A well-stocked snack pantry is often the sign of a happy office, and not just because treats help lift morale. Keeping a constant source of energy on hand that does not take any prep time can mean the difference between a focused sprint to the end of a project and a slow drag that lumbers past the deadline by a few hours. So how do you keep snacks in the office pantry when the budget gets tight?
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Shop Wholesale for Supplies
Buying in bulk is often the key to keeping expenses down, but you can take it a step further by shopping for wholesale goods for your pantry staples. That can help you save on coffee and supplies like filters, snack bars, and other treats designed to get people through to the next mealtime. Wholesale candy bars are often a fraction of the cost of buying the same size individually from major grocery stores.
When you pair this tactic with a couple of other ideas to help trim waste out of the budget, you can make sure your breakroom remains stocked with everything the office actually uses. For that to work out, though, you need to make sure you only buy what you need.
Cut Underused Options
If you need to reduce selection or you’re getting petitioned for new options and you need to find room in the budget to rotate them in, the easiest thing to do is to simply stop stocking items that do not get used quickly. Tracking inventory and phasing out anything that expires before it gets used is an easy way to do this, but not a complete one.
Surveying the office about which items they see as most critical and which ones they would rotate out for the chance to try something new can keep people invested in the changes as a positive thing while allowing you to cut down on waste.
Keep Communicating With Your Workers
Employee buy-in is an important part of any strategic change in the office, even one as simple as breakroom supply management. The smaller the stakes, the more important it can be to give people a chance to feel invested and to exert some degree of influence or control.
Giving people the chance to provide feedback and make their own suggestions for improvement could lead to cost-saving insights or less expensive options for staying stocked up. Never underestimate the resourcefulness of your team, they know what they need.
