If you run a restaurant or catering business, you’re probably well acquainted with the good, the bad, and the ugly of restaurant supplies and utensils.
👎🏼 Stoneware dinnerware
👎🏼 Melamine dinnerware
👎🏼 Plastic dinnerware
You’ve seen it all!
And because you’re a savvy business owner, you know these cheaper products aren’t worth the “savings”, because they simply don’t last in the daily battlefield of a commercial kitchen.
But did you know the same goes for buffet serving pieces?
That’s right. It’s not just melamine dishes that bend and buckle under the pressures of a commercial kitchen. Cheap serving accessories spell disaster for your catering business. They look and feel awful for diners, and then end up costing more in replacement parts in the long run.
We’ll look at the ways cheaply-made buffet pieces cost restaurants dearly and break down the actual costs of a well-made set vs. a poorly-made one.
Ways cheap buffet utensils will cost you
It’s hard to track and measure these costs, but “saving money” by buying cheap equipment never lands your restaurant (or your reputation) on top.
You’ll have to buy new ones more often
If you buy poorly-made serving utensils, you’ll be forced to replace them more often. The inexpensive ones break, bend, and warp easier than a quality set. Quality pieces last for decades, so you won’t need to replace them often (see our cost analysis below).
They give a poor customer experience
Your diners can feel the difference between a quality buffet serving set and an inexpensive one. They’ll know you’ve cheaped out on the equipment, and they’ll wonder where else you’re cutting corners in your kitchen, calling the food quality and hygiene standards into question.
They lead to lower footfall in your restaurant
Word-of-mouth is still a major business driver for restaurants, and your diners won’t keep quiet about their poor experience. If they’ve noticed you’re taking shortcuts with the quality, they’ll tell their network, resulting in fewer catering bookings and a slower Sunday brunch buffet.
They damage your reputation
If you lose your good name in the club or catering business, it’s hard to reestablish it. It’s far easier to keep the stellar reputation you already enjoy by giving diners a consistently-amazing experience in every detail—right down to the buffet serving utensils.
When you spend more money on buying durable buffet utensils, you’ll avoid these mistakes and chart your restaurant’s reputation up and to the right. 📈
Cost analysis of poor serveware
We’ve talked a lot about the hidden costs of cheap serveware, but sometimes, it takes a real-life illustration to drive the point home. So, for you visual learners out there, here’s a compelling cost analysis of how much more you’ll spend in the long run if you prioritize poorly-made buffet serving pieces over quality ones.
Oslo
Our Oslo servingware collection is hugely popular with restaurants, clubs, and event planners. For starters, it’s stunning. Its sleek, Scandi-inspired design looks elegant in any setting, whether serving hundreds in a classy wedding buffet or individual tables for a sophisticated Sunday brunch.
But more importantly, it’s good value. If you buy an entire set of the Oslo servingware collection from the Corby Hall shop, you’ll pay about $120.00. You may pay more (around $175) when you buy it from a third-party retailer.
But Oslo’s built to last. And as we’ll see in our cost analysis, the higher price tag is well worth the up-front investment.
Cheap Serveware
We don’t like to name and shame brands for offering cheap buffet serveware, so we won’t focus on a specific company. But a quick Amazon search will show you hundreds of examples of serveware collections ranging in price from about $13 to around $55. And they receive decent reviews, for domestic purposes.
The fact is that none of the cheap collections are built to stand up to a restaurant or catering kitchen. Your kitchen’s demands are rigorous and unrelenting, requiring utensils to handle wild temperature swings, rough handling, and commercial dishwasher abuse, taking it all in stride.
Product reviews for these collections lament the lightweight feel and worry that they might not last in a domestic dishwasher. If buyers are worried about the collection withstanding the pressures of a home kitchen, imagine how quickly they’d buckle in your catering kitchen!
The long-term cost
By contrast, Corby Hall collections are built to last, and most do so for decades. The $50 Amazon version, however, will likely only last a few years. You’ll need to replace it for another $50, which means that you’ll nearly have spent the price of a far-superior Corby Hall collection. If you need to replace the cheap version again in a few more years, you’ll have overspent.
And don’t get us started on the $13 collection! You’ll likely need to replace those in about 3 months.
While you’re busy messing around with servingware, your customers are taking note. They see the shoddy serving pieces. They notice the replacement pieces you’ve tried to slot in to save a few bucks, and they see the mismatched aesthetic. It’s not a great look for building a good reputation.
Why Corby Hall?
We know we’re not the only company that can offer you quality buffet serving utensils, but we think we bring a little more to the table (pun intended!).
- We’re a family-run business, and when you call customer service for assistance, there’s a real person on the end of the line.
- We never discontinue our product lines, so your replacement piece is always in stock.
- Our products are made by quality European construction with a decades-long reputation for high construction standards.
For all your restaurant dinnerware needs—from pepper shakers to serving trays, and all the china dishes in between—call Corby Hall.
