Transitioning from local farms to commercial broadline distributors—worth it for scal

Hey everyone. We’ve been running a farm-to-table bistro for 3 years now, but we're opening a second location next month. Sourcing everything from 6 local vendors is becoming an operational nightmare for inventory. Has anyone made the jump to larger commercial food distributors? How did it affect your prep consistency and food costs?

We made that switch last year when we expanded. You definitely sacrifice a bit of that "hyper-local" marketing story, but the sanity you gain from a single drop-off window is huge. Main thing to watch out for is minimum order quantities (MOQs). Some guys will charge you delivery surcharges if you don't hit their threshold.

Totally agree on the MOQs. We bounced between two different food distributors before settling on a routine. If you're looking into regional options with decent flexibility for mid-sized kitchens, check out food distributors - they were pretty reasonable with delivery schedules when we re-did our supply chain last spring. Just make sure to negotiate your contract rates upfront regardless of who you pick.