SubscribeRight off the bat, I’m going to make it clear that I have only one side of this story — the small business owner who is trying to make it through a relatively rough patch: Tin Tat Kwan, owner of Red Moon Chinese Cafe.
A few months ago, when I was still living in Michigan, I learned that my dad had severed ties with the local Pepsi bottler in a huff — something about outrageous prices for the syrup restaurants mix into soda and inflexibility in getting deliveries of just one or two boxes of the stuff when we needed it. Deepening the discord, Tin Tat found out from a friend/neighbor/franchisee of a huge national chain that he was paying LOTS more for the soda than say, a sandwich shop that also serves Pepsi. Dad was pissed, to put it lightly. He always says he requires a “special touch” from anyone he does business with. What does that mean? Well, that every once in awhile, a sales person, agent or rep stops in to B-S a little and have a bite, (a free bite at that)! Pepsi wasn’t even coming close, according to dad. All of this drove him to put an end to a nearly three-decade old relationship. Pepsi let a 30-year customer walk away.
Tell me: when should that happen? When do you let a longtime customer get that upset? Reminder, I’m telling only one side of the story. Perhaps communication was a problem. (I bet it was, actually.)
So for the last few months, Red Moon’s been serving canned- and two-liter soda. Not the best quality for a sit-down restaurant, in my opinion. But it’s been working and dad didn’t have to deal with Pepsi directly.
Starting soon, we will not deal with them at all. Ever. Not a single one of their products will touch Red Moon again.
Goodbye Pepsi. The Red Moon will bid farewell to Pepsi products later this month, after a nearly 30-year relationship, the Kwan family will wash its hands of Pepsi in favor of Coca-Cola.
This week, we signed up to exclusively sell and serve Coke products. And what is Coke doing to make us feel welcome into “The Coke Family?” The syrup is incredibly cheaper. They are getting us two coolers to store canned sodas for our takeout customers (two!), and they have more flexible delivery options. They’re also getting us a brand new soda fountain and running all new lines. A fresh, clean start.
Now if anyone from Coke finds this blog entry, I wouldn’t go patting yourselves on the back too soon. While we’re pleased with your offerings thus far, do not forget about “the special touch.”
If anyone from Pepsi is reading this, you ought to figure out how this happened. Even if things got heated… where was the person with a passion for customer service who should have come by to make things right?
Coca-Cola is way better than ridiculously overly-sweet Pepsi anyway.
Whenever I ask for a Coke at a restaurant and the waitress says “is Pepsi okay,” I say “absolutely not” with a not-so-subtle tinge of anger in my voice. “I’ll have water instead.”
This is a cool post. I think your customers will appreciate Coke over Pepsi anyway, but thats awesome you were able to get a nice deal on it.