5 Tips to arrange for restaurant supplies

Posted by Kevin Joseph on November 9th, 2020

Starting a restaurant in this day & age is no easy feat, it is particularly difficult especially through 2020-21, as the pandemic fears still linger around. However, this has not prevented several hordes of restauranteurs & future business owners from taking their leap of faith when it comes to starting their dream restaurant/cafe. 

Opening a restaurant & cafe also tends to have emotional reasoning behind it & emotions are more often than not, bad for profits. This is why the practical among you should be doing your research with good measures. This article will aim to inform you of just that. 

1. Software

If you're a millennial, you probably already have a firm grasp on this. But if you happen to be a restaurant owner from the previous generations, you may want to wrap your head around this. Restaurant software does not just help make things easier in terms of reservations. Today's restaurant software takes care of just about everything operational in the restaurant.

This is not just confined to table reservations. Although it may seem that running a restaurant is a fairly standard process, there are simply too many moving parts that are interdependent on each other & if they don't function like a well-oiled machine, there are several things that can go wrong. 

Employee payrolls, procurement, invoicing, tax maintenance, table reservations & in today's day and age, even security systems are all integrated into a single software that is often controlled from a single command unit..

There are a few well known, restaurant POS software specialists that completely customize this service for you 

2. Furniture & Decor

While every restaurant owner does have a great idea on how to go about with the furniture & decor set-up. The expenses and total time investment into the idea is rarely thought through. Furniture, especially, commercial-grade furniture has always been a slightly premium purchase. Simply because commercial & residential furniture are made of completely different grades of materials & hospitality grade furniture is almost always much more of an expense as opposed to residential furniture. 

Additionally, the decor of the restaurant should always be done keeping the end consumer in mind & his tastes & preferences. For example, rustic furniture tends to be loved by baby boomers & the elder folk. Whereas industrial furniture & its modern variations are loved by the younger generations. Getting your furniture, lighting & decor set up exactly the way you want it and without any compromise would mean custom manufacturing it. 

Thankfully, FurnitureRoots, A Jodhpur, Rajasthan based company specializes in this very task. You can find a line straight to the director at +91 9769003311. 

3. Cutlery & Crockery

While this may seem straightforward, the scale at which this is required makes it a high expense. Cutlery & crockery are best sourced in extremely large quantities keeping in mind that several of them will be cracked, broken & even stolen. The best bet for you would be to browse through several different manufacturers & negotiate with them on sites like Alibaba, BBB & IndiaMart.

4. Commercial Equipment

Several items that we consumers deem to be basic are actually quite a tall purchase for restauranteurs. It's not just furniture that should be of commercial grade. Refrigerated storage, Central heating/cooling, bar counters, all of these are high expense purchases, and finding the right supplier that sells high-quality items at great prices is key to keeping expenses under control for the long term & ensuring profitability 

5. Safety, Precautions & Accessibility

Being a commercial establishment, restaurants in most cities need to ensure that they remain fire safety compliant. This may include and is certainly not limited to installing sprinklers, fire hoses, fire extinguishers, safety signs, safety linings, ventilation systems & much more. Additionally, all waiters & busboys should be trained in OHSAS safety regulations. 

Safety is not just limited to fire-safety. Even something as trivial as having a high seating chair for babies to sit on is something that should be thought through thoroughly. 

Additionally, if one is running a fairly large restaurant establishment, it becomes important to ensure that it is also accessible to everyone. Is the restaurant easily accessible via wheelchair/walking sticks? Can the menu be read in Braille? These are the important questions that one should have ready answers to. 

6. Janitorial Supplies

Naturally, this is going to be a recurring requirement. Janitorial supplies include commercial cleaning agents, disposables, cleaning cloths, commercial dishwashers & sponges. Also includes all the supplies needed for the washrooms of your restaurant. 

These supplies purely depend on the size of the restaurant both in terms of actual real estate occupied & also in terms of the number of visitors to the restaurant. There's no hard & fast rule for getting this completely sorted out. One can do a complete check of all aspects and then conclusively choose either a manufacturer or a wholesaler for these supplies.