ctimvend Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 i am having a time finding a local distributer other than costco to by snack items for my vendors. i bought from trepco west once. didnt help by bottom line much if any at all. if there is even a place to buy in another state and have shipped to san diego which doesnt charge for shipping would be awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orsd Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I've seen ar food distributors trucks before in sd The schools use them, Based in Anaheim? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allen watson Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Try Sam's Club. I use the one in San Bernardino. I'm sure there has to be a few in San Diego. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moondog Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 i am having a time finding a local distributer other than costco to by snack items for my vendors. i bought from trepco west once. didnt help by bottom line much if any at all. if there is even a place to buy in another state and have shipped to san diego which doesnt charge for shipping would be awesome. Try The Candyman if you get up as far as Anaheim. Sam's Club will work short of any better options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 From my experiences, Sam's Club has the cheapest prices for candy and chips but their variety is lacking. To supplement this, I go to a Merchant Mart that is about 70 miles away from my central location but only about 5 miles away from a cluster of 3 accounts in that area. I go the Merchant Mart (Owned by Vistar) every 2 weeks when I service the machines in that area. I buy things that I cannot get at Sam's Club like certain candy, meat sticks, certain types of chips (Herr's), pastries, and anything else I need at that moment. I get my Lays, Doritos, Cheezits, and other mainstream varieties at Sam's Club. One odd thing is that the chocolate variety packs USED to be about 49-53 cents/unit at Sam's Club while the individual selections were about 56 cents/unit... so it was cheaper to buy a bunch of variety packs. It was also a little easier because I could simply bring a few variety packs with me to a location and take care of their candy without knowing what I needed to bring in. Now, the variety packs are about 66 cents/unit while the individual selections are about 61 cents/unit. That's annoying. One good thing about growing the business is that I can easily go through entire boxes of chips. I used to have to buy variety packs and throw certain selections away. One of the biggest problems is that the variety packs are about 5 weeks from expiring on average while the individual boxes have an average of about 10 weeks on them. So I am having less of an issue with expired product across the board but it really takes BOTH places to make it work. I am sure that Vistar, alone, would work but their prices are higher than Sam's Club. And almost nothing beats Sam's Club when it comes to everyday 12oz can prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allen watson Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 well said AngryChris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tc vending Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Vistar has a lot of things Sams doesn't have. Sams is cheaper than Vistar has more options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctimvend Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 okay cool, tanks to all for the 411. I will check out sams club. I figured they'd prettymuch have same as costo. yep. I'll search on line for a vistar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsusgeek Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I agree. Sam's Club is the best deal for me. Occasionally I order from Vistar for variety. Vistar is a little more on your common snacks (Lays, Lays BBQ, Doritios, etc) but on things you can not get from Sam's Club (Buffalo Wing Chips, Pork Skins, etc) its great for more choices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moondog Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 okay cool, tanks to all for the 411. I will check out sams club. I figured they'd prettymuch have same as costo. yep. I'll search on line for a vistar. You'll find that Sam's has a much better variety of snacks than Costco - I go both places but only because Costco sometimes has sodas and candy bars on sale. You could probably get by with Sam's alone for snacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conallvending Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 The issue I have with Sams for the chips is they are not LSS they are 1oz. Not sure about other areas but around here in MA everything is LSS. Though Merchant Mart has a much larger variety they still don't carry alot of the things I need. I end up ordering direct from Vistar. I pay a little more for my chocolate there then at Sams but need to hit an order threshold so I buy it through them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 The issue I have with Sams for the chips is they are not LSS they are 1oz. Not sure about other areas but around here in MA everything is LSS. Though Merchant Mart has a much larger variety they still don't carry alot of the things I need. I end up ordering direct from Vistar. I pay a little more for my chocolate there then at Sams but need to hit an order threshold so I buy it through them. Have you tried asking your local Merchant Mart to order something that Vistar has? My local Merchant Mart will gladly order ANYTHING that Vistar carries but they need about a 1-week notice (maybe less, depending on when the orders come in). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conallvending Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 No but that is good to know because I struggle real hard to hit Vistars minimum order for no charge shipping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 No but that is good to know because I struggle real hard to hit Vistars minimum order for no charge shipping. Vistar owns Merchant Mart so yeah... they should be able to get absolutely anything Vistar has as long as you order it ahead. I think the only exception is fresh food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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