Not Here For It
We are starting a slow progression to the detailed build out portion of PJP West End. And if we’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that the devil is in the details.
While the majority of our equipment has been ordered and partially paid for months ago to avoid production and shipment delays, we’ve waffled around a bit on whether or not to purchase our own commercial dishwasher or lease one for PJP West End. We currently lease our machine at our Nifong location for around $100 per month.
If you’ve read here since the beginning of PJP (and there are tens of you that have), you know our relationship with dishwasher super supplier Ecolab is long and strained at best…and obnoxious at worst. If you Google us both, you’ll find the story of when Ecolab charged us for chemicals every month whether we needed them or not until I refused and it became an entire Internet kerfuffle. Eventually the president of Ecolab visited us and we entered into a peaceful detente - one without monthly bills for unused chemicals. That story is our highest ranked blog post in eight years, netting millions of views. To sum it all and spare you the tedious details, I keep a side eye on commercial dishwashing requirements.
After leaning towards leasing a machine rather than buying one for PJP West End, we called Ecolab to see about how one sets up a second location. The Ecolab person said they could set up the machine, but we would incur an extra $30 monthly fee because we aren’t Sysco customers.
UM, YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME.
The reason we aren’t Sysco customers, Ecolab, is because SYSCO BROKE UP WITH US. Maybe you don’t read the news, Ecolab, but Sysco broke up with all their customers who aren’t national chains. In the last week, Sysco is willing to be our vendor again, but it is sorta of like taking back a subpar boyfriend and hoping for change. We all know it won’t work again, right? We are one Sysco warehouse worker shortage away from being dumped again.
It takes a lot of gumption to put a $30 surcharge on businesses because they don’t buy food from your parent company. I’m actually surprised that someone hasn’t beaten me to having a public Internet breakdown about it because the mere principal of treating customers that way is a total joke. I’m guessing they assume customers won’t notice…or won’t argue it because it isn’t worth the hassle. (I guess they forgot they’ve met me and I’m not here for these sorts of shenanigans.)
As you might guess, the customer service person on the phone completely didn’t care that I was full of feelings and opinions about it all. He probably would have paid us $30 to shut up - or to not write this post. Remember when John Stossel did the “Fleecing of America” segment on the news? I hereby nominate a food company that owns a dishwashing company that overcharges small businesses for scenarios out of their control, thereby profiting from it all. Would it be weird to send him a tweet?
