Cash & Carry

I'll start this off by saying, I love what I do. I love creating businesses and helping others to create their own. I currently have three clients, all of which are in the food industry. Every time I go through the business planning process with them I get to re-live my own business plan and tweak it as we go.

Last week I took one of my clients to Cash & Carry for research. The first time I was ever in this store I was like a kid in a candy store. It actually rivaled my kid in a candy store experience of working the American Music Awards in '05 and being surrounded by celebrities everywhere I went. I was in heaven.

To anyone familiar with Smart & Final, Cash & Carry is their bigger, stronger, smarter older brother. It's the go-to place for restauranteurs in Portland. They have everything from produce to paper products to basically anything you can think of that goes in a restaurant.

I brought my client there because not only is it a feeding ground for great ideas, but it makes you think of things that you hadn't thought of before. We brought notebooks and pens and I had her write down everything that she wanted. This will all go in to her budget. We spent about an hour and a half in there bouncing ideas off of each other and having a blast.

I highly recommend anyone thinking about opening up a place to go on an exploratory mission to Cash & Carry. It's the most fun you'll have in a grocery store.