NRA purchasing course: a real learning experience

Nation's Restaurant News, April 6, 1992 by Patt Patterson

You're not going to become a skilled buyer by reading a book or by taking a course, but it can sure shorten the on-the-job learning process. Formal education certainly has a place in foodservice purchasing.

I was reconvinced of that the other day when I went through a course called "Purchasing for Foodservice Managers," put out by The Educational Foundation of the National Restaurant Association. It's a quality course and should be valuable to both the neophyte and the experienced buyer.

As the name says, it's intended primarily for foodservice managers who are also responsible for purchasing or overseeing purchasing for their operations. But it's complete, comprehensive and clearly written examination of the whole purchasing function plus the principles behind each phase.

The course is built around an excellent book, the third edition of John M. Stefanelli's "Purchasing -- Selection and Procurement for the Hospitality Industry." Stefanelli is with the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, and he knows his subject. The book is published by John Wiley & Sons, New York, but it comes as part of the course materials from the NRA's Educational Foundation.

In the preface of the book, the author notes that one of his colleagues commented that it is "a purchasing book for nonpurchasing agents." While it's simply enough written for that purpose, it's also an excellent book for explaining the fundamentals of purchasing to newcomers to the industry and those already in the foodservice business who must assume responsibility for buying food. It concentrates on food although there are chapters on purchasing alcoholic beverages, nonfoods, services, and furniture and fixtures.

But what impressed me, both with the book and with the student study materials that accompany it, was that the discussion is deep enough to give the experienced buyer a very effective review of what he or she is doing. Most important, for those of us who learned on the job, it gives the basic principles behind those daily buying decisions. I personally learned -- for the first time -- some concepts that make the process easier and less intuitive.

The book has particularly good chapters on purchasing three of the most difficult fresh foods for the average buyer: meat, fish and produce. Stefanelli gives one of the clearest explanations of what the buyer must look for that I've read, and he suggests supporting materials that allow the student to dig deeper into the process.

That's an excellent feature of the book. In just about every chapter there are end-of-chapter notes. In addition, there are lists of other books and sources that provide greater depth for the serious buyer who wants to develop those skills to the fullest.

Also, at the end of every chapter there is an excellent set of review questions. Combined with the study material in the "Student Manual," which accompanies the book, the student will quickly focus on those elements that are important to actually buying in the real foodservice world.

As I said earlier, you can't really learn everything about buying from a book, but this course comes as close to that goal as any I've ever seen. What it will do is prepare the student to get into the practical aspects of the work that depend upon cutting, sampling, evaluating and negotiating -- those elements that can only be learned by doing.

I can almost guarantee that even for the most experienced buyer, the course will not only serve as a useful review but also will give you at least one new method or way of doing something you hadn't thought of before. All the important principles and the formulas that make them work are there in simple, easy form.

How's this course available? Two ways. It's given by at least 50 colleges and community colleges across the country. That's the method I would recommend if there's one of these schools near you. The instructor's guide for the course gives the school an option of conducting the course for an intensive six weeks or for a more conventional 16 weeks.

You can find out if there is a college near you offering this course by phoning The Educational Foundation's customer service department at 1 (800) 765-2122. Each institution sets its own schedule of fees for the course, and you'll have to get them from the school.

The other way to take the course is as a self-study program. The book and materials are sent to you, and you study at your own pace. You have six months to complete the course, so even a busy manager or buyer can find the time in evenings or weekends to go through the lessons, complete the assignments and send them in to the course administration department of the foundation for grading. The assignments are graded and returned to you for preparation for the final test.

When the assignments have been completed, the foundation asks you for a proctor. That can be your supervisor, an instructor in a nearby school or some other impartial official. The proctor is sent your final test papers and administers the test. In effect, that means that the proctor sees that you don't use the book or crib sheets in taking the test. At its completion the proctor sends the test back to the foundation for grading.