Lining up a Caterer Doesn't Have to be This Hard

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about event planning and catering.

“Well, duh!” you might say. “Isn’t that what you do for a living?”

Well, sort of.

You see it has always been hard to describe exactly what Vmeals does. The short answer is corporate catering, but when people hear the word "catering", they tend to think weddings and big events. Our customer is more likely to be an office admin ordering in for a meeting or a sales rep that incorporates food as a sales tool.

Our customers are looking for a convenient way to check out a variety of menus, place orders and access order history, receipts and account details. They are usually looking for simple meals that can be delivered to the office: boxed lunches, sandwich trays, pizzas, buffet items. When I get to explaining the part about delivered meals, then I get asked if we can deliver to an elderly grandmother or a bereaved family friend across the country. No, we are an ordering platform for group meals to be delivered to an office or business setting – mostly.

My job is to help people understand what we do and what problems we solve, and maybe you can appreciate the challenge if you just read the last sentence of that last paragraph. I occasionally order lunch for our office, and more frequently place orders for demonstration purposes, but it is not too often that I am planning a big event and considering catering requirements.

It’s on my mind now, though, as I plan one of those big milestone birthday parties for my husband. I do a fair amount of entertaining and cooking at home, but I thought on this occasion I might splurge and hire someone else to do it. This turned out to be maddeningly difficult.

My first call was with a “manager” who I will generously characterize as “new”. How else could she know so little? Because she couldn’t answer any questions or give me menus or pricing, I then had to speak with the next person up the food chain and replicate my entire inquiry again – that was after a nearly endless game of phone tag. I gave him a budget and he gave me the most generic menu ever. (Swedish meatballs? Seriously, what year is it?)

My mother asked, “Why don’t you use Vmeals?”

Oh, would that I could. To conveniently have lots of different menu options clearly laid out, with prices, so I could peruse and ponder and make my choices without the endless back and forth calls; to get the order in writing; to know that set ups are included and I don’t have to specifically ask for forks – that would be great. Sadly, I live in a remote rural community outside of a Vmeals delivery zone.

To make a long story short, the caterer and I couldn’t come to terms. I will be my own caterer again – which is just fine - really.

Even though I extol the virtues of Vmeals for a living, this whole experience has given me a fresh appreciation for the tidy service Vmeals provides. Are you lucky enough to live or work in Vmeals service area?