STAFF: Get Labor Costs Under Control with These Four Best Practices [Presented by HubWorks]
As an operator, labor is the most expensive and variable aspect of your restaurant. Sure, you can control it, but most managers simply focus on the hours paid and don’t appreciate the myriad ways you can impact your labor cost. Here are four tips to get labor costs under reigns.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Amazon Gets in the Octagon
Amazon has nabbed the rights to UFC PPV events, beginning with UFC 222 this Saturday. The tech mega-giant continues its push into live sports streaming. Last year it bought the streaming rights to Thursday Night Football. And you don’t need to be a Prime member to purchase the fights.
Stronger Than Fiction
Ever wonder what you should drink based on your favorite novels? We didn’t… until VinePair asked that very question. Here’s their fun post pairing alcohol beverages to popular books. We’re all about Lord of the Rings.
The Death of Yawkey Way?
This’ll get some Red Sox fans angered. The Boston Red Sox are petitioning the City of Boston to change the name of Yawkey Way back to its former name of Jersey Street. The team says it wants to show fans that they’re “inclusive and welcoming to all.” The Sox, under the Yawkey family ownership, struggled with race relations.
BETTER INGREDIENTS, BETTER PIZZA, NO FOOTBALL
Why it matters to you: Papa John’s gets cut as the official pizza sponsor of the NFL.
No surprises here. Papa John’s and the NFL recently parted ways in “a mutual decision” (yeah, right) to terminate their relationship. This decision came long before the original end date of 2020 for the sponsorship and nobody is shocked to hear it. The issues began a few months ago when Papa John’s (now) former-CEO John Schnatter blamed their decreasing sales on the NFL’s lower ratings due to people being “turned off by players kneeling.” This set off a twitter firestorm that included Papa John’s being torn apart by Pizza Hut and Digiorno’s accounts among many, many others. This finger pointing towards players protesting social injustices combined with the public knowledge that Schnatter supported Trump during his campaign were a one-two punch for the brand. Shortly after Schnatter blaming the NFL for sluggish sales, white supremacist groups named Papa John’s as their (un)official pizza of choice.
So, can Papa John’s recover? For a brand that was already the last choice for many, their CEO shooting his business in the foot so many times was the final straw. Having a CEO so blatantly out of touch who is also the face of the brand did nothing but hurt the franchise. The NFL is making the right decision by distancing themselves from the brand. Best of luck to Pizza Hut, although it shouldn’t be hard to stop from fumbling this opportunity for anyone else…
DINE & DASH IS FINALLY ACCEPTABLE
Why it matters to you: A new app treats restaurants like an Uber and allows diners to leave when they please and automatically pay.
Have you ever been in a restaurant where you’ve finished eating and then your waiter disappears when it’s time to get the check? How about when you need a bite to eat but don’t have quite the amount of time you need to get in and out of the place?
A new app called Dine & Dash is currently being tested which allows diners to simply leave the restaurant as soon as they finish eating. With this system guests can connect their account to the restaurant they’re eating at. The app automatically takes payment as the guests leave and alerts the serving staff. When all is said and done, each diner receives a digital receipt where you can split the bill, tip, or apply discounts all remotely on your phone. This would, in theory, streamline the dining process immensely by assisting servers in turning covers throughout their shift and free up their time to focus on still-dining customers.
This sounds pretty ideal on our end and fits into the mobile payment trend. Barclaycard, the creator of the app, found that waiting for the check was the most annoying part of the dining experience. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever been to a restaurant, finished eating, and had to sit through that awkward drawn-out time period that is waiting to get the tab pay and leave. So, the combination of the streamlined payment process with the fact that they actually thought of servers sounds like a winning combination to us.
