Your biggest frustration

Hi Guys
 
Maybe this is a bit of group therapy...but I'm interested to know what your biggest problem or frustration is with running your food business?  I'm over in the UK so wondering if you face the same kind of problems as we do.
 
Cheers
Bob

dealing with an HD that is of the mindset that every single thing HAS to be NSF and that the more expensive it is the safer it is....

  Dealing with a State and Local Government that won't keep their hands out of my pockets!  They give me everything but a kiss!  Small business freindly my A**, it's easier to be on Welfare than to follow the "American Dream"!  Surprisingly my HD has been great to work with.

The government and Vienna Beef. They are just about impossible to work with and the few suppliers in my area are... I use 8 to 1 natural casing dogs, RD cannot seem to special order them and the only other supplier charges a dollar more a pound, or $10 more a case than RD. His other Vienna product is within pennies of RD except for these particular dogs. A real gouger.
 

I would have to say that my biggest frustration is the lack of any consistency in business, some monday's are great, some suck this week fri. might be the best day next week it sucks ... just when you think you got the answers they change the questions !!........course I guess thats why I like it so much too!! LOL

My biggest frustration is supplies. I am in an area with no decent places to get the stuff I need. We have no restaurant depot, no Costco, no Sam's club. We don't even have a Walmart. There is a BJ's, but they don't open until after I do, and they are the smallest BJ's I've ever seen, focusing 99% on the consumer market with almost nothing for business (they're more like a small supermarket than a wholesale club).

I have a meat supplier that delivers to me, but they only come up to my neck of the woods once a week, which means if I run out of something I'm screwed (or I have to pay ridiculous supermarket prices). Bread is a huge issue that I've been trying to get a vendor to deliver to me, but so far no luck. Chips I have a friend get them for me at a potato chip company about 90 minutes away from me, then I drive out and pick them up from my friend (my local BJ's doesn't sell the size bags I need, frigid lay won't deliver because I'm too small, and utz was happy to deliver but the chips cost twice as much per bag as I pay Wachusett getting them from the factory direct, and Wachusett are better chips.)

Soda is also a huge issue. My local BJ's has a very limited selection (they don't even sell root beer or Orange soda!). The local grocery stores both charge a ridiculous $4.99 a 12-pack. The nearest Walmart (25 minutes away) doesn't sell cases of soda, and their 12-pack price is only pennies cheaper than the supermarkets. So twice a month I make the hour-each-way drive to Keene to get cases of soda.

So... its pretty clear based on this long rant that supplies are by far my biggest frustration. And unless I can get more vendors to deliver to me (especially a bread vendor, that's my number one need right now), there's no hope of most of it getting better. I'm told that a Walmart supercenter will be opening soon about 35 minutes away, so that may help (I hope... I've never been in a Walmart supercenter before, except for once on vacation in Florida and then I was only looking for flip-flops) so I don't know what selection they have).

So, anyway... hey, thanks for posting a topic that let's me rant for a while!

Stubby