9thDegreeVending Posted May 17, 2018 Share Posted May 17, 2018 Quick question to the members here, has anyone ever used Vistar as their distributor for supplies? If so, how was your experience with them? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tc vending Posted May 17, 2018 Share Posted May 17, 2018 We use vistar their ok. Some stuff comes from them some from Sams club. Vistar is generally higher but not always it has more selections to pick from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flintflash Posted May 17, 2018 Share Posted May 17, 2018 We use Vistar. Pricing can vary among the different regions. I know out West, Vistar really sticks it to them with higher pricing because of lack of competition. My big beef with Vistar is they are starting to get a little "Too Big for Their Britches" since they have recently bought out a couple of competitors (Chicago Vendor Supply and Thayer Dist). Their customer service is really starting to slide and they act as though we all NEED them. Fact is, there are still A LOT of great distributors out there and Sam's Club is still pretty competitive as well. Vistar is a decent distributor and they do house a nice assortment of inventory. But you will need to meet a minimum delivery to avoid a delivery fee. It was minimum 35 cases or $500 to get free delivery, but check with your Vistar house to be sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bvending Posted May 17, 2018 Share Posted May 17, 2018 We use vistar for a small portion of our products. Vendors Supply gets the majority of our business. Vendors Supply pricing is better than Vistar. If I remember correctly they deliver in the southeast and east coast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
putrevus Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 On 5/17/2018 at 3:58 PM, Bvending said: We use vistar for a small portion of our products. Vendors Supply gets the majority of our business. Vendors Supply pricing is better than Vistar. If I remember correctly they deliver in the southeast and east coast You are locating in NJ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bvending Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 2 hours ago, putrevus said: You are locating in NJ?? Tennessee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Central Kentucky Vending Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 they do a good job. just if sams stocks it they may be less Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southeast Treats Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 It's hard to beat Sams pricing on what they carry, but I use a lot of Vistar products to get a bigger variety. Here they have a 25 unit minimum for delivery. I can't seem to find a good third option in this part of Florida, either their delivery dosen't quite reach me or their pricing is way too high.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 For snacks, I get about 95% of everything from Sam's, but I know that isn't feasible for everyone. I supplement the remaining items with Vendor's Supply which is an hour away so I pickup my orders. Having deliveries would be great but I save a LOT of money by running everything out of the van with a little overflow in the garage. If I ever decided to change things up and get deliveries, I would probably find a small, cheap, warehouse with a dock with just enough space to store maybe 20 machines and 10 skids. With that, I could prekit, possibly park my van inside, have plenty space to work on my machines and move things around, and handle a few other things that would increase the value of the building. For any small vendor (by small, I mean if you gross less than 50k/year in sales), I think using Sam's and working out of your garage/van is the way to go. I have seen small vendors spend way too much money on things they really can't utilize and go out of business because of it. And having a lot of changes between distributors and wholesale clubs closing up has started to force a lot of smaller vendors to sell-out. If you are big enough to get significant orders.. like at least 1 full-skid of snacks every week, and companies will deliver to your location, then it saves a lot of time and hassle. If you only go through maybe 1/2 of a skid each week worth of snacks then don't bother. Soda is a whole different issue from distributors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Central Kentucky Vending Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 i can get alot of snacks from vistar that sams donot have.but i buy most from sams. but once a month i get a order from vistar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golfdogs Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 I find the pricing from Vistar to be high. And I fight short dates with them, as well. I pick my orders up from them and ALWAYS have them bring me better dates, especially on chips. I quit getting deliveries from Vistar because of the short dates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Central Kentucky Vending Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 i get better dates thur vistar then i do sams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golfdogs Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 15 minutes ago, Central Kentucky Vending said: i get better dates thur vistar then i do sams Do you order out of Louisville? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 We had Vistar orders out of Louisville. Sams we always was go to place if trucks ran light out on the route. Vistar got us a lot of business with their variety. In California vendors use the Vistar MiniMarts. You can go in then shop like Sams and go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Central Kentucky Vending Posted May 20, 2018 Share Posted May 20, 2018 yes my order comes out of Louisville Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickers Posted May 26, 2018 Share Posted May 26, 2018 Well it's official that Vistar has bought out Master Wholesale. Running a Monopoly. Not good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted May 26, 2018 Share Posted May 26, 2018 I have said this to other vendors before... the industry is making changes and becoming more efficient. In doing so, it is making it difficult (if not impossible) for smaller vendors (50k/year gross sales or less) to be able to meet minimum orders for deliveries OR go through enough product to sell the minimum orders before the product expires. If you can drive to a Sam's Club, Costco, Merchant's Mart, or any other place and get exactly what you need, then you are fine... but so many places have been tightening their belts by closing doors... I would say it's good news for the vendors that can survive without them but bad news for the small vendors as they'll start dropping out of the rat race. I have also seen medium-sized companies having issues with getting enough product or getting it on time due to various local distributors having management issues. It would be a totally nightmare for a large company (20+ routes) that relies on on-time deliveries to find out that their deliveries are being delayed. I would imagine companies like LACanteen's would go crazy if a single regular order was delayed by 2 days. Companies like that monitor their stock and they pretty much know exactly how much is going out and about how much they need to come in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 Exactly like what has happened on the machine side with Crane deciding to monopolize the manufacturing end of vending Vistar has done to the product distribution side. They are single handedly destroying the ability of small vendors to profitably subsist in the world today. Every single distributor they have bought out used to service their own local and regional customers in a very efficient and responsive way. This was much like the APs and Rowes of the world did before AP bought Rowe and Crane then desimated AP and decided that Dixie Narco and National (Crane) would just ignore legacy vendors and their legacy machines. So NAMA just continues to stand idly by while it all happens and Automatic Merchandiser magazine and Vending Times magazine remain shills for their advertisers instead of editorily demanding accountability from Crane and Vistar to support all vendors, large or small with equipment and products. The ads in those magazines are pretty hilarious because if you aren't a major regional player in vending you'll never get your hands on the advertised products because you'll never see them in a Sam's Club or Costco Business Center. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lake Cities Vending Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 I signed up with Vistar here in Dallas, never have used them but mostly use Sam's. Every time I look at Vistar they are higher on prices but they do have more product choices. The bigger I get I'm starting to look into Vistar more. Snack machines are all about snack choices. Everybody has the same Sam's products in their machines. Every time I get a new location the first thing I hear is they want more choices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacanteen Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 On 5/26/2018 at 5:45 PM, AngryChris said: It would be a totally nightmare for a large company (20+ routes) that relies on on-time deliveries to find out that their deliveries are being delayed. I would imagine companies like LACanteen's would go crazy if a single regular order was delayed by 2 days. Companies like that monitor their stock and they pretty much know exactly how much is going out and about how much they need to come in. Yes, a delay measured in days is catastrophic. We get Vistar deliveries on Monday and Thursday. Last Thursday they left off 2 pallets of honey buns. We called, they loaded them in a van and someone drove 4 hours from Houston to have them here by 5PM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlindVending Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 5 hours ago, lacanteen said: Yes, a delay measured in days is catastrophic. We get Vistar deliveries on Monday and Thursday. Last Thursday they left off 2 pallets of honey buns. We called, they loaded them in a van and someone drove 4 hours from Houston to have them here by 5PM. 2 pallets of just honeybuns? 😲 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
57thTom Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 6 hours ago, lacanteen said: Last Thursday they left off 2 pallets of honey buns. That's great. Last Thursday we got the first two 36 count cases of Cloverhill Honeybuns Vistar would send in months. Maybe a year. Maybe more than a year. They did leave off two cases of instant coffee a while ago and they shipped it by FEDX. They arrived by Monday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacanteen Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 11 hours ago, BlindVending said: 2 pallets of just honeybuns? 😲 Yep, 70 cases. I know that because I was the only one here that could operate the fork lift at the time. We had to have the product for the pick line which starts at 5:30 AM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orsd Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 1 hour ago, lacanteen said: Yep, 70 cases. I know that because I was the only one here that could operate the fork lift at the time. We had to have the product for the pick line which starts at 5:30 AM. Why the golpher are you at work so early? You're a tech. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacanteen Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 The driver from Vistar was here at 4:30PM. Pick line runs from 5:30AM-2:00PM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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