Is this Company Ruining Restaurants in America?

[dioxide45]

This video came across my YouTube feed today. It goes into detail about all the sameness of many restaurants across the US. I notice this when looking at the menus of all the timeshare resort restaurants and pool bar & grills. They all serve the same stuff and chances are, the food is all coming from the same place. I will apologize now to a specific Tugger as I know they worked for the company that is the topic of the video. The company is Sysco but it also referred to US Foods and one could even put Gordon Food Service in there.

 

[TolmiePeak]

Yes I saw that video too but didn't watch. One of the best things about timeshare is that it is easy to make your own food there. Not hard to get some burgers or steaks from Costco of a grocery store for the grills.

 

[ScoopKona]

Yes I saw that video too but didn't watch. One of the best things about timeshare is that it is easy to make your own food there. Not hard to get some burgers or steaks from Costco of a grocery store for the grills.

Unfortunately, that's only marginally better. Quality isn't nearly as good as what can be had sourcing food the hard way.

People want convenient. They don't want quality. They can SAY they want quality all day long. But they vote with their wallets. And that vote is nearly always for cheap and convenient.

 

[TolmiePeak]

Unfortunately, that's only marginally better. Quality isn't nearly as good as what can be had sourcing food the hard way.

People want convenient. They don't want quality. They can SAY they want quality all day long. But they vote with their wallets. And that vote is nearly always for cheap and convenient.

You are way overestimating the quality of the Sysco food.

 

[dioxide45]

Yes I saw that video too but didn't watch. One of the best things about timeshare is that it is easy to make your own food there. Not hard to get some burgers or steaks from Costco of a grocery store for the grills.

I don't know how many people want to run up to the villa mid day to cook up a meal. Poolside is just so much more convenient. That said, I do agree, having a kitchen is great. We rarely eat at the resort restaurants and often cook in the kitchen. The problem is, for those that do eat out at nearby restaurants, much of the food distribution to those restaurants is controlled by just a few conglomerates.

 

[slip]

This video came across my YouTube feed today. It goes into detail about all the sameness of many restaurants across the US. I notice this when looking at the menus of all the timeshare resort restaurants and pool bar & grills. They all serve the same stuff and chances are, the food is all coming from the same place. I will apologize now to a specific Tugger as I know they worked for the company that is the topic of the video. The company is Sysco but it also referred to US Foods and one could even put Gordon Food Service in there.

No need to apologize. When I first started working for SYSCO and even when they first organized, they were known to supply food for many high-end restaurants in the industry. They were often the high priced source for food.

They definitely changed their philosophy in the late nineties. Everything turned to cost and they had a huge reduction in SKU's. Before that SYSCO was know as the place, that if we didn't have it we got it for you. I definitely didn't agree with the change. I remember saying back then that all restaurants will be the same and you won't be able to tell them apart and restaurants will have a hard time setting themselves apart.

That definitely happened. They did recently try to turn to smaller locally sourced items. They still sell a lot of pre-made products and they sell them to customers in all demographics. They also still sell to many high end places but they sell them ingredients and not the pre-made products.

SYSCO only has about 16% market share and that hasn't changed much in all the decades I worked for them.

There certainly is no doubt that there are many average to below average places to eat and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

 

[ScoopKona]

You are way overestimating the quality of the Sysco food.

I was in the business for decades. Sysco is bad. Most Costco food is just as bad, or only marginally better. When Costco is the best value, they are far-and-away the best value. I'll give them that. And they put a few diamonds here and there in a store-full of rough.

Compared to farm stands, CSAs, buying whole/half/quarter animals directly from ranchers, farmer's markets, buying direct from farms (not an option for most people), Costco may as well be Sysco. Toss Safeway, Kroger and the rest in that category as well. We lost our way when we put all the food in one convenient location. Now all the big supermarkets and warehouse stores are competing on price and convenience -- not quality. When there were three butchers in town, they had to compete on quality. Same with green grocers and bakeries.

Mario Batali was a world-class jerk. But he was right about one thing. "Once you have done your shopping, 80 percent of the quality of your meal is decided. Twenty percent is the technique."

 

[moonstone]

One of the best things about timeshare is that it is easy to make your own food there. Not hard to get some burgers or steaks from Costco of a grocery store for the grills.

Yes! We rarely eat out on vacation or at home. We prefer home cooked food where we (mostly me) knows what is in it and can control the salt, fat and other content, as well as portion size which we find too big in the USA. Cooking our own meals also saves us a lot of money that we can use to take more vacations. This was especially true when we had 3 kids in tow. If we were going to be out all day I packed our lunch, sandwiches with vegies & dip with some drinks, in a small cooler and we would find a shady spot to sit for a while.

When going on vacation for a week or so I make several meals at home and freeze them in a casserole dish. After each is frozen I pop it out and into a freezer bag to keep in the freezer. A cooler of frozen food stays frozen even during our 1.5 day drive to Florida. If we are heading out sightseeing or to the beach, I take the contents out of a bag and put into the casserole dish then thaw it in the fridge all day. When we get back it doesn't take long to heat up our dinner. I have also assembled ingredients for crockpot meals so I just need to add frozen meat and some fresh vegies before we head out for the day. Even throwing some pork chops or chicken on a gas grill and cooking some rice and vegies doesn't take long.


~Diane

 

[davidvel]

Yeah, let me go out to a farm, slaughter my own beef, carve it and then head back to my timeshare to grill it up. How childish and stupid can one get?

 

[dioxide45]

Yeah, let me go out to a farm, slaughter my own beef, carve it and then head back to my timeshare to grill it up. How childish and stupid can one get?

Not sure it is necessary to go to that extent, but there are a lot of farmers markets going on in many places. I recall when we were in Hawaii the concierge gave us a big list of local markets, at least one happening just about every day of the week. That said, people do like convenience, but that does come at a price.

 

[am1]

Yeah, let me go out to a farm, slaughter my own beef, carve it and then head back to my timeshare to grill it up. How childish and stupid can one get?

Do not forget at farmers markets cutting out the middle man increases the prices. As well, imperfections are expected to be acceptable.

 

[davidvel]

Not sure it is necessary to go to that extent, but there are a lot of farmers markets going on in many places. I recall when we were in Hawaii the concierge gave us a big list of local markets, at least one happening just about every day of the week. That said, people do like convenience, but that does come at a price.

Of course it doesn't but that is what one self proclaimed expert contends over and over again. I have searched out quality meat at local places in Maui, Kapolei, and Kauai and could never find any, if any meat at all. For one to suggest the meat at Costco is not quality and there are other places like farms for timeshare visitors to go to is absurd. Even here in San Diego where we have lots of local quality butchers, the cost is 3-4x Costco for marginal increase in quality if at all. But that is par for the course for him. It is his way or nothing.

 

[jp10558]

Of course it doesn't but that is what one self proclaimed expert contends over and over again. I have searched out quality meat at local places in Maui, Kapolei, and Kauai and could never find any, if any meat at all. For one to suggest the meat at Costco is not quality and there are other places like farms for timeshare visitors to go to is absurd. Even here in San Diego where we have lots of local quality butchers, the cost is 3-4x Costco for marginal increase in quality if at all. But that is par for the course for him. It is his way or nothing.

I remember trying "local quality meat" and it made me long for Sam's Club quality meat. Apples too - Sam's is actually the quality I compare to because many other stores or stands are smaller, less flavorful, and more expensive. I tried "butcher box" and other "expensive" ship quality meat to you frozen - nope, the grass fed steaks were bland and not a flavor anyone in the house liked. I tried local packed mixed meat boxes and it was 50% good / cheap, and 50% ick texture, taste, or "filler". Local "Farmers Markets" have been found to be re-selling produce from the grocery store next door - one time they missed some of the "dole" stickers! Of the farmers markets people who are honest, again, chickens have 0 taste, prices are 3x Sam's, hours are not convenient and item availability varies extremely where I live simply because there's just a short summer growing season.

And that's all the troubles in a place I know extremely well having lived here for decades. Now I'm in another state that I may have never been to before, likely may never return, and am being asked to spend more than a presentations time hunting up food? Of course that isn't something commonly done. The farmers market hunt isn't even offering me a $150 Amex to undertake the scavenger hunt

 

[Brett]

This video came across my YouTube feed today. It goes into detail about all the sameness of many restaurants across the US. I notice this when looking at the menus of all the timeshare resort restaurants and pool bar & grills. They all serve the same stuff and chances are, the food is all coming from the same place. I will apologize now to a specific Tugger as I know they worked for the company that is the topic of the video. The company is Sysco but it also referred to US Foods and one could even put Gordon Food Service in there.

Didn't click the video but there is consolidation in the food / restaurant industry

 

[joestein]

I have noticed that at many of the "casual" or bar-type restaurants near us (no national chains) it is pretty easy to see that they all use Sysco.

We used to like to order the preztels with beer cheese. Every place serves the same 3 pretzel 'logs'. They are not even good, sometimes I think they microwave it before it comes out - no longer would order it.

However, a restaurant can use sysco for ingredients vs frozen/prepared food and that should be ok.

 

[loosefeet]

Of course it doesn't but that is what one self proclaimed expert contends over and over again. I have searched out quality meat at local places in Maui, Kapolei, and Kauai and could never find any, if any meat at all. For one to suggest the meat at Costco is not quality and there are other places like farms for timeshare visitors to go to is absurd. Even here in San Diego where we have lots of local quality butchers, the cost is 3-4x Costco for marginal increase in quality if at all. But that is par for the course for him. It is his way or nothing.

I hunted all over the Big Island one year for local beef--wanted to give as a Christmas present for my brother and family who live there (they eat mostly fish they catch). It was difficult to find any local beef, even though there are big cattle ranches up north. Not sure where the beef goes-but not to the local grocery. I did find a small store finally and was able to buy some steaks-not an easy find.

 

[bizaro86]

I hunted all over the Big Island one year for local beef--wanted to give as a Christmas present for my brother and family who live there (they eat mostly fish they catch). It was difficult to find any local beef, even though there are big cattle ranches up north. Not sure where the beef goes-but not to the local grocery. I did find a small store finally and was able to buy some steaks-not an easy find.

I bought Parker Ranch beef at the KTA nearest to Waikoloa on ScoopKona's recommendation. It was excellent - I made meatballs with the ground beef and grilled the steaks at my timeshare.

 

[DebBrown]

Yeah, let me go out to a farm, slaughter my own beef, carve it and then head back to my timeshare to grill it up. How childish and stupid can one get?

LOL! Not everyone lives in cities. Sure a lot do but this is still possible. My daughter-in-law's family are ranchers. The beef tastes very different than supermarket beef. We live in a rural area now and I get all my produce from farmstands for half the year. Vacations are, of course, the exception for us when we eat out quite a bit.

 

[magmue]

I hunted all over the Big Island one year for local beef-

When we were there last winter, we tried Waimea Butcher Shop
We had lunch there and enjoyed it, took some pastrami back to the condo with this, which was also good. Not Carnegie Deli good, but well worth trying.

 

[pedro47]

Tuggers, you will be surprised that many restaurants used Sysco, Golden Foods, Sam’s Club and Costco in their restaurants. The difference is how their chef’s prepared the meat and seafood items. IMHO.

 

[bizaro86]

Tuggers, you will be surprised that many restaurants used Sysco, Golden Foods, Sam’s Club and Costco in their restaurants. The difference is how their chef’s prepared the meat and seafood items. IMHO.

I think there's a difference between buying ingredients from a wholesaler and buying heat-and-serve meals from a wholesaler

 

[TolmiePeak]

When we were there last winter, we tried Waimea Butcher Shop
We had lunch there and enjoyed it, took some pastrami back to the condo with this, which was also good. Not Carnegie Deli good, but well worth trying.

Isn't Carnegie Deli considered a tourist trap in NYC?

 

[rickandcindy23]

Village Inn was doing this crazy thing starting in 1975 or so. They decided not to make pancake batter at the restaurants anymore. A central location would send vats of pancake batter to the restaurants as needed. Rick was managing a Village Inn at the time. The complaints that the pancakes didn't taste as good should have had them change things back. They never did.

 

[pedro47]

I think there's a difference between buying ingredients from a wholesaler and buying heat-and-serve meals from a wholesaler

Costco and Sam’s Club sell beef to restaurants.

 

[jeffox]

Same recipe. same ingredients, the wife and I make it, her's is 10x better than mine. What magic does she posses?