You cut non-food supply costs by treating them like food: with a spec, a price agreement, and a usage control. Most operators negotiate their protein and produce hard and then let gloves, to-go packaging, chemicals, can liners, linens, and paper ride on whatever the distributor's catalog says this week. Three moves capture most of the savings: standardize the item list so you buy fewer SKUs in larger volumes, specify the right grade rather than the cheapest one, and control the dispense point so the product lasts as long as it should. Done together, they usually beat anything you can win by arguing over the case price, and managed procurement is how most operators keep them in place once the initial push is over.
How much of a hospitality operator's spend is non-food?
Enough that it moves the profit line on its own, and it is rising faster than food. CBRE's analysis of hotel operating statements found that while "the combined purchases of food and beverages in 2024 was 2.3% lower than 2023," in the same department "labor expenses, as well as the cost of operating supplies, increased by 4.5% and 9.4%, respectively" (CBRE, All Eyes on Operating Costs in 2025, Robert Mandelbaum and Andrea Grigg). Read that again: operators bought less food and still watched the supply line climb by nearly a tenth. Non-food is where the cost pressure went while everyone was watching the center of the plate.
Why does non-food spend escape the negotiation?
Because no single line item is big enough to look worth the meeting. A case of gloves or a drum of degreaser never shows up as a crisis the way a beef contract does, so it gets ordered by whoever notices the shelf is empty, from whatever is in the catalog that day. That distributes the decision across the building instead of concentrating it in a contract, and a decision nobody owns is a price nobody negotiates. The total is real even though each line is small, which is exactly the profile of spend that a purchasing discipline is built for.
What are the biggest non-food categories to attack first?
Start where the volume is repetitive and the specification is loose:
- Disposables and to-go packaging. Containers, lids, cups, bags, and cutlery, where a small per-unit change multiplies across every order that leaves the building.
- Chemicals and sanitation. Warewash, degreaser, sanitizer, and floor care, where dilution control usually saves more than price does.
- Gloves and personal protective supplies. High volume, wide quality range, and easy to over-specify or under-specify.
- Paper and janitorial. Liners, towel, tissue, and wipers, where the dispenser choice sets the usage rate for years.
- Smallwares and tabletop. Glassware, flatware, and china, where breakage replacement quietly becomes a recurring purchase.
- Linen and uniforms. Often a rental contract with escalators and loss charges nobody has read since it was signed.
Does buying the cheapest version actually save money?
Usually not, because non-food supplies are priced per case and consumed per use. A thinner can liner that costs 12% less but has to be double-bagged costs more per pull, not less. A cheap glove that tears makes the line change gloves twice as often. A diluted-wrong sanitizer either wastes product or fails inspection. The number that matters is cost per use, and it is the number the catalog never shows you. This is the single most common way an operator cuts a price and raises a cost at the same time.
How does standardizing the item list lower the price?
By turning scattered small orders into concentrated volume that a manufacturer will actually price against. A multi-unit operator buying four different 13-gallon liners across six locations has no leverage on any of them, because the volume is split four ways and none of it is committed. Collapse those to one spec and the same total purchase becomes a negotiable line with a deviated price behind it. Fewer SKUs also shortens the order guide, cuts the substitution risk, and makes it obvious when a price moves, which is the same discipline described in how to reduce restaurant food costs applied to the half of the truck nobody audits.
How do you control usage once the price is right?
You control it at the dispense point, because supplies are consumed by habit and habits follow the equipment. Portion-controlled chemical dispensing removes the free-pour decision entirely. Dispenser format sets how much towel or tissue leaves the wall per pull. A locked storeroom with a par level tells you what you actually used rather than what you bought. None of this requires a new vendor, and all of it survives staff turnover in a way that a memo about being careful does not.
Why does this matter more in 2026?
Because there is no margin left to absorb it. The National Restaurant Association's 2026 State of the Restaurant Industry report found that 42% of operators said their restaurant was not profitable last year, and that more than 9 in 10 operators cite food, labor, insurance, energy, and swipe fees as significant challenges (National Restaurant Association, 2026 State of the Restaurant Industry). When every other input is being squeezed at once, the category nobody has looked at in three years is the one with room left in it.
Where does managed procurement fit?
It supplies the leverage and the specification work that a single property cannot justify hiring for. CORE Insights Group is not a GPO, it is the more operator-favorable alternative to one: a single transparent agreed fee, no markup on what you buy, and 100% of rebates passed back to you, so the partner setting your specs is not being paid out of the spend those specs create. Behind that sits more than $15B in leveraged purchasing volume, over 50,000 cost-controlled items across food and non-food, and a team with 100+ years of combined procurement experience, applied for operators including Sonesta, Specialty Restaurants Corporation, and Gecko's Hospitality Group through CORE360, through CLUB360 for country and social clubs, and through project-based consulting where an operator wants the analysis without the ongoing program.
"At the heart of CORE is a company that wants to drive value to the companies that deserve it. With complete transparency. No side hustles, no dollars that get siphoned off on the side." Ross Kellman, co-founder, CORE Insights Group
Do rebates apply to non-food purchases too?
Yes, and that is precisely why the category is worth checking. Manufacturer allowances and deviations exist across disposables, chemicals, and paper the same way they do across food, and they are just as easy for an operator to never see. The question is not whether the rebate exists, it is who ends up holding it, which is covered in do GPOs keep rebates, or pass them back. CORE passes 100% of them back, which means the savings on a case of liners lands with the operator rather than with the intermediary.
Where should you start this week?
Pull one month of purchases, filter out everything edible, and sort what is left by dollars. Most operators are surprised by both the total and by how many near-duplicate items are in it. Pick the top five categories, write one spec for each, and price them as committed volume rather than as catalog lines. If you run hotel F&B alongside rooms, the parallel exercise on the food side is laid out in how do hotels reduce food and beverage costs.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as non-food spend in a restaurant or hotel?
Everything you buy to operate that nobody eats: disposables and to-go packaging, cleaning chemicals and sanitation, gloves and personal protective supplies, paper and janitorial products, can liners, smallwares and tabletop, and linen or uniform programs. In hotels it also covers guest room operating supplies. It usually arrives on the same trucks as the food, which is part of why it goes unexamined.
How much can an operator save on non-food supplies?
It depends entirely on how loose the current buying is, which is why the honest first step is a one-month spend review rather than a promised percentage. The savings generally come from three places at once: consolidating near-duplicate items into committed volume, specifying the right grade instead of the cheapest, and controlling usage at the dispense point. Operators who have never standardized the category typically find the most room there.
Is it cheaper to buy the lowest-priced disposables?
Often no. Non-food supplies are priced per case but consumed per use, so a thinner liner that requires double-bagging or a glove that tears and gets changed twice as often can raise your true cost while lowering the invoice price. Compare cost per use rather than cost per case, and test the substitute in the actual station before switching.
Why are operating supply costs rising faster than food costs?
CBRE's review of hotel operating statements found that combined food and beverage purchases in 2024 were 2.3% lower than 2023 while the cost of operating supplies in that department rose 9.4%. Food is negotiated, tracked, and questioned every week; supplies are usually reordered on habit, so input cost increases pass through to the operator without resistance.
Do rebates exist on non-food items?
Yes. Manufacturer allowances and deviated pricing apply across disposables, chemicals, and paper just as they do across food, but operators rarely see them because the money is settled between the manufacturer, the distributor, and whichever intermediary sits in the middle. CORE passes 100% of rebates back to the operator, so the value lands where the spend originated.
Is CORE Insights Group a GPO?
No. CORE is a managed procurement partner and the more operator-favorable alternative to a GPO. Rather than being paid out of your spend or retaining rebates, CORE runs on one transparent agreed fee, takes no markup on what you buy, and passes 100% of rebates back to you, while working with the distributors you already use.