Why the VOA Ronald Reagan Lodge is asking me to LIE to my customers!!

So I received an email today from the folks at the VOA in Butler County, Ohio and I must say, I was so offended I thought the other gals in the office were going to have to tie me to my chair to keep me from blowing the roof off the office.

Basically, to summarize with far fewer inappropriate words, they want to tell me how to run MY business if I want to be on THEIR catering list.  How about not!  That is not how Raffel's Catering has operated in the past and that is ABSOLUTELY NOT how we plan to run things moving into the future.

So, if you'd like to read their "Catering Request for Proposal" you'll find it online at: http://www.butlercountymetroparks.org/documents/food-vendor-rfp.pdf

Once you take a gander at that, please feel free to continue reading our ever-so-polite response to opt out of being on their list.  While we appreciate them thinking of us, we'd rather continue to do business with some basic degree of morality and autonomy.

Our response if you're interested:

Tara Love, Manager of Visitor Services

MetroParks of Butler County

2051 Timberman Road

Hamilton, Ohio 45013

Maggie Raffel, Development Director

Raffel’s Catering, Inc.

10160 Reading Road

Evendale, Ohio 45241

RE: Catering RFP

Tuesday March 24, 2015

Ms. Love,

Having just received your email in regards to the new catering contract, I have to be perfectly honest with you.  I found it to be blatantly offensive, disrespectful, greedy and absolutely flat-out ridiculous.  Our company has been in business for forty-two years and we have NEVER had to fill out this much absurd information just to have the “privilege” of utilizing another business’ location.  And we do business with the government!!!

If you want to save yourself a few minutes, I can summarize this entire letter for you with one brief sentence: 

So long as the MetroParks of Butler County, specifically the VOA Ronald Reagan Lodge, is using these practices to conduct business, Raffel’s Catering, Inc. will NEVER do business with or for you.

This is undoubtedly one of the most offensive letters I have ever received in my professional career.  What astounds me is that I know you sent this to many of my fellow catering colleagues in the city, my “competition” as it were, and they will probably waste countless hours trying to put together this convoluted proposal only to lose out to the 5 businesses you without a doubt, have already pre-selected.  This is just an unprofessional time-wasting enterprise for everyone not on the cut list; an “official application process” to help validate your selections.  Maybe my competitors didn’t notice this, but we did.

While I applaud your efforts to include local companies which share your general philosophy within the community and to help promote businesses which have implemented new strategies to make their businesses more “sustainable” I find your methods to be deceitful, juvenile and more than a little pretentious.  Your use of keywords like “critical contributor” and “partners in maintaining these high standards” belies your true intentions.  You are behaving like a high school clique, seeking to find only people just like you to serve people just like you.  I’m sure you might have an inkling about this, but the Tri-State is actually a tremendously diverse area and your decision to select “an additional two” service providers to the 3 you will ultimately select, to be ethnically based is actually rather offensive. And Raffel’s isn’t even a specifically “ethnic” food provider!!

The most pretentious part of your request though, is where you put in rules and regulations about how I get to run MY business, treat MY employees and sell services to MY customers.  Since we have catered a few events here and there throughout our 42 years in business, we actually do have just a little bit of experience of what it takes to take care of our employees and our customers well enough to have them coming back repeatedly.  On average our employees stay with us for at least 10 years.  In the food service industry, this is almost unheard of.  Do you know why that is?  Because we treat them with respect, like members of our own family.  When you tell me that I can’t allow my employees to eat while at work (FOR a foodservice company), I find that ridiculous.  When you tell me your staff will not offer them any drinks, I find that petty and cheap.  (Our staff almost always brings along a few bottles of water or soft drinks as we never expect, but always appreciate, any beverage generosity from our Host location.)  Your request is absolutely proof that you are running a business with only the bottom line in mind.  For all your “community centered” plans and ideas, you are a profit-mongering business with concern only for yourselves, your raises and your profits, NOT the community of which we’re apart. 

My proof?  Your very own website. It states that for a Saturday night room rental, you charge $1,610.00 for rental.  If they want pop its $5 per person.  If they want beer and pop its $11; beer, wine & pop, $14; or god help they want beer, wine, pop AND liquor, it will cost them $18 per guest. For 4 hours of time.  How about doing an easy math problem with me, huh??

I’m a bride and I want to have my reception for 200 guests at the Ronald Reagan Lodge.  I have to pay you $1,610.00 just for the room.  Now, since I don’t want a line at the drinking fountain, I’ll have to purchase a drink package.  Let’s assume that I at least want to have a beer or a glass of wine at my own reception… that means I get to add $14.00 x 200 or $2,800.00 to the check I get to write you.  So now we’re at $4,410.00 for my location.  Time for food!  Let’s say I hire a local caterer with mid-range pricing for some appetizers and a nice buffet dinner.  I’m easily looking at $22-25 per person, but wait, I forgot to add the 15% surcharge that you’ve put on my caterer (which they are WITHOUT ANY DOUBT passing on to me).  So that means that $22 dollars becomes $25.30 and that $25 becomes $28.75.  So my catering bill, instead of being $4,400 to $5,000 dollars is actually closer to being between $5,060 and $5,750.  A difference of $660 to $750.  Do my greedy caterers get to keep that money??  Nope.  THEY get to cut YOU a check for the difference.  So now, I’m not paying you $1,610 for the room, I’m not paying you $4,410 for drinks and a room, I’m ACTUALLY paying you $5,160 for the awesome privilege of hosting my reception with you.  Maybe I’m crazy, but $1,610 as advertised is a far cry from the $5,160 I REALLY get to pay you.  What a lucky bride I would be!!  (Oh and did I forget to add in the sales tax??  Silly me!!)

This letter could go on for pages about the offensive and inappropriate information you want us to provide.  You don’t need to know my client list or who my business relations are. You don’t need an itemized invoice of what I’ve provided for my customers.  That’s between them and me. You don’t get to determine if I meet the needs of my guests’ contracts.  What you need to know is that I am licensed and insured to do business within your state/county and that I am Board of Health inspected and approved. (Oh, and we had exactly ZERO citations on our last inspection this year, if you MUST know.)  What you need to know is that we are a reputable business in good standing within our community and that we provide the best service available to all of our customers. 

I don’t mind your rules about cleaning up after ourselves because that’s a rule we already follow, with or without your request.  We NEVER go to another business’ establishment, use their equipment and leave it messy or broken.  We own and operate two facilities of our own and treat everyone else’s with just as much respect (if not more!) than our own.  Your excessive rules regarding facility treatment leads me to assume that you’ve allowed in less than reputable businesses in the past and were burned by their poor service.  That’s no reason to punish the non-offenders.  But to be certain, that you had the audacity to tell me what kind of trash bags I HAVE to provide YOU to maintain YOUR facility, is the straw that broke our back here. 

How dare you.

This RFP an absolute pathetic waste of paper and a complete waste of my time, my company’s time and my fellow caterer’s time.  And it’s a waste of the taxpayer’s money which I know was spent to draft it.

If you should ever figure out how to run a “vibrant, beautiful and innovative” facility properly and should seek in the future to invite back decent companies, feel free to send me another catering contract.  Otherwise, I wish you and your future clients nothing but the best.  Well, second best, as Raffel’s won’t be a part of this particular endeavor.

With regards,

Maggie Raffel

Maggie Raffel, Development Director.

Raffel’s Catering, Inc.