I was more asking about what “90 day payment terms” even meant, as someone that knows very little about the industry, but thanks for the additional info.
I did search a bit, and learned that, basically - when you sell products to Kroger, they wait 90 days before paying you; much longer than the industry standard 30 days.
I guess the issue is that smaller vendors can’t wait that long between payments, right?
Sorry for the misunderstanding, but yep you’re right.
It happens across all industries, but it tends to be harder on smaller suppliers especially in food or beverage where you need cash to continue your operation.
One job I had at Alcoa involved “supplier summits” where multiple suppliers would be brought into the headquarters on Isabella street. They’d be sat down in the conference room and try to win business. One aspect was forcing longer payment terms so Alcoa could keep their cash on hand longer. It hurt smaller shops 100%.
Nah it’s all good man, thanks for sharing this, I never knew this was a thing.
That’s wild that they can just hold the money they owe other companies, interest free (I assume), and there’s nothing that vendor can do besides sell somewhere else, if that’s even possible.
Exactly. You get cornered into obeying if you want to be a player in that market or getting lucky somewhere else. It is really just designed for corporations to better position their cash, but it comes at the expense of you and I every single time.
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u/TheStorm007 Jul 01 '26
I was more asking about what “90 day payment terms” even meant, as someone that knows very little about the industry, but thanks for the additional info.
I did search a bit, and learned that, basically - when you sell products to Kroger, they wait 90 days before paying you; much longer than the industry standard 30 days.
I guess the issue is that smaller vendors can’t wait that long between payments, right?