Right now is a very difficult time for restaurants. People are not going out in the same volume as prepandemic. Restaurant delivery services are charging really high fees to deliver food if you want to compete in the delivery market. While at the same time all costs are going up, labor is in short supply, and materials and food are in limited supply. One of the things that is hard to get right now is restaurant furniture. Although we have a pretty big list of restaurant furniture manufacturers that are US based, that doesn't mean it will be easy to source.
If you are not a current customer of one of the restaurant furniture suppliers on the list, they may not be willing to take your order. If they are willing to take your order, you might need to pay in full and wait 28 weeks to get your order. How do you know if you are really going to get your furniture? How do you know it will be good when you get it?
In the past, most companies tried to go direct to the manufacturer and get the absolute best price. That isn't necessarily what is best anymore. If you are interested in quality and customer service, you might want to purchase through a dealer.
Restaurant furniture dealers buy and sell restaurant furniture all of the time. You don't. You probably buy restaurant furniture every 8 years per location. Is your vendor still good? Do they still have materials in stock? Are they about to go out of business?
Take a look online and read the reviews. See who is still selling furniture and shipping furniture on a regular basis. As an example, you can see that American Chairs has reviews from the past few days. While American Chairs is not the manufacturer, they work directly with the manufacturer. They are aware of lead times and shipping costs and can handle all of the customer service you need to have a furniture order go correctly. They can also coordinate booths from one company, chairs from another company, and tables from a 3rd.
American Chairs can also design your restaurant front of house and draw up seating plans. Check them out www.americanchairs.com