When you’re making food at any meaningful scale, you start to get very particular with the ingredients you buy.
When you cook for yourself or a few friends, you might not notice spending a few dollars above market price of some product. But when you are looking to cook in bulk, suddenly paying $8 for something that should cost $5 becomes a big deal because that $3 difference is now multiplied by hundreds of times.
On the flip side, you can get into a mode where you are deal hunting. And instead of paying $15 for the Pure Vermont Maple Syrup, you are tempted by the $14 Wal-Mart brand. In all reality, a $1 difference spread over many batches comes down to a few marginal cents.
In my mind, it’s better to know where the product is coming from and have some confidence in it, rather than pursue the endless race to the cheapest. Confidence and trust are worth more than a few cents on the margin.