Guides
Coffee shop suppliers: ten questions to ask before you sign
Reviewing coffee shop suppliers without a vendor list: the ten questions to ask a roaster or distributor, the terms that bind you, and a two-week trial.
What to take away
- No coffee shop suppliers are named on this page. A named list would carry commentary nobody has verified about businesses that have to live with it.
- What travels is the review methodthe same questions, asked of every candidate, with the answers in writing.
- The terms that hurt are rarely price. They are minimum order, notice on price changes, and equipment on loan.
- Run a trial before you commit a menu to anyone. Two weeks of real service tells you what a tasting never will.
- A single supplier is simpler and more fragile. Decide in advance what happens when the Monday delivery fails.
What replaces a supplier list
A published shortlist of suppliers assumes your volume, your region, your menu and your storage. Change any one and the shortlist changes. It also puts invented judgments beside the names of real businesses, which is unfair to them and useless to you.
The part that transfers between shops is the interrogation. Ask every candidate the same questions, write the answers down, and compare answers rather than reputations.
The questions, asked of everyone
Send these in writing and keep the replies.
- What is your minimum order, and does it change by item?
- How much notice do you give before a price change, and is the price fixed between notices?
- What are your delivery days, and what is the cut-off for changing an order?
- Who do I call when a delivery is late or short, and by when?
- Can you substitute an item on the same order line, and how is that marked on the paperwork?
- What are the terms on any equipment you lend or lease, and what happens to it if I stop buying?
- Do your terms require exclusivity, or a minimum share of my coffee volume?
- What documentation comes with each deliverylot or roast dates, specification sheets, allergen information, certificates of analysis?
- What is your credit or return policy on a wrong or damaged item?
- When does the truck actually arrive, and who answers the phone at half past six if it does not?
Ten questions for every supplier
- Lead time and what happens when it slips
- Minimum order and volume changes
- How price is set and notice given
- Roast to delivery interval and bag date
- Equipment ownership, service and exit
- Exclusivity, term and how to exit
- Staff training, what and whose cost
- Who to call at half past six
Question ten sorts candidates faster than the other nine: the delivery window, and a phone that gets answered at half past six. A supplier who cannot answer it is not a supplier for a business whose day starts before most offices open.
Terms that quietly cost more than price
| Term | What to check | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum order | Whether it fits your storage | A minimum larger than your shelf is a waste generator |
| Price notice | How many days, and in what form | No notice means no chance to reprice |
| Equipment loan | Ownership, service, exit | A free machine is usually a term commitment |
| Exclusivity | Scope and duration | It removes your response when service drops |
| Substitution | Whether they can send something else | A silent swap can break a recipe or an allergen record |
| Delivery window | The actual hours | A delivery arriving mid peak costs you the peak |
Substitution is the one that catches food service shops. If a supplier can send a different item under the same order line, your specifications and your allergen records need to catch it at receiving, not at the bar.
Terms that cost more than price
Term
- Minimum order
- Fits your storage
- Price notice
- Days and form
- Equipment loan
- Ownership, service, exit
- Exclusivity
- Scope and duration
- Substitution
- Can they send something else
- Delivery window
- The actual hours
What to check
- Minimum order
- Waste generator
- Price notice
- No chance to reprice
- Equipment loan
- Usually a term commitment
- Exclusivity
- Removes your response
- Substitution
- Breaks recipe or allergen record
- Delivery window
- Mid-peak arrival costs the peak
Why it matters
- Minimum order
- Price notice
- Equipment loan
- Exclusivity
- Substitution
- Delivery window
A two week trial, run properly
A tasting tells you about a sample. A trial tells you about a supplier.
Run it on paper as well as in the cup. Order a normal week, keep the invoices, and log every delivery against what you were quoted — what arrived, when, and how the invoice matched. At the end, score the answers against your ten written questions rather than your impressions.
Running a two-week supplier trial
- Order normally for two weeks
- Record if deliveries arrived inside the window
- Record if what arrived matched the order
- Record if roast dates were current
- Record how product behaved across a full week
The last one matters most. Beans that dial in easily on a quiet Tuesday and fight you on a busy Friday are a staffing cost, and that cost lands on whoever is running the bar and its training.
What you are buying is a supply chain
Green coffee is traded globally, and its production, exports and stocks move for reasons no shop controls. The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service publishes Coffee: World Markets and Trade, which reports production and trade across origins and seasons.
Read it once so that a price conversation with a roaster is informed rather than adversarial. Then ask the practical question: what is my price fixed until, and what notice do I get. That single answer is worth more than a forecast.
Receiving is where a supplier review actually happens
Every claim a supplier makes gets tested at your back door. Check the delivery against the order, check dates on arrival, and record shortages the same day rather than at the end of the month.
Give the receiving log fixed fields and it does the work for you: date and time, supplier, item and pack size, the lot or roast date printed on the pack, quantity ordered against quantity delivered, temperature on anything chilled, substitutions and shortages, credit requested, and initials. Check the date on every pack as it arrives, not at the end of the week.
Full product specifications belong in a file you keep, not in the supplier's system. The FDA's questions and answers on food allergens covers the federal framework for labeled packaged food. What you must disclose about drinks made at a shared bar is set locally instead: ask your city or county health department for its rule in writing, and keep the reply with your specifications.
Either way you need the specification for everything you buy in, updated when a product changes. Keep the shop's permissions in one file with the renewal date beside each one: the food permit issued by your city or county health department, the business license issued by the city or county, and any certificate that comes with equipment you lease or buy.
Waste is part of the review too. If a supplier's minimum or delivery pattern forces you into surplus, that is a supplier cost. The EPA's Wasted Food Scale ranks the paths for food that will not be sold, and prevention sits at the top because it is the only one that costs nothing.
Reviewing on a schedule
Twice a year, put every supplier through the same ten questions again and compare the answers to last time. Prices move, contacts leave, and service drifts quietly.
Ahead of that review, work out your own numbers. List usage by item, waste by item, and the delivery pattern your storage can absorb.
If a second site is coming, ask each supplier how their terms change with volume, since that shapes what expansion costs.
Common questions
Should I ask for references from other shops?
Yes, and ask for one that stopped using them. The reasons a relationship ended are more informative than the reasons one continues.
Is a direct relationship with a roaster better than a distributor?
They are different trades. A roaster sells you coffee and usually knowledge. A distributor sells you breadth and one delivery instead of five. Many shops end up with both, and the question is which one owns the coffee.
What if the best coffee comes with the worst service?
Price the service failure. Late deliveries, wrong items and no phone answer at half past six all cost real money, and once you total them the comparison usually resolves itself.
