The cheapest versus… Flatware choices…

The cheapest versus … The least expensive

There’s an old (and accurate) saying that perfectly encapsulates the idea of balancing quality and value that goes, “It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you might lose a little — that’s all. Often when you pay too little, you can lose everything, because the thing you bought may not be capable of doing the thing you bought it to do.”

As buyers we know that always going with the cheapest option isn’t really a great business strategy. Sure, it might often work out, but over time it probably won’t. Truth is when we’re buyers and choose the lowest price option, it’s probably a good idea to add something for the risk we run in case it doesn’t turn out as planned.

Of course that dilemma is one that we generally face from the selling versus the buying end. And chances are good we’re not that lowest cost option. So our challenge is how to explain what might seem like the pricier choice being the least expensive when all the costs are included.

And those costs are often indirect – to include that owner falling short of delivering the sanitation his customer’s demand. Or it may be reflected in higher labor costs to deal with reprocessing that linen load or rack of tableware. And of course there’s the added water, energy and chemical costs needed to process those second attempts.

Next up: That (long forgotten) pie chart.

Flatware choices … And the end results

As long as we’re washing flatware there’ll always be the “how to” debate. For some the perfect world is where all flatware is presoaked, washed in cups with them comingled business side up and then flipped over, sorted and rerun in cups (so the servers’ dirty paws don’t touch the business ends) for pass number two.

Then there are those of us who adhere to presoaking followed by washing the first pass on a flat rack with the flatware then placed in cups, sorted business end down for a final run. And of course there are those who throw caution to the wind, skip presoaking, flat rack it for one pass and sort it in the storage cups business end down for front of the house staff.

Regardless of the school you’re in, the real world issue is often processing flatware fast enough to get it out front properly washed and dried. But if the place setting is still wet there’s a small but real chance for bacterial contamination – but a near certainty of complaints from customers!

So in the end the choice is yours to make as to the right process. But regardless of the one chosen, the end result has to be the same – namely flatware that’s dry, free of spots or streaks and absolutely any remnants of the previous meal!