Food Cost Techniques - Receiving

The second biggest opportunity for saving money in a restaurant is available at the loading dock. Receiving controls can save you a bundle. The amount of savings is directly proportional with the number of miles from the supplier. If you are the last stop on the delivery route, the morning's rejects may find their way onto your doorstep.

We once followed a rejected case of salmon all over New York when I was working with a local chain. The driver tried to unload the case at each and every location. Good noses and lots of phone calls kept the spoiled fish from our walkin coolers. Do you let the delivery man load the goods on your shelves? I recommend you end this practice. Especially in operations with limited deliveries and long lead times, drivers often bring the stock up to the order quantity using items already on the shelf.

Imagine you order 20 cases at the order point which is 5 cases. By the time the driver makes the delivery, you have 3 cases left. You let him put the cases in your storage. He delivers 17 cases and calls you in to check off the delivery and sign the invoice. You count 20 cases and sign. You just paid for 3 cases you never received. This is just slightly better than a phantom delivery.

One site I was sent to audit for an out of control food cost had several assistant managers. I was in charge of the inventory and I assigned everyone a location. Keeping the refrigerators for myself, I began looking for a truckload of eggs. Looking everywhere, I could not locate the eggs. The managers started complaining about not finishing in time. I persisted and increased the heat.

Eventually we located the truckload of eggs at our competitor's project five miles away. The invoice had been rubber stamped with one of the manager's signature. We threw out all the rubber stamps and got a credit for the eggs. The driver and our purchasing manager were in collusion.

In general, try to treat your inventory delivery with the same seriousness shown to the armored delivery of cash. You probably lose more cash in food not received than the miscounted cash delivered.