23 Feb Access to Local Food Vendors, Artisan Products, and Delicious Possibilities in Cheetah’s New “Marketplace”
Those rushing back to their local restaurants for the full dine-in experience have lots to choose from. New menus, new interior designs, and even new cuisine concepts, are flourishing after nearly 2 years of deliveries.
To compete, restaurants are reinventing themselves by incorporating emerging food trends into their menus – most notably by showcasing local food products and unique ingredients. But access to these trending food items, with fair pricing and reasonable logistics, has been a nightmare – until now.
Cheetah’s Online Marketplace for Local, Specialty, and Prepared Foods
We are proud and excited to launch our NEW online Marketplace.
In addition to Cheetah’s vast In-Stock Catalog, our NEW Marketplace gives restaurants direct access to a rare curated selection of boutique finished products from local food producers; many of whom appear mostly at farmers’ markets. Pizzone pizzas, Donna’s tamales, Mary’s Chicken, and Fabrique Délices charcuterie are all in the Marketplace, as are many more.
Restaurants can now add their signature twist to these healthy and wholesome finished foods, while cutting costs dramatically.
In that sense, the NEW Marketplace is an expansion of our JIT program, which delivered pre-prepped produce and seafood from local vendors. The program was so successful in cutting down rinse, peal, chop and prep times for our clients, that an expansion was simply logical.
Anything that can save expensive labor hours, reduce storage, enhance food safety and limit food waste is in dire need by restaurants – and that’s exactly what the New Marketplace provides.
6 Benefits of Buying Marketplace Items
- Boutique products at your doorstep – Restaurant operators get unprecedented access to the entire offering of unique specialty vendors, not just their “best-sellers”. As the Marketplace grows, additional catalogs from redistributors will be added, expanding the selection even more.
- Unbeatable pricing – Because all the 3,000+ restaurants that Cheetah supplies gain access to these boutique vendors together, we are able to offer wholesale pricing for specialty and local food products.
- Stay on trend – We at Cheetah leverage our expertise in emerging food trends, relationships with local food vendors, and customer demand data to deliberately add new items to the Marketplace. For restaurants, this is a great opportunity to learn WHAT products are trending and WHY, along with HOW to implement these products into your menus.
- Support local food vendors – Restaurant operators can be sure they are supporting their local food ecosystem because Cheetah has done the legwork and sought out the finest local vendors.
- Crystal clarity on delivery times – Lead-times for Marketplace products can be anywhere between 1 to 10 days. The lead time for every Marketplace item is clearly indicated in the app as follows: “order by X date to get this item as soon as Y date.”
- Minimize storage, shrink and food waste – The Marketplace operates an on-demand model. Only when a restaurant places an order, are the freshest specialty products procured from the vendor. This minimizes shrink and food waste, and guarantees quality, because Cheetah is not inventorying these products and many specialty items have a short shelf-life.
How it Works
There are 2 ways restaurants can receive Cheetah’s Marketplace products.
- Backhaul (LIVE NOW!)– Cheetah’s trucks ship the craft food items from specialty vendors to our warehouse. The items then join other outgoing orders, and are quickly sent on their way to the client restaurant.
- Dropship (COMING SOON) – The Vendor will be notified when their local food products are ordered on Cheetah’s Marketplace. They will then deliver directly to the customer, cutting down delivery times and carbon footprint even further, and increasing freshness.
New Craft Food Vendors Now Available on Cheetah’s Marketplace
Loads of specialty vendors are readily available on the Marketplace. Our upcoming article, later this week, will dive deeper into their delicacies, but here’s something to whet the appetite.
- Donna’s Tamales create healthy, calorie conscious, meat, vegetarian and vegan tamales (not to mention an assortment of burritos and pupusas) that are ready to heat, and delicious to eat. Hailing out of Marin County, they are a frequent delight at farmers markets and, thanks to Cheetah’s Marketplace, are now available to restaurants across the state.
- Fabrique Délices are the kings of French charcuterie. Whether it’s their pâtés and mousses, duck confit or macarons, those in the know go crazy for them. They supplied special events at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, catered to The Pope, and their products even frequent The White House.
- Pizzone – That’s Italian for ‘Really big pizza!’ With only four ingredients in their crust, and even less in their tomato sauce, the Pizzone gang from San Francisco have created a truly clean label pizza.
- The Pitman family has perfected the Mary’s Chicken line of free-range, organic products. By raising their poultry under strict (and certified) humane conditions, they have earned their whole chickens, lunch meat and other products the spot on the best shelves at Whole Foods.
These products, and many more, are already AVAILABLE TODAY on the Marketplace via our app.
New Features Coming Soon
We’re constantly advancing the technology that powers ordering, pricing and delivery. Keep an eye out for these two features that will be released soon.
- In-Stock & Marketplace Bundle – Soon restaurants will be able to check out Marketplace and regular orders from our warehouse in just one order; maximizing logistic efficiency, and minimizing environmental impact and costs.
- Seamless E-commerce – The new ecommerce functionalities going live soon will allow operators to view prices and seamlessly update their cart on the website, in addition to what is already available right now on the app.
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