It’s Not All Plug and Play

How and where you buy your equipment matters.

There are many appliances and pieces of equipment that can be easily uncrated, assembled and set in place, plugged into a receptacle or connected to a gas line and turned on. Some may need local calibration (thermostats, water or gas pressure, added filters, etc.) or levelling. This equipment is easily purchased online or from local dealer showrooms. Some of this equipment requires “lift gate’ delivery and a few people to move it into the restaurant, but other than that, many operators source their replacement equipment in this manner and have no issues.

Then there are the more sophisticated appliances that require pre-delivery site visits by authorized installers, factory-authorized installation, or start-up and training by factory representatives. These include Combi Ovens, some steamers, espresso machines, specialty machines (pasta, ice cream), bake ovens. Don’t compromise the warranty or performance of this equipment by skipping these essential activities.

In most remodels, renovations and new construction, there is a need for custom fabricated items - soiled and clean dish tables, some work tables, pass/expo shelves, etc. Some of these items require custom accessories – sheet pan slides, rack shelves, trash cut-outs, penetrations for other utilities. These often require accurate field measurements and coordination to properly size and locate the accessories and penetrations, or to fit between walls or notch around columns.

The equipment you will specify and purchase for your restaurant will probably fall into all of these categories. You may ask yourself, ‘why pay the premium to a supplier/dealer to handle all of my equipment, when there may be a portion of my equipment that I can handle with my own staff and save a lot of money?’

Here are your options. You can decide what works for you.

1. Responsibility – Equipment vendors and suppliers take responsibility for the equipment they are contracted to purchase, stage, deliver and install for you. The stuff you purchase becomes your responsibility. You buy it, handle receiving, inspection for damage, freight claims, uncrating, assembly and setting in place for final connections by the trades. Having equipment delivered directly to a job site is always bad idea. The General Contractor will usually not take responsibility for receiving, checking for damage or storing prior to installation.  And, deliveries are rarely accurately scheduled.  Heavy equipment may require a lift gate or forklift on site to off-load from the delivery truck. This is not the responsibility of the driver. If you are comfortable managing the receiving, off-loading, staging, uncrating and moving equipment into place, this may work for you. You could contract with your installer to handle these “self-purchased” items, but there will be costs involved that may offset your potential savings.

2. Coordination – Owner provided equipment often falls outside the scope of work performed by the General Contractor and your primary equipment supplier. This leaves the details of coordination for your owner provided items – delivery, field measuring, verification of utilities - to you and your team who may have limited or no experience with this side of the business.

3. Time – What is your time worth? There are many details of opening a restaurant that will require your attention. Is it worth your time and energy to deal with equipment deliveries and installation or is your time better spent on the pre-opening operational details of your restaurant? Your call.

Consider the big picture and plan accordingly. You may think you are saving money by handling some of your equipment on your own, but there are trade-offs.