How Not To Buy Restaurant Equipment

When you are getting ready to open your first restaurant, you may feel like a kid in a candy store. You want to get the best of everything. You want to do everything right. When we opened our restaurant, we had the not so bright idea of picking out pub furniture made from twigs. Yes, twigs. They were lovely chairs and coffee tables made by a local artisan, and looked so fantastic in his showroom. We thought…Wow! Those would look awesome in our pub! So, without giving it anymore thought (mistake number one) we plunked down a chunk of change without haggling over the price (mistake number two) and without actually sitting in the chairs (mistake number three).

A few weeks later, on the eve of our opening the artist shows up with the chairs. For starters, they were not the same shape as the ones we had looked at. The ones he had brought looked more like twiggy fairy thrones. Well, we had already paid for them and now we didn’t have time to order different ones, from the artist or a restaurant supply company. So, now our pub looked like something out of A Midsummer Night's Dream. We were just waiting for Puck.

At first the chairs were a big hit with customers. Soon however, people realized they were heinously uncomfortable and wouldn’t sit in them. Along with being uncomfortable, they were not made for the amount of wear and tear a piece of restaurant furniture is subjected to. Soon twigs were snapping off and the fabric seats were stained. A few months after opening, we scraped together enough cash to replace the twig thrones with sturdier chairs. The chairs were not junk, they just weren’t restaurant grade, and that is what you need for a restaurant.

Along with sturdiness, you should consider whether you really need the piece, or if you simply want the piece, when looking at restaurant equipment. We didn’t need twig chairs. We wanted them because they looked unique. Big difference. We could have saved a lot of money if we had taken the time to think about what we really needed versus what we liked. For more ways to save money on stocking your restaurant, consider leasing restaurant equipment, or purchasing it second hand.