How to Effectively Leverage Purchasing Trends at Restaurants

2 Min Read By Wade Winters

This is the first in a series of "Ask the Expert" columns from Wade Winters, Vice President of Supply Chain for Consolidated Concepts Inc. If you have a question, please send it to Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine Executive Editor Barbara Castiglia at bcastiglia@modernrestaurantmanagement.com.

Q: How can restaurant operators leverage purchasing trends/fluctuations when making their buying decisions?

A: Most restaurant concepts have a consistent core menu that contains ingredients often inflexible of change.  For example, if you are known for your chicken wings, you better have chicken wings on your menu all the time.  When the wing market gets volatile, all you can do is hope to time the market right when you book your wings. 

There are few options for substitutions and you are often at the mercy of market pricing.  Implementing another product as an LTO, which may have more favorable pricing, could mean relief for a core menu item that has a higher food cost as a…