The gulf coast of northwest Florida is world-renowned for its beaches, shopping and illustrious restaurant industry. Recently, some of these restaurants have been turning to a new supplier for things like cleaning supplies, pest control products, and safety gear. The emergency preparedness retailer Disaster Relief Supply unintentionally stumbled upon a thriving local market after reaching out to customers through regional cable TV advertising. With products matching necessary goods kept at most eateries (i.e. mops, absorbents, pest products, blowers, safety fixtures, etc.), restaurant owners have become the newest group of customers to grace both the aisles of Disaster Relief Supply.
“We never thought we’d be selling to restaurants,” says Mike Fisher, General Manager of the Disaster Relief Supply store in Destin, Fla., “outside of disaster preparedness and cleanup, restaurants weren’t in our minds at all as a potential customer base.”
But given recent store and website traffic, the mindset of DRSupply management is shifting towards appealing to more of the hospitality industry. Equipment rentals have become a major focus for the emergency supply retailer, offering generators, carpet cleaners, pumps, and more. Along with a brand new rental stock, cleaning supplies, caution tape and signage, protective gear, and oil and chemical absorbents like Nature’s Broom Absorbent, have been the main focus of promotions and ads.
Fisher explains, “What’s great is that a lot of these local guys want to invest in the community. We’re a local business that goes out of our way to help our customers.”
Fisher said Disaster Relief Supply goes out of their way by offering special ordering, on-the-spot discounts and keeping a strong online presence in their national website where people can find what’s available, and order products to be picked up in the store.
For Disaster Relief Supply, the focus of the summer season was hurricane and storm preparation, but now the conveniently located retailer has something else to look forward to; tourist season.
“Now that we know we have restaurants to cater to, we’re going to be doing everything we can to accommodate their needs,” Fisher vows. And with a catalog offering thousands of products in hardware, maintenance, furniture, appliances, and more, Fisher is confident that Disaster Relief Supply can handle it.
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