration. One of those products is meat. In order to show support for the local businesses that support me, I began buying my meat products from the various meat cutters I sell supplies to. The first time I cooked a couple of pounds of hamburger from a Kamloops butcher, I was struck by a few differences. First of all, there seemed to be a lot more cooked beef in the frying pan than usual. Second, there was not nearly the amount of fat to drain out of the frying pan as I was used to. To make sure I wasn't just seeing things, I ran it by my wife and she confirmed that both of these things were indeed true. I've since done some research and it turns out there are some reasons behind the differences between big box meat and meat from a Kamloops deli or meat cutter. Local Kamloops butchers are less likely to add preservatives, fat, and water to their products. This accounts for the difference in quantity. It also adds an important consideration to the overall cost of the meat - when you buy meat prepared locally, you are actually getting more meat for your dollar. I've since tried a lot of different products from all of the local meat cutters I supply - pork sausages, hamburger, steaks, burger patties, smokies, pepperoni, anything that satisfies the inner carnivore. And the same qualities have been true across the board - there is just less fat and water in the local products than the international brand names sold in big box stores. A lot of the local meat cutters tell me this is due to intentional additions by the big brands. I'm usually skeptical of that kind of business conspiracy theory, but this has happened so often that I am a True Believer now. As you can see from the picture above, the bacon I bought from Kam Lake Meats certainly has less fat and much more meat than anything you would buy at Wal Mart or Costco. I can only imagine what else is added by big brands and left out by local butchers that would make a difference to every aspect of the meat. A last interesting thing to note. If you have an international bent, the smaller local delis in particular are able to make a wide range of products. I have Brazilian, Vietnamese, Indian, Central American, and Middle Eastern friends who have been delighted to find meat cutters who can deliver favoured cuts of meat that they just can't find in the big box stores here. When it comes to the environment, not all plastics are created equally. The passionate war being waged against plastics in today's ultra sensitive and less than logical world makes an incredible assumption that plastic manufacturers do not care about the planet we must live on, and only want to increase their profits. You may have deduced from the previous articles in this series that I do not hold to this particular theory. In fact I would suggest that based on the possible dollars to be made combined with the environmental impact it is the manufacturers and pushers of plastic alternatives such as paper and reusable shopping bags who stand to make the most money at greatest expense to the environment. There is a reason why big chains want you to BUY their reusable bags.
Contrary to alternative material manufacturers, those who make plastic have been honest about the impacts of their product on the planet. Really, there is not much choice - but even so the best way to address the problems created by plastic bags is for that problem to be addressed by the people who have experience in making those plastic bags. They already have the infrastructure needed to make alternatives to traditional plastic shopping bags, which means that unlike alternative manufacturers the usual manufacturers do not have to incur the extra environmental costs to set up shop - and don't believe for a second that those costs do not outweigh by far the supposed environmental gains of in place manufacturing for the usual plastic shopping bags. There are many plastic bag manufacturers who have leveraged their existing infrastructure as well as their technical expertise in manufacturing plastics to create the only real environmental alternative to plastic shopping bags - and those are plastic shopping bags. How can that be? Well, there are many ways to manufacture a plastic bag as well as many different combinations of materials which are collectively known as "plastic". Unfortunately, the lack of knowledge within the environmental movement has caused many people to see all plastic under the same umbrella, and that includes all plastic shopping bags. The reality is that plastic shopping bags have many different compositions. In fact there are many different types of plastic - styrofoam, polypropylene, polyethelyne terephthalate (PET), high density polyethylene (HDPE), polyvinyl chloride, low density polyethylene (LDPE) are the main types with a slew of others thrown in. Each has different properties and different environemental impacts. The most ecofriendly plastics include the polyethylenes and the polypropolynes. Plastic bag manufacturers have turned to these materials over the last decade in order to reduce environmental footprint (this is one of the reasons why most retailers have started to charge customers for bags - these plastic shopping bags are significantly higher cost to manufacture than the old style shopping bags). Both have also been shown to have no toxic ramifications for living beings. However, these materials are not the best environmental option when it comes to shopping bag alternatives. That title goes to the degradable plastic bag. In the ring with all other choices (including paper and cloth which we covered in the previous articles) the degradable plastic bag is by far the environmental champion. Degradable bags are actually all around us, approved by government funded science, already. If you have a dog, you have seen them in many different spaces. Pet stores and public parks, degradable bags are what you use if you are conscientious about your pet's public bathroom habits. These bags are designed to break down in natural conditions through the inclusion of an enzyme that reacts over time and/or with the addition of sunlight as well as through the action of Earth's microbes. There has been much argument about whether degradable plastic bags are harmful to the environment. While much of the argument is based on lies (such as purporting that there are metals added to the plastic), many of those lies have been debunked through strenuous scientific study - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141391011000607?via%3Dihub . The response to this myth debunking by some is that degradable bags are still not perfect for the environment. This is true, but it is no more or less true than saying humans are not perfect for the environment. The point of these articles has always been not that there is a perfect plastic, but that plastic still remains the best option when it comes to the environment. And degradable plastics are the best packaging option whether it is for the environment or for our own health. Those who demand a crusade have found a new term to wield, "micro plastics". However the microplastic argument is no more than farce. https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/plastic-oceans-pollution-microplastics-evidence-harm-recycling-dumping-waste-a8275416.html Another controversy which comes from ignorance surrounding degradable plastics is that they do not compost. Again, this is the result of people being confused about their terms. Degradable plastics are not the same as compostable plastics, although there are now plastics which can be composted in your backyard and compostable plastic bags which have been specifically designed to hold backyard compost and join that material in the decay and renew process. So saying that a degradable bag does not compost is not really a knowck against the honesty of the concept of degradable bags - they were never meant to compost just naturally break down in the same way a rock does. In fact, these degradable bags will break down to many of the same basic components as rocks do, but in less time. The takeaway from the three parts of this series is not that plastic is great for the environment - it is that when it comes to materials we use as humans, plastic is one of the best alternatives and in fact all other options will do more overall harm to our environment in the long term. Glass, cardboard, paper, cloth, wooden box - plastic is not only the most convenient and least expensive of our packaging options it is also the most environmentally sound overall, and its long term impact is being reduced year by year. We have all seen the cloth bag using patron at the local supermarket, WalMart, Costco, whatever. More often than not these cloth bags are branded by the store itself, and are high profit items sold by the chain in question. The shopper is secure in her or his environmental superiority to the common shopper still using what the armchair environmentalist will degradingly (hahaha get it?) refer to as single use shopping bags. But are reusable bags really any better for the environment than plastic shopping bags? The answer is no, and here is why.
Materials There is absolutely nothing about what reusable bags are made of which make them a superior environmental choice to plastic. In fact, many reusable bags ARE made of plastic, they just have MORE plastic than run of the mill plastic shopping bags. That means more production and longer decomposition time. Some reusable bags which aren't composed of thick plastic are made of cloth. Cloth, of course, comes from something which must be grown in order to make it. This means cloth has all the same environmental drawbacks as paper, which we referred to in the first article in this series. The materials used to make cloth must be grown, which means increased land use as expanded harvesting mechanisms and of course manufacturing. In addition, there are other more insidious elements contained in reusable bags. If you see a reusable bag that has any colour to it at all, dye has been incorporated into its composition. That's another environmental negative. In a large number of reusable bags, lead has also been found to be a significant component. https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Studies-find-lead-in-reusable-shopping-bags-2461560.php . So much not only for environmental positives, these things also pose a health risk! Incidentally, lead is not the only health risk posed by "reusable" shopping bags. Studies have also shown that reusable bags often go unwashed, leading to increased incidents of food poisoning https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/the-hidden-dangers-lurking-in-your-reusable-and-how-to-avoid-them/news-story/72439c1b24568543b000d981244808a0 . A sick human is a polluting human. Moreover, your efforts at keeping your reusable shopping bag bacteria free will lead to further environmental damage due to the use of hot water and detergents. Reusable? How many times does a reusable shopping bag have to be reused in order to outweigh a plastic shopping bag when it comes to environmental impact? Well a cotton bag needs to be used a whopping 131 times https://www.marketwatch.com/story/are-reusable-bags-worse-for-environment-than-plastic-2014-01-09 . And that is under ideal conditions - you are a meticulous senior citizen who knows exactly where she puts her bag every time she unloads after a shopping trip, and who never loads the bag beyond capacity so that the handles begin to detach from the bag. And ironically does not add the wear and tear which will come with the washing required to reduce the risk of food poisoning. If you actually read the link posted above, then you will see that there are two alternatives to what we think of as plastic shopping bags, paper bags, and cloth shopping bags. Ironically, guess what those scientific terms refer to? Plastic! That is because the most environmentally sound alternative to plastic is, seriously, plastic. That's what we will be looking at in the last article in the Crusade Against Plastic: The Alternatives series. 2018 saw a great rise in anti-plastic sentiment in parts of the world which make little contribution to the problem of plastic pollution. The fires of environmental passion lit in most Canadians at the elementary school level were stoked to a raging fire in many through purposeful media coverage, but is it reasonable to assume that eliminating single use plastics in Canada will have any impact on the problem of plastic pollution? Is it reasonable to believe that the costs of the goods we buy will stay the same should we switch to a non plastic way of storing, carrying, or containing our goods? Is it possible that the switch from plastic to alternative materials will result in a net negative impact on our environment? I'm going to take a look at these issues in a series of articles.
First of all (and I may find myself repeating this) I have been subjected to accusations of personal bias when it comes to this issue. I sell plastic bags, say the detractors, so of course I do not want a ban on plastics. However a look at this site will show that Stemel Supply Inc has access to many packaging alternatives to plastic. And to let everyone in on a little trade secret which SHOULD make you think twice about what we are being told - there is significantly more profit through the supply chain when it comes to eco-friendly products. My stake in this game is the same as any eco warrior with the exception that I am not fighting unarmed when it comes to facts. The purpose is to reduce the harm humans do to the planet. It is my educated opinion that at this time (with one major exception), not only would switching to many plastic alternatives detract from that all important purpose, it would actually cost us in many other ways as well. Paper products As I was finishing elementary school, the major environmental push was to get away from paper bags. The reasons for switching from paper to plastic remain the same today, and in fact the burgeoning world population as well as methods of pulp production have added to the harm paper products do to the environment as compared to plastic. Paper requires the growth of the raw material. This means harvesting CO2 storing plants. It also means using large tracts of land for the purpose of pulp production, replacing native vegetation with vegetation that can produce more pulp at a faster rate, increased pesticide use, and of course increased ecology compromising infrastructure throughout the tree-to-paper process. Global economic growth has meant there has already been an increase in demand for pulp based products such as toilet paper, paper towel, and napkins - adding an increased number of paper bags to the mix is an unsustainable proposition. And you don't have to take just my word for this either - here's an article straight from some legitimate experts by way of The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/25/morrisons-paper-bag-switch-is-bad-for-global-warming-say-environment-agency . The myth that plastic bags are single use is also a major one which needs to be addressed. A quick review of your shopping habits and you'll see this is true. Very few people throw out their plastic shopping bags immediately. They may see 1-4 more uses (to carry items and in their final incarnation as a garbage bag) before their final trip to an environmentally friendly landfill. Many of the same reasons for sticking with plastic bags apply to straws to, by the way, with the addition that paper straws are physically revolting in your mouth. That brings us to another point - getting rid of plastic bags (which are not single use) will not actually reduce our use of plastic bags. Why? Because we will find ourselves using more garbage bags. Plastic garbage bags have all the same negatives (according to a certain crowd) as so called single use shopping bags, but of course garbage bags truly ARE single use only. You fill them with garbage and throw them out. Not only will garbage bag use and manufacturing increase if shopping bags are banned, those garbage bags contain a lot more plastic than the shopping bags. That means they take more to make and decompose at much slower rates than the targets of the Crusades Against Plastic. In the next article we will look at another alternative to plastic shopping bags, cloth. Then we will look at the last and best alternative to plastic bags - which are plastic bags. When it comes to the bottom line, a lot of businesses ignore the impact of consumables. Consumables are a tricky market whether you are a deli in the Kamloops area or a coffee shop in Kelowna. You use consumables to package your products every day but it's likely you don't pay too much attention to their cost.
Businesses like a Kamloops pub or a Penticton coffee shop ignoring the details of consumables is something that a lot of big companies rely on. A food based business such as a Kamloops coffee shop, for example, is likely paying more attention to food costs than other goods purchased. Time and again I have found as I visit pubs in Kamloops that they are paying way too high a price for the same goods - and by the same goods I mean exactly the same - sold by Stemel Supply Inc when they purchase those goods through Sysco or GFS as part of their regular food order. Two cases in point are garbage bags and baking sheets. When I first purchased a partnership in Stemel Supply Inc, I also owned a quick serve restaurant in the Kamloops area. I purchased everything through Sysco, believing they had the best prices. They were certainly better priced on consumables than the local suppliers I was was aware of, mainly The Grocery People. Imagine my shock when I saw the retail price on garbage bags from Stemel Supply inc. Whereas Sysco was charging my Kamloops restaurant $62 for a box of 30 x 38 garbage bags with 200 bags in a box, Stemel Supply Inc was retailing those same bags in the same quantity for $29. Sysco was marking up garbage bags for food service businesses in Kamloops 100% over what Stemel Supply Inc sold for. Switching my Kamloops restaurant to garbage bags from Stemel Supply over garbags bags from Sysco saved me $180 a year and all that money went straight to the bottom line for my Kamloops restaurant. Another example is a local Kamloops pub where I frequently eat as well as clients of mine. I was looking over an invoice from Sysco they had and was floored to see the price of the baking sheets they used for cooking wings, etc on. Again, these sheets were the same brand, size, and quantity as the baking sheets sold to Kelowna bakeries and Kamloops restaurants by Stemel Supply Ince but the big delivery companies were selling them for $60 more per case. Assuming a usage of 1000 16 x 24 wax baking sheets in 2 months for this Kamloops pub, the savings add up to $360 per year. Using only 2 different consumables as examples, a Kamloops restaurant or Kamloops coffee shop stands to save $540 per year by switching consumable purchases from a company like Sysco or GFS to Stemel Supply Inc. Add to that more of the 3000+ items Stemel Supply Inc sells and you can see how a reliable local Kamloops supply company can make a massive difference to the bottom line of a Kamloops food service business. If you own a coffee shop in Kamloops or a deli in Kelowna, you may wonder about the advantages of buying your vacuum sealed bags or 12oz coffee cups from a local supplier. What advantages does a smaller supplier have over those with a bigger footprint? Here are a couple of reasons why a local supplier such as Stemel Supply Inc might be a better option for your Thompson Okanagan business.
1) Competitive pricing: Many Kamloops restaurant owners think that bigger businesses offer better pricing on consumables, but this is not the case. I was recently in a Kamloops quick serve restaurant for a quote, and was a bit shocked to see that the garbage bags they were purchasing from their food supplier were priced three times higher than what we offer. Bigger companies have more purchasing power, but that advantage is more than offset by their overheads as well as the need to exponentially increase sales each year in order to please shareholders. 2) Personal attention. A pub in Kamloops looking for napkins simply doesn't receive the same care from bigger Vancouver based suppliers because volume is the name of the game for those suppliers. Chain accounts are their focus and the chains are who will be served first when it comes to supplies. 3) Quick turnaround. Every business experiences situations where they need supplies as soon as possible. A Kamloops coffee shop may suddenly realize they forgot to order take out lids. If you're using a big supplier, this means you will have to follow their schedule. This also means those supplies are going to cost you a lot more than they should, as a delivery fee will be applied. 4) Local supplier, local customer. As with any local business, using a local supplier means supporting your own customer base. |
AuthorA supply-chain and restaurant business expert. 25-year history of providing supplies to the BC Interior. ArchivesCategories |
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