Commercial Walgreens Properties Maintenance

Hey all,

I’m based in NJ and have questions about bidding for a couple Walgreens properties seasonal property maintenance. A property management company contacted me with the information. They would be subcontracting me out. They sent me specs on what needed to be done weekly/monthly for the season in these properties.

Most of my accounts now are residential, so I am not familiar with the bidding process.

So what I want to know is what experiences have you guys had with this type of work? Any tips or tricks I should know going into bidding / doing this type of work? Thanks in advance...

 

I’ve bid several WalGreens over the past couple years. The cheapest bid wins everytime. Not all commercial accts are this way tho. If you want it, bid it as cheap as possible.

 

I would research the firm hiring you before doing it work on a bid. Many people have been screwed and screwed hard by companies with "national chain" property work.

 

they will pay you every 120 days no matter how many times you call them for payment updates...and that is from the date of a proper invoice is received by them....yes the cheapest bid usually wins in 99.99% of all cases, and high turn over of lawn companies.

Put EVERYTHING in writing or what you don't have in writing you will be doing for free to keep the account.

Bid is no different than residential.... just more square footage to evaluate for the given services...


and always figure extra 30 minutes for picking up trash every time your there

 

Dont waste your time .

 

Don't forget about all the trash they want picked up.

 

And pictures before and after , and getting the manager to sign , and if you misspell a word on the bill you have to resubmit and wait another 60 days to be paid . Then you get a back charge because someone complained , they wont say who , when or where but they withhold a payment or 2 . Then they make you sign a contract that screws you from the front to the rear.

 

Then you get to play who has the better lawyer to see how much if anything you'll get paid.

 

They’ll have a seperate bid just for trash to be picked up. If I recall correctly it’s at least 2x a week depending on location. What happens is the guy who wins the trash bid doesn’t do his job and the lawn guy ends up doing it for free cuz in the contract it states the lawn must be cleared of debris prior to mowing.

As far as a lawsuit goes for non pay. I’ve never had a commercial customer call my bluff. The last thing they want to do is go to court against the lawn guy for a few hundred $. In MO they can’t send a lawyer to represent them in a small claims suit.

 

Thing is he is not hired by the Walgreens. He is being hired by the property management company. He could very well be 3-4 companies away from Walgreens in this bid.

Yes Walgreens will pay it's bills but that doesn't mean the company that hired him will pay theirs. If you look around there is endless stories of guys who took on work just like this and are now owed 10k+. Usually they start a thread and find out they been duped. Then they find out it's lawyer time and usually are to broke to fight.