Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Today's Specials:
BUSINESS: Don’t Let Millennials Kill Your Restaurant
Major chains are all trying to figure out how to properly attract Millennials back to their businesses, so it seems like Millennials are killing the restaurant industry. If you want to stay open for the long run, here are some ways to stop Millennials from murdering your business.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Royal Caribbean Helps Evacuate PR
Royal Caribbean’s famous cruises have canceled their upcoming trip to dedicate the ship to disaster relief in Puerto Rico through October 6th. Following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, Puerto Rico’s been in tough shape without power and food. Royal Caribbean intends to evacuate people stranded in ruins. Here’s how you can help.
Just Pay Someone to Do It
Ikea has just bought the odd-jobs startup company TaskRabbit. TaskRabbit sends people to do super annoying jobs that you don’t want to do, like putting together Ikea furniture. The company has been highly valued as both Yelp and Google were reportedly interesting in purchasing the company. This is yet another effort to kick back at other digital competitors like Amazon.
Loaded Tweets
Last week, Twitter announced it was testing a change in policy that increases the maximum limit of characters per tweet from 140 to 280. The feature is currently only available to a select few. If you want to try the feature, here’s how to enable the change manually, even if Twitter’s tests didn’t initially include your account.
ONCE THEY LEAVE, WILL THEY COME BACK?
Why it matters to you: Restaurants that refuse to show the NFL games could be losing money from their loyal and less political guests.
The restaurant industry deals with political controversy fairly often, but when restaurants begin choosing sides, problems arise. With all of the heat coming from the NFL protests recently, many restaurants have begun refusing to show the games on their bar’s TVs. This has led to a ripple effect.DirecTV, allegedly, is now offering NFL Sunday Ticket refunds to restaurants that refuse to show NFL games. Whichever side that restaurants take, there are bound to be guests on the opposing side that will be either offended or just go elsewhere. This has led to outspread problems causing a divide within their existing customers, which may only hurt end of the day sales.
The typical restaurant tab ranges from $20 to $40 for beer along, according to one New Jersey operator. Many restaurant owners that choose not to play the NFL games for their own reasons are bound to send their less politically charged customers elsewhere to spend their money. Founder and CEO of global restaurant consulting firm Aaron Allen and Associates told CNBC that "once you've changed the customer's behavior or habit, it's hard to change it back." Therefore, restaurants could be unintentionally sending off customers that they may not get again. These are the types of implications that restaurants need to consider when they make politically charged decisions because, at the end of the day, politics won’t pay the bills.
OVER-RESTAURANTED
Why it matters to you: Top restaurant CEOs claim that the industry is over-retailed, leading to a bleak future for their chains.
Top food and retail chains in the United States have been struggling over the years based on stiff competition, lower sales, and the fight to implement the best technology. Business Insider interviewed the CEO of Dunkin’ Brands, Nigel Travis, to get his insight on how the restaurant industry has changed and what to expect in the near future. His main concerned was attributed to the industry being “over-restauranted,” meaning that there are simply more restaurants in the US than customers care to visit, leading to a decrease in demand and sales. Unfortunately, customer traffic has been on the decline for 17 months straight.
In July, restaurant-industry tracker TDn2K reported that restaurant comparable sales fell 1% and traffic dropped 3% in the most recent quarter. Executives at restaurant chains including Starbucks and Olive Garden have similarly agreed that the US is "over-retailed." One advantage that independent restaurants have is catering directly to their loyal guests and working directly to build their base. Unlike top chains, they have a more direct line of communication which could make or break their business. If the loyal guests are happy, then they’ll tell their friends, which will only work to your benefit.
