The Daily Rail: Is Our Industry Trumped?

Thursday, November 10, 2016

 

Today's Specials: 

 

 

LIST: Six Reasons Your S**t Isn't Selling

If your sales are stymied and your inventory isn't moving, maybe it's time to switch it up? Check out our latest list to explain why your stuff just isn't selling.

 

LEARN: Three Ways to Create a Customer for Life

Marketing is hard for small restaurants. Here are three tips to make sure you can create customer loyalty for your restaurant and build word-of-mouth.

 

 


 

 

DID YOU KNOWS…

 

 

Survey Says!

What makes one restaurant better than the other? Food? The ambiance? The location? According to Task Spotting, 94% of diners think service is the most important variable to become a “favorite restaurant.” Similarly, 70% of diners wouldn’t go back to a restaurant if the food was good but the experience was bad.

Related: don’t forget to register to learn how on-demand tech can improve your guests’ experience.

 

Soda Tax Prevails

Four cities voted to tax soft drinks and soda in Boulder, CO and three California cities – San Francisco, Oakland, and Albany. The tax is $0.01 per ounce and tacked on to the wholesale price. So restaurant owners will have to decide to eat the loss or pass it on to consumers. Either way, restaurants probably need to reevaluate their beverage programs.

 

Taking Down Canada

Canada’s immigration website crashed Tuesday night during the US election and didn’t come back online until around 10am ET on Weds. Search traffic for "Canada immigration," "Canada" and "move to Canada" has increased in the United States relative to the past seven days, according to Google Trends.

 

Trololoblerone?

Toblerone, the popular Swiss chocolate bar, has shrunk its bar size in the UK by about 10%. So now those iconic “peaks” and valleys will weigh just 150 grams instead of 170. The company says they needed to cut costs, but gotta wonder if this hit is worse than #Brexit.

 

 


 

 

WHAT IS A RESTAURANT ANYWAY?


Why it matters to you: This is our business, how do you classify yourself?

The options for dinner fifty years ago were to dine at home or eat out. Today we have a plethora of options. We can have Blue Apron delivering pre-portioned parts of a meal we assemble ourselves, we can grab a pizza for take-out or have it delivered, we can even grab prepared foods at our local grocery, or a hot dog at a gas station (eww, but to each their own).

Muller a Professor in Hospitality Administration posits that what a food service establishment comes down to two things, food and service. There’s an awesome taxonomy chart highlighting the breakdown of those two offerings here. With the disappearance of white linen in favor of fast casual and innovation in every aspect of the industry, it’s important to be aware of the value your establishment offers and whether it’s time to update your business model.

 

THE FIRST 100 DAYS

Why it matters to you: The Election is over, Trump won! So, what’s it mean to our industry?

The natural question about any new leader is how will affect me and my business. Several publications offered articles and opinions on how Donald Trump’s win on Tuesday impacts the future of our industry. Leaders in the restaurant business weighed in with comments that varied from dismay to delirious joy. However when it comes to the issues there appears to be more consensus. There are 3 major areas of concern that will immediately cause disruption in our industry if implemented. Immigration policy, tax policy, and food regulations are the most discussed issues and below we try to sort them out.

When it comes to immigration there are several facets of Trump's anti-undocumented worker rhetoric. To start, the disruption to the workforce for farm and restaurant works will be felt immediately in our industry. It’s not just the scary prospect of deportation forces ripping people from their homes, but also the loss of an important consumer class. These 5-10 million low-income workers provide a significant amount of spending and their departure will eliminate their consumption contribution to our economy. It will also drive up wages as we scramble to replace those workers as an already tight labor market becomes tighter.

A Trump presidency promises to deliver lower corporate taxes, but at what cost? When you consider how his version of immigration reform will drive labor costs, it might be a wash. He is clearly interested in less regulation and has intimated that he would do away with the FDA. While less food regulation sounds enticing to those of us that manage the capricious nature of our local Health Departments, it also means less attention being paid to how food is handled before it arrives to us. As Chipotle can attest, that can be a dangerous problem.

In addition to all of these issues, he has promised to repeal Obamacare, slash Government Food Assistance and doesn’t think climate change is a real problem. Likely the biggest fear of Trump’s reign will be the uncertainty. It might be ok, but nobody really knows what to expect and that is terrifying.

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