The Whole Package
Packaging is a requirement in the food business. There are several reasons for this, but the chief reason in take away food is to safeguard the integrity of the food prepared by the premises.
Packaging is also a rort for food businesses. The costs associated with packaging the food can add up to 10% of production costs, just to package a meat pie in a trendy, environmentally friendly manner. A brown paper bag is less than a cent, but an environmentally friendly package, tray and cover for example, can cost up to 25 cents per item. If your cost of goods is $2.00 or less, that’s a hefty percentage just to package it.
Packaging suppliers are talented at the upsell as well. You have to be on guard all the time to make sure you:
1. Only get what you need for the week/month
2. Actually get what you ordered
3. Are able to return mistakes without cost to you
4. Compare prices with other suppliers
My biggest cost of goods expense was the packaging. Also the amount of plastic and paper that it is adding to land fill is exorbitant. Just in my business I would fill 3 or 4 large garbage bags a day of used packaging, discarded into my bins. People ignore the eat in option, using a large ceramic bowl. Don’t ask me why I don’t know.
Which brings me to another important point, who bears the risk of a bring your own container? More on that in another post.
The point here is simple, people are lazy, spontaneous, fail to plan, fail to care and are generally self absorbed when it comes to purchases and what they expect to be provided with for very minimal money in terms of service.
We have had ample warning, months and months of warning about single use plastic bags, and yet the uproar emerged the day it was implemented.
People only care about how they are going to get their shopping to their cars/offices/buses. Even though they may give the environment a thought here and there, the majority genuinely believe, and in some cases rightly so, that their small actions will not make an impact and so, give them their plastic bag.
But don’t forget to factor those costs into your mark up. Pass on the cost for the convenience and make them pay.
