Appeal of Locally Sourced Food

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Aug 25, 2018
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South Carolina
A local small business owner of a sandwich place has been looking to redo his breakfast menu. He hired my wife to come in and bring some fresh ideas to the business. My wife came up with a few ideas and made one of them this afternoon. She made a homemade biscuit with the choice of meat (sausage or bacon), egg, and pimento cheese. All of it was made from scratch, locally sourced, and absolutely delicious. The owner ate one and loved it. He asked for and ate a second one. He wants it on the menu right away. However, here's where the conflict is.

He's worried about the bottom dollar a bit. He doesn't think locally sourcing the ingredients is a big deal. He wants to order bulk from Sams or US Foods and thinks the customers won't care of the source so long as it tastes good. My wife is urging him to reconsider the source stating that locally sourced will appeal to customers that support money staying in the local economy, and that customers would gladly pay a little extra knowing its locally sourced.

As consumers, and human beings that have to eat, what do you think of the issue of locally sourced ingredients? If you were to go to a small restaurant in a rural town, or a small restaurant in your own local community, would you find it more appealing if the ingredients of your food were sourced from local farmers and markets, or would it not matter to you so long as it tastes good?
 
While I definitely do appreciate locally-sourced and local-helping positions, I don't necessarily go out of my way to visit them, especially if distance is involved or excessive cost. If the sandwich were $7.50 at this restaurant vs. a similar restaurant that had the same sandwich but at $4 with Sams/US Foods, I would probably do the $4, unless other factors were at play (I had to drive 5 miles to get the $4 sandwich vs. down the street $7.50).
 
Another vote here for locally sourced. Given the choice of near-identical food, I'll pay more for the local. How much? Hmmm ... have to think about that.

I'm told that a successful, a restaurant should follow the 1/3-1/3-1/3 rule - 1/3 of the selling price is the actual food cost, 1/3 is the restaurant's overhead, and 1/3 is profit. So if the raw material cost gets too high, things don't work. On the other hand, if the restauranteer is underspending on raw material, the consumer will feel they've been overcharged.

What would the difference in cost be in this case?
 
I buy all our meat and dairy locally. Vegetables and fruit? This is Canada, so that's not always an option so we usually just do Sobeys. Anything in a box typically comes from Costco.
 
Strictly talking about restaurants I don't really look if they buy locally grown or not as the presentation and quality of food is not dependent on those two criterias.
 
I agree with others that I would spend more, but to a limit. I also don't know what that limit is specifically, but it exists.

I would also comment that it is one thing to call something "locally-sourced", and another to specify what that source is. Getting something from just down the road has a different feel than if it comes from a few hours away.
 
Another vote here for locally sourced. Given the choice of near-identical food, I'll pay more for the local. How much? Hmmm ... have to think about that.

I'm told that a successful, a restaurant should follow the 1/3-1/3-1/3 rule - 1/3 of the selling price is the actual food cost, 1/3 is the restaurant's overhead, and 1/3 is profit. So if the raw material cost gets too high, things don't work. On the other hand, if the restauranteer is underspending on raw material, the consumer will feel they've been overcharged.

What would the difference in cost be in this case?

If going by the 1/3rd rule, the locally sourced ingredients would cost ~$1.75/ea for finished product. That makes it ~$5.25/ea to the customer. Going the US Foods route shows ~$1.40/ea or $4.20/ea to the customer.

I agree with others that I would spend more, but to a limit. I also don't know what that limit is specifically, but it exists.

I would also comment that it is one thing to call something "locally-sourced", and another to specify what that source is. Getting something from just down the road has a different feel than if it comes from a few hours away.

By locally sourced, I mean my wife went out and got everything from the flour and buttermilk to the sausage and eggs within a 3 mile radius of the restaurant from a local dairy farm, town butcher shop, and the farmer's market on the edge of town. Every ingredient was grown/raised right here in the county.
 
All other things being equal, I believe most of us would take locally sourced products over other sources.

But, locally sourced food seems to come at a premium price. Also, seasonality may play a part in the items available at various times of the year. Even if not impacted by seasonality, locally sourced items might be in short supply due to the whimsey of nature, animals, etcv.

Choice and price could cause folks to go elsewhere.
 
I've been to restaurants where they list the sources on the menu. Didn't make me feel better. Doesn't make any difference to me as long as it tastes good. But it depends on the customers. Whether or not they care.

Didn't even know you could buy local flour.
 
...By locally sourced, I mean my wife went out and got everything from the flour and buttermilk to the sausage and eggs within a 3 mile radius of the restaurant from a local dairy farm, town butcher shop, and the farmer's market on the edge of town. Every ingredient was grown/raised right here in the county.

I don't doubt that's true. I guess what I meant to say was that needs to be communicated to the customer.
 
I grew up near the birthplace of the American locally-sourced movement in Berkeley, California. As much as many snicker at it, the idea came from Alice Waters who cultivated relationships with local producers at her restaurant - Chez Panisse. If you see the name of the meat or produce provider on your menu - she was the one who really started doing that. I've read that they cultivate relationships with over hundred local sources. Once I read they were working with a specific girl in 4H who was raising lambs.

I think location in California does help since the weather is more amenable to year-round production of produce. It may cost more depending on whether or not they're specialty producers. Of course not everything can be locally sourced.

Here's a sample menu from 2011. Not everything is local, but they clearly name the producers of local items.

ChezPanisse.jpg
 
By locally sourced, I mean my wife went out and got everything from the flour and buttermilk to the sausage and eggs within a 3 mile radius of the restaurant from a local dairy farm, town butcher shop, and the farmer's market on the edge of town. Every ingredient was grown/raised right here in the county.

Are the locally sourced items available year round?
 
I was watching a show over the weekend, like DDD (but it wasn't), that takes you into restaurants and their kitchens. One was in St. Louis and bragged that all their ingredients were locally sourced. Their feature dinners were mussels and clams, how local can they be? They may have been flown-in fresh but they weren't local.
 
I think this really depends on your customer base and their social practices. A lot of it also depends on your price point. If the eatery's items are priced similarly to a fast-food chain then the client base you attract is unlikely to care.

If the eatery is priced to be competitive with other boutique eateries, then yes, I think sourcing local ingredients may be considered an additional value-added selling point.
 
I think this really depends on your customer base and their social practices. A lot of it depends on your price band as well. If you are priced similarly to a fast-food chain, then the client base you attract is not likely to care. If the item is priced to be competitive with other boutique eateries, then yes, I think sourcing local ingredients may be considered an additional value-added selling point.

This exactly. We (myself and a few guys from work) ate at a lovely seafood place in Alexandria VA, which has the Potomac running beside it and they served fresh soft shell crab, which was divine.

Going out east, you can get fresh maritime lobster, which is another one of my favourites.
 
Are the locally sourced items available year round?

That's possible to some extent with things that can be stored. Dairy obviously can't without a loss of quality, but it's usually available year round. When you're talking about something like sausage it's probably more complicated. But the biggest problem will be produce. If you need greens in the winter, they might just be coming from California, Arizona, or Mexico. Even in warmer months the production will come from these places.

Still - that kind of extreme localism is kind of hard. I've gone to farmers markets where the farmers came from as far away as Fresno.
 
I was watching a show over the weekend, like DDD (but it wasn't), that takes you into restaurants and their kitchens. One was in St. Louis and bragged that all their ingredients were locally sourced. Their feature dinners were mussels and clams, how local can they be? They may have been flown-in fresh but they weren't local.

There are freshwater clams and mussels. Many are pretty good eating. I have heard that the invasive zebra mussel is edible but frankly not very good. Birds will eat them though.
 
How many items does the guy want your wife to come up with?

Maybe what your wife should do is have three menu items and for all three have a local version and an out of town version.

Local version Could be priced higher, but do a trial and let the customers decide. This shows the owner what the customers want and love. I might do this for a month and see how it goes.
 
I'm just first curious what was the cost of the above breakfast sandwich that the wife made.
 
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