Blog posts tagged with 'flatware'

The National Event Supply trade show team just got back from BC where we were exhibiting at the CRA BC Regional show which took place at the Cloverdale Rodeo Show Barn. The show took place over two days running from 4pm to 9pm on Friday and from 10am to 3pm on Saturday. We had a substantially larger booth than last year which took Jonathan, Tony and myself a good part of the day to get set up. This year the show had a section of the hall set aside exclusively for the Party and Event side of the rental business, a rare occurrence for a regional show like this.

In the Party and Events section, Impact Canopies showed off their Sky Flags and Branded pop-up tents, LB White and Patron Heaters had a section dedicated to tent heaters, Wacker Nueson displayed one of their Generators and AE Sales had their Granite Industries Staging Solution. We rounded out the Party and Event section with a large display including our porcelain dinnerware, cutlery, glassware, chiavari chairs, black and white resin folding chairs, bistro chairs, and of course our always popular plastic folding tables, wood folding tables, and plastic folding chairs. With the expanded booth we were able to show most of our lines of porcelain including our always popular Quadrato Square dishes, our Ovali dish line and our new Polar White dinnerware line. We were also able to show a number of new items including several sizes of wing bowls, sloped bowls, and cappuccino cups. Based on the feedback we received, many of the attendees were pleased with our wide range of rental ready products.

 

After dinner there were a few brief speeches from Jeff Campbell who is the incoming CRA National President (of St. Thomas Rent-All) and Paul Kenyon, the ARA Region 10 representative (Absolute Tent and Event Rentals). As always the BC Regional CRA put together a fantastic event that is always great to be a part of. We look forward to seeing many of them at the show next year as well as at The Rental Show in Las Vegas in February.

 

We’re back in Vancouver in less than 2 weeks for the BC Foodservice Expo which will be taking place at the Vancouver Convention Centre. But before we head back west, we’re doing the CRA Ontario Tabletop Show which takes place January 19, 2013 at the Nottawasaga Resort in Alliston, Ontario. We are looking forward to seeing our Ontario Rental customers and relaxing with a beer after the show.

Since I started working at National Event Supply in 2010, we've shipped products across Canada and the United States. We've shipped tables and chairs to Nunavut in the North, and Aruba in the South. We've shipped dinnerware and cutlery to Vancouver, BC and St. John's Newfoundland. Most of the time, there are no problems. The products arrive on time, with no damage. On other occasions, products are lost or are damaged in transit.

When we find out that products are damaged in transit, we typically file a claim with the shipping company. As part of the claims process, the shipping company will refer to the bill of lading. If the customer has signed the bill of lading and has not indicated that there was any damage, the shipping company will typically deny the claim, as there was no damage indicated. This is why skids that ship from our warehouse in Toronto now have stickers on them that read "Inspect for Damage Before Accepting". But what should you be looking for?

4 Things to Look for Before Signing for your Order

Is the plastic skid wrap still intact?

National Event Supply wraps all skids in plastic wrap. For orders coming out of our Mississauga warehouse, we use a black wrap. Indianapolis and Vancouver both use clear wrap. The wrap should be tightly pulled around the products, and there should not be any tears or rips.

Is the pallet damaged?

If the pallet is falling apart or has noticeable damage, take a closer look at the whole skid. It could be that the skid was damaged while it was being loaded or unloaded at the shippers' depots.

Are there any dents or indentations on any of the boxes?

Take a look at the boxes on the skid. If there are holes or a corner is bashed in, then the skid may have been damaged in transit.

Is the skid leaning to one side, or does it look like it could topple over?

If the contents have shifted during shipping, there is a chance that the products within may be damaged.

Click to enlarge pictures.

What to Do if Your Order Arrives Damaged

If you discover that your order is potentially damaged in the course of your inspection, here is what you should do:

Take pictures of the damage while the driver is there. If you can take pictures of the skid on the truck that's even better.

This allows us to show the carrier that the product was damaged while they were responsible for it. It is important that the pictures of the skid are taken before the skid is broken down.

Write down on the Bill of Lading the exact damage that you have discovered and that you will be filing a claim

Be as specific as possible. If the corner is bashed in on the box that is third from the bottom, write that down. The more detail that we can give the shipping company claims department the better. Write down all the damage that you document with pictures.

Don't use the damaged product. Leave it in its box.

If the product is damaged, then you cannot use it. Let us know so that we can get replacement product out to you. Also, make sure that you keep the damaged product in its box at your facility so that if the claims adjuster wants to inspect it he can. If you return the product to us, the claims adjuster can dismiss the claim

Let us know and we will start the claims procedure.

The sooner you email or call us and let us know about the damage, the sooner we can get the ball rolling on the claims process. We'll need the photos that you have taken so we can give them to the shipping company and we'll need to know what happened when the shipping company arrived with your product.

As I wrote earlier, most of the time nothing goes wrong, the products arrive on time and in pristine condition. For those times that they don't however, it is important that you know what you're signing for. It's important to "Inspect for Damage Before Accepting".

The Alberta Foodservice Expo kicked off at 11am on Sunday and there was a steady flow of visitors to our booth along with the many cooking activities on the main culinary stage.

Shortly after the show opening, Richard Toll, the Owner/Executive Chef of ASNA Cooks, stopped by to introduce himself. Richard is actively involved in the Edmonton and Alberta Culinary scene, and on Sunday was one of the judges for the culinary competitions taking place centre stage, right in front of our booth. Richard was also the winner of the Edmonton Iron Chef Competition back in April 2012. We gave him a quick preview of our porcelain products including our very popular Quadrato Dinnerware, our heavy-duty Hotelier Dinnerware, and our extensive range of porcelain platters and bowls. He was also quite interested in some of our 18/10 stainless steel cutlery lines. Richard was excited to discover the possibilities National Event Supply provides to dramatically reduce his porcelain and cutlery purchasing costs. We saw Richard later on when he modelled some new chef uniforms in the fashion show that was sponsored by Canadian Linen & Uniform Service.

Not long after Richard left our booth, we had DJ Parkin, the General Manager of Fandango’s Live Entertainment Saloon, stop by to check out our newest porcelain products along with our best sellers. They’ve been working hard doing renovations at 12912 – 50th Street NW in Edmonton for a little more than 5 months as you can see from their Facebook page, and it looks like they are really close to opening up their new live entertainment saloon. They did have enough time to come and checkout the 2012 Alberta Foodservice Expo though. Congratulations to DJ & Leigh, you guys are so close to your opening after many months of hard work I am sure you can almost taste the beer beginning to flow!

The Apprentice Level Competition took place from 11:15am to 12:15pm on Sunday, while the Team Competition took place later in the afternoon from 2:45pm to 4:45pm. We were honoured to be able to help sponsor the event by providing our most popular selling line of flatware, our Maria line of 18/10 stainless steel cutlery. This line was used by the judges to perform their sample tastings of each of the competitors dishes. In the picture are Judges (from left to right) Chef Doreen Prei (Zinc Restaurant), Chef Richard Toll (ASNA Cooks) and Chef Allana (CCFCC Edmonton).

As we moved into the afternoon, it became apparent to the event organizers they would be needing additional chairs to seat some extra judges that were needed for the Team Competition, so we were pleased to be able to provide Donna Dooher, the Chair of the CRFA, and Adam Saunders, Alberta Membership Sales, with a Silver and a Black Resin Chiavari Chair to help pull off the ‘Event nature’ of the competition. We also provided some of our new wine glasses from our Eclisse line of Stemware to help with the presentation of some very fancy desserts the competitors were making.

Donna Dooher is not only the current Chair of the CRFA but is also a very accomplished Chef and business owner. Here’s a write up and a picture that does Donna much more justice than my quick snapshot prior to the culinary competition at the Alberta Foodservice show. She is also one of the featured Chefs in the ‘I am Restaurant’ video on the front page of the CRFA website.

At the conclusion of the show, attendees, competing chefs and exhibitors were invited to a cocktail and awards presentation party hosted by Chuck Nervick, Senior VP of MediaEdge Communications and Garth Whyte, President & CEO of the CRFA. Prior to the awards presentation, Garth Whyte gave a brief presentation on the significance of the Restaurant sector in Canada. Some of the interesting facts he talked about were: 1.1 million Canadians work in restaurants across Canada with another 260,000 in spinoff jobs, 1 in 4 Canadian will work in the Hospitality Foodservice sector at some point in their life, restaurants contribute 4% to the Canadian GDP and probably the most significant, 18 million Canadians go to a restaurant every day.

All in all it was a very good first day for National Event Supply at the 2012 Alberta Foodservice show.

Rental Management Magazine recently featured an article about Party Reflections based in Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham, NC. They used their creativity to not only help employee morale by fostering a friendly in-house tabletop contest, but also help refresh their showroom and gain web traffic. Originally, Party Reflections let outside clients judge the anonymous tables based on creativity, use of budget, and function. This year, they expanded the judging pool and created a way for this contest to generate more web traffic. Douglas Crowe, CERP, Party Reflections director of sales states:

“In a day and age where the most face-time you get with certain clients is on their Facebook page, the tabletop competition has given us a unique opportunity to draw clients into our store and reiterate the strength of the organization’s staff members and products.”

With today’s market becoming a buyer’s market, event rental companies must think outside the box to attract attention and generate demand. In fact, according to Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch, up to 95% of qualified prospects on your website are there to research and are not yet ready to talk with a sales rep, but as many as 70% of them will eventually buy a product from you – or your competitors.

So how did Party Reflections go about getting the attention of their website visitors utilizing this in-house contest? Photos of the contest were posted online and those who receive the company e-newsletter were invited to vote for their favourite via an online poll. It seems to be working for them also – with over 341 votes online and an uptick in website traffic. Another great way to promote the contest would be through social media like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, or Pinterest. Asking people for their opinions is a great way to start a conversation.

This contest has major business benefits associated with it including increased employee morale, the ability to showcase new and notable products like folding cocktail tables, chivari chairs, or wing bowls, both in your showroom and on your website to better entice new and existing clientele, foster participation and retention of existing clientele, as well as creating an uptick in website traffic. Who doesn’t like those benefits?!

Do you have an offline contest like this you could bring online? If not, why not consider creating a contest similar to Party Reflections?

To get started on a contest of your own, you’ll need some solid and reliable tables such as the 6-ft NES Reliable Rectangular Plastic Folding Table with Adjustable Table Legs. These tables would allow your employees to think outside of the box with their ability to adjust from regular table height to a bar table height. You might be pleasantly surprised with the designs they come up with. If you would like additional information about the table, or if you would like to receive a quote on any of our other products, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The National Event Supply Tradeshow Team is getting ready for a trip out west to the beautiful City of Edmonton for the 2012 Alberta Foodservice Expo. We were at last year's Expo in Calgary, and knew that we couldn't miss this year's show. The 2012 Alberta Foodservice Expo is being held at the Edmonton Expo Centre on September 9 & 10. National Event Supply will be in booth 434 and would love to see you!

Five reasons to stop by our booth!

We'll have our new Crystal and Glassware on display

We've had our Serenity Crystal Wine Glasses for a couple of months now, and they have been flying off the shelves. From a 12 oz White Wine Crystal glass to a 22 oz Red Wine Crystal glass, we have a wide assortment of crystal wine glasses to meet your needs. We also just received our Eclisse line of glassware this week, and the Alberta Foodservice Expo will be the first trade show where we'll have it available for viewing and for order. We know that if you take a look at our Crystal and Glassware, you'll love the design and the price.

We'll also have our new porcelain bowls in our booth

We showed these bowls off in a previous blog entry, but there is nothing like seeing them in person. Available in three different sizes, we have slanted bowls and wing bowls that can add a flair to your table. In addition to our new porcelain bowls, we'll have a wide selection of our porcelain dinnerware, platters, and bowls for you to examine and get a feel for.

You'll get a chance to examine the cutlery being used in the Culinary Stage Competitions

National Event Supply is providing the cutlery to the judges for the Culinary Stage Competitions. Our Maria Line of 18/10 Stainless Steel Cutlery is our most popular line of cutlery and designed for the rigours of a busy restaurant. With its clean lines and well-balanced heft, Maria Cutlery would make a fine addition to any restaurant's table.

You're thinking about purchasing Chiavari Chairs

National Event Supply has NES Resin Chiavari Chairs available in five colours (black, white, silver, gold, and mahogany) in addition to the gorgeous NES Crystal Chiavari Chair. We also have fabric and vinyl cushions as well as plywood-base cushions. If you visit our booth, you can see how strong these chairs really are, how great they look around a table, and how comfortable they really are.

You'll get a chance to talk to Dennis about your needs and find our why National Event Supply is right for you!

Dennis will be representing National Event Supply and he always loves talking to customers and visitors to our booth. So stop on by and have a chat with Dennis. He can help meet your needs and show you solutions that you might not have thought of.