Opening a new restaurant is challenging, and can often be overwhelming. There’s no denying that. You have a name, a location and a marketing plan, but now you have to fill that restaurant with commercial kitchen equipment that will serve your business for years to come. Clearly, that is not a decision to take lightly. You will have several options for purchasing the commercial equipment for your restaurant, including leasing equipment, buying new and buying used. Today we will focus on the easiest ways to locate used commercial kitchen equipment.
USED RESTAURANT SUPPLY STORES
There are enough used restaurant supply stores out there that there is likely one in your area. These stores buy, sell and trade used kitchen equipment, often leading to huge savings for restaurant owners. Build a strong relationship with your local store and you can likely have them keep an eye out for an item you know you would like to purchase in the future, but just can’t pay retail for. In addition, many of these used restaurant supply stores do repairs to commercial kitchen equipment, saving you a lot of money when something breaks.
GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALES
One restaurant’s misfortune can be your good fortune. The restaurant business is not an easy one. According to many studies the vast majority fail within the first three years. That means that there is likely used commercial restaurant equipment for sale by a restaurant near you, and you may not even know it. For this reason, it might be in your best interest to keep tabs on how other local eateries are doing. If you see a restaurant go out of business don’t be afraid to reach out. It may seem like a sore subject, but obviously they need to get that used kitchen equipment sold.
AUCTIONS
Often times, restaurant owners who go out of business do not want to got through the process of trying to sell off their equipment on their own. In these cases, they may utilize auction services to get their used restaurant equipment sold. It is often less profitable than selling items piece by piece, but it is a much faster way for them to just be done with it. The hard part with auctions is you really won’t know what you’re getting, so be sure to go early and complete any inspections of the equipment that the seller will allow. Obviously there is a risk in buying equipment that you can’t test out first, but the cost savings can be huge.
CONCLUSION
Clearly there are many different ways to purchase used commercial restaurant equipment, and doing so can save your business a significant amount of money. Commercial Kitchens LLC actually brings used equipment into their warehouse through all three of the avenues mentioned in this post, so if you’re ever in the market be sure to give them a call at 330-763-1902 or visit their website at www.commercialkitchensllc.com