As a regular customer, I found this quite disturbing, so I placed a call to Mr. Fred Lankford himself to ask if there were any truth to this rumor. He responded with the following written statement...
QUOTE FROM PRESIDENT FRED LANKFORD:
The Lankford-Sysco Food Services Cash-n-Carry is not closing and is open 6 days a week offering unique, high quality Foodservice products to help families
and organizations save money on their food budget.
The Cash -N- Carry offers the customer something that has simply been lost in our modern day society, and that is the old time neighborhood grocery store. Even with the huge corporate headquarters looming behind this humble block and mortar building it is filled with people who retain pride in a job well done.
Lankford - Sysco Cash -N- Carry offers what every home town grocery had; service, conversation, convenience, quality, and value; all while simultaneously supplying many of the schools, restaurants, hospitals, nursing homes and government agencies throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.
Walk into the Cash -N- Carry any day and you will receive a hello from a friendly face. The meat department is superior in it's quality, pricing and value for the dollar. If you are interested in purchasing a larger quantity you can do so with a quick conversation with a real butcher and have your steaks cut to the size that you desire.
Their produce department rivals any of the local stores for all of the basics in fruits and vegetables offering local farm fresh produce when in season at fantastic prices.
The Deli is another great feature that is by far the best value in the area with a daily lunch special that is impossible to beat.
But the favorite for any bargain shopper is the damaged section. This area in the back of the store offers on any given day a range of dented cans containing items as broadly scoped as caviar, artichoke hearts, and tuna fish to tomato sauce, kidney beans, chocolate pudding to canned prunes.
This area is filled with items that get damaged in the warehouse across the street and are sold to the public at a deep discount. The selection varies from day to day and one never knows what they may find.
We are personally very glad that the Cash -N- Carry will remain open and that this was merely a rumor.
3 comments:
What part of SHHHHH do you not understand?
Fred Lankford is a straight shooter. A few years back I helped some folks get an Italian restaurant started, it was small and homespun.
I had a problem with Eco-Lab, a company that contracts with Sysco to install, dishwashing equipment, supply sanitizers that the health department like to see as well as supplying the chemicals to the dishwashers.
Their representative (Eco-Lab not Sysco) seemed like he was blowing me off by not following through and completing some minor work that kept us from opening and I was getting hot under the collar.
I called Sysco and their receptionist told me that Fred was in Texas at the head office for some meetings. So I just left him a simple, respectful and civil message on his voice mail. Well, I just knew we'd never get opened.
Much to my surprise Fred called me back all the way from Texas. I had done business with Sysco a lot but this was a peanut family run operation and was so small I never expected him to call me from Texas.
He sure did, and that's what you have to do, please your customers in any way you can. I'll never forget that! The Eco-Lab guy showed up the next day looking a little humble and got us together.
Sorry to break the news to ya Joe, but Sysco no longer takes back dented cans, they will credit you for them but I guess the health department or corporate quality control nixed the dented cans most likely to prevent a lawsuit. Air can enter dented cans and cause it to spoil. My boss just told us all at work to take what we wanted from the dented can section where I work, after we got credit on them (we have to store them separate) so we don't use them at work either. I got a #10 can of pineapples and they are coming out of my ears.
I wonder how that is going to work for them, as I just opened a case of #10 canned peaches Tuesday and 4 cans out of 6 were dented.
However that is unusual given all the stuff they move out of there. I foresee a different method of packing in the future, maybe vacuum packed in heavy blatter bags? Something similar to the rubber blatters you see in the city park that have been sitting there for months holding dredge waste, but in a smaller size.
Now Fred, how about a job teaching ServSafe?
Good That Sysco will remainopen. We don't go down there much, but when we do its always to get things you can't get locally from super markets.
A. Goetz
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