A reader recently wrote in saying that they will only purchase from big box stores, the Internet or varying supply houses. The reason for this is because they feel these venues offer the best prices for equipment and supplies. They also noted that when purchasing from these outlets, they are not “held captive by a vendor who can charge too much.”

In a prior article we discussed the potential opportunities lost when you focus on saving a few pennies while missing other avenues of revenue. Let’s look at a few other issues with your approach:

1. Instead of buying the same chemical brands, you buy whatever is cheapest which means that there is very little consistency in how effective a particular product performs. An example is that you have four different brands of glass cleaner with three different colors. There is also obvious different concentrations and, last but not least, you do not have up-to-date safety data sheet information on all of them. Please realize you are responsible to train your workers on the safest, most effective way of using a product and based on our conversation you do not know yourself.

2. I noted the same issues with your equipment. You have three different types of upright vacuum cleaners each requiring different bags, belts and cords. One is an excellent machine and one is junk. How do you think your workers feel when they swap back and forth on various pieces of equipment like this?

3. I also noted that you have trash can liners that were on sale because they had some age on them. It appears that they may be deteriorating while still in the box. Cheap, leaky trash bags that require clean up and doubling is not a good deal at any price.

We will continue this discussion in a future article.

Your comments and questions are important. I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, keep it clean...

Mickey Crowe has been involved in the industry for over 35 years. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant. You can reach Mickey at 678-314-2171 or CTCG50@comcast.net


posted on 4/20/2016