Helping Foodservice Businesses Enhance Front-of-House Presence
while Improving their Operations, Brand, and Profits

All foodservice establishments need drinkware for guests, regardless of the style or volume of service. If you’re a foodservice operator, you may have been faced with the decision of whether to purchase glass or plastic drinkware. But with so many options, the choice can be difficult to navigate or even know where to start.

You have your bottom line to consider, as always, but what other areas of operation might be impacted by the material you choose? Most importantly, how will your decision impact your bottom line beyond the initial investment?

Here at G.E.T., we’re big fans of our customers getting the best bang for their buck, but also finding the perfect product to fit brand and service style needs. We’ve put together some key cost points to consider when deciding between plastic or glass drinkware.

As a foodservice operator, you may not have given much thought to which kind of plastic your drinkware is made from. Considering the tight margins in this industry, you've probably focused more on price than anything else. But what if we told you that focusing on the material your plastic drinkware is made from can have a bigger impact on your overall bottom line than just looking at the price? 

It's true. Depending on your operational needs and brand positioning, you may be spending more than you need to on your drinkware. Or you may not be spending very much, but replacing your drinkware more often due to chipping, cracking, or breaking, which costs you more in the long run. 

We're going to give you an overview of three different kinds of drinkware plastics - Tritan™, SAN, and PC - to see how they compare in terms of durability, replacement rates, and segment use cases. 

G.E.T. has led the melamine dinnerware category for more than 30 years. We know melamine. We know all the wonderful benefits it brings foodservice operators, from contemporary designs and unsurpassed durability to low replacement rates. 

As self-proclaimed melamine enthusiasts, we're also aware of the different qualities of melamine on the market. In a foodservice environment where operators count on their melamine daily to withstand sometimes relentless use in service and commercial dishwashers, only high-quality melamine can meet those needs. 

With the bulk of melamine dinnerware supply coming from overseas, how can foodservice professionals ensure their investments will result in the highest performance while also exceeding food-safety standards? Certification from the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) bridges the gap between foreign and domestic regulations ensuring operators get the most out of their purchase. 

But is it really necessary? 

Plastic tumblers are the go-to drinkware selection for an array of high-volume foodservice providers. But do you know why you order the plastic tumblers you do? Is it because that’s just the way things have always been done? Or is it because you’re well informed about the material they’re made from and you know it’s the best option for your establishment?

If you answered, “Because that’s the way it’s always been done,” you’re probably in good company. It’s hard to change habits, after all. Here at G.E.T., we believe in arming you, the foodservice operator, with the knowledge to select the best products for your specific needs.

Follow us through this post as we compare the two most popular kinds of drinkware plastics, PC and SAN, foodservice operators use for their tumblers. By the end, you'll know whether you want to stick with your usual purchase or if it's time to switch. Better yet, you’ll know why.

We first heard the now-iconic phrase, "You don't win friends with salad," borne of a The Simpsons episode, nearly 22 years ago. But we're willing to bet that a modern-day rewriting of the phrase would be just the opposite.

Today's diners are more health-conscious than ever. The restaurant industry has responded by adding salads to their menus, in turn leading to more salad bars. Recently, Ruby Tuesday touted their salad bar, and Sizzler upgraded their look in the last few years. Restaurants aren't the only ones incorporating salad bars. College, university, and corporate dining campuses, casinos, and hotels all embrace the healthy self-serve option.

Indeed, you do win friends with salad.

Salad bars, ice cream bars, and frozen yogurt bars may occupy different ends of the health food spectrum, but they all have one thing in common: Ingredients need to be kept at or below 40°F to stay within the temperature safety zone. Bar-style service often goes hand in hand with refrigerated cold wells. Cold wells allow you to use different sized food pans to get just the right configuration of your products depending on what you're serving. 

Foodservice operators have a few options regarding systems that hold food pans in place on cold wells. Two popular options made by Bugambilia® are the Tile and Fit Perfect™ systems, which feature unique, resin-coated aluminum food pans. We're going to compare these two systems to give you an idea of which one might be best for your cold well service because here at G.E.T., we always want our customers to know their options. 

Plenty of foodservice operators know cold bars (aka cold wells) are wonderful tools for accommodating salad, ice cream, frozen yogurt bars, and pretty much any kind of cold food you'd want to mix and match to delight your guests. They're especially popular and useful in high-volume foodservice at college, university, and corporate dining facilities because guests often serve themselves. 

But what if you want to rearrange your cold bar setup? Historically, this has been  cost - and time-prohibitive for operators due to the restrictive nature of commonly used tile systems for housing food pans. 

Foodservice is all about bringing people together around a table and creating experiences that make people happy. Even though the end result is about as hyper-local as you can get - sitting around a table - a global industry works hard in the background to make these great experiences happen. 

Many of the tabletop items used in commercial foodservice are manufactured overseas, then distributed and sold to American restaurateurs. But America (and Europe, for that matter) has some of the most stringent regulations when it comes to food safety, including the products that are used to make, store, and serve food. So how do we know which companies are making the best products that also live up to American regulatory standards? 

From intimate dining rooms to service for thousands, every foodservice establishment needs beverage service to accompany their menu. Drinks can be as commonplace as tea and water or as complex as craft cocktails. Regardless of your beverage service style, you can't serve drinks without drinkware. 

But do you go with plastic or glass? These days plastic drinkware often looks just as sharp, shiny, and clear as their glass counterparts. And it's super easy to add custom branded logos and designs to plastic drinkware. So how do you choose? 

Both excellent choices, these two materials can impact service flow and your bottom line in different ways. We're going to take a look at plastic and glass drinkware to see how they stack up. We'll cover a few key areas that can have the most impact on foodservice operations: costs, aesthetics, and broken glass' affect on operations. 

Melamine dinnerware has enjoyed recent surges in popularity among foodservice operators thanks to advances in alternative materials design. Now available in an array of styles, foodservice operators enjoy the different décor themes supported by modern-day melamine. From elegant and understated to modern cosmopolitan, melamine dinnerware resembles china but is also break-resistant, dishwasher-safe, and often less expensive than china. 

But of all the advantages melamine dinnerware brings to foodservice, there’s at least one thing it doesn't do well: Melamine dinnerware is not a great candidate for the microwave. G.E.T. is one of the foremost authorities on melamine dinnerware with more than 30 years of experience. We’ll tell you why we recommend keeping your melamine dinnerware out of the microwave if you're in commercial foodservice and what will happen if you microwave it anyway. We all break the rules sometimes, right?