TECHNOLOGY: The Four Types of Digital Signage for Bars & Restaurants
Content is king even at sports bars and restaurants. Operators looking to engage their guests and keep them entertained should look to digital signage to show off unique content plus push their own content, events and promotions.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Whiskey Exports
After the imposition of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum from the EU, the economic bloc wants to introduce retaliatory tariffs on products from the U.S. as of July 1, 2018. Among the goods that the EU wants to penalize is bourbon whiskey. As our infographic shows, three of the main importers of bourbon whiskey are located in the EU: Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany.
Vodka Ice Pops
Costco is selling vodka ice pops, letting Millennials relive their childhood summers but with a little dose of booze to go with it. It’s pretty much everything we didn’t know we wanted. They’re just 100 calories a pop and come in four flavors – Cosmopolitan, Appletini, Watermelon Lemonade, and Lemon Drop. How’s your frozen beverage program looking?
Record Year for the NHL
This year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs tied for the second-most watched NHL postseason since 1997 and the Cup Finals was the most-watched non-Original Six Final on record. The Cup Finals was up 51% from last year. The strong non-Original Six ratings go against years of traditional thought that the league needs its old timey teams to do well to draw fan interest.
RAISE YOUR CUPS, AND PRICES…
Why it matters to you: Starbucks recently raised prices of its simplest drink; should you?
We need all of the help we can get in the mornings. Whether we are recovering from working that double, a big night out, or just staying up too late on the couch with a Netflix session, the morning always rears its ugly head sooner than we’d like. This is where coffee -- and for a lot of us -- Starbucks comes in. While everyone with specialty drink orders expects the additional charges, the purists who order a normal drip coffee are about to see a $0.10-0.20 increase on their morning beverages. What’s the deal with that?
Well, profitability is key here. With labor costs (and everything-else-costs) rising steadily, operators must find a way to balance the ever-tipping scales. There’s only so much cost cutting you can do before it negatively effects your business. Eventually, things are going to trickle down to your guests. If you’re having trouble making ends meet at your restaurant, you might need to consider raising menu prices. It’s a subject that seems to be singularly problematic in our industry. Where other businesses raise prices regularly and effortlessly, the thought of raising menu prices raises hackles and stress levels like no tomorrow. We have this nifty little metric to help us all be sure we are all charging at least the proper amount to ensure our profits aren’t suffering and neither are our customers. We always gotta make sure we look out for our own as well as our customers.
APPARENTLY WE CAN’T RECYCLE THAT
Why it matters to you: According to some cities, coffee cups aren’t recyclable.
How many of us thought that our daily to-go cups were recyclable? We’d assume most any of us that make a conscience effort; they are paperafter all. Apparently they aren’t recycled in most cities due to a significant number of the cups being lined with plastic in order to make them leak-proof. So, what happens to the cup when it reaches the plant? If it is caught in time, the cup is rerouted to the dump. The unfortunate issue is if there was coffee in it still and it spilled onto recyclable items. If that happens then anything that is wet from the coffee spill is also rerouted to the dump as a contaminated load. Nuts.
So, what can we do as operators to try to reduce the waste and be eco-friendlier here? There aren’t a ton of great options out there, evidenced by Starbucks’ bounty on new innovations for creating compostable cups. That said, finding a more eco-friendly option is still possible and would be a nice step in addition to getting rid of those pesky and ever-wasteful plastic straws. Maybe it’s time to consider a more significant push to get your customers to have their drinks in a for-here glass or a branded to-go mug. It is far-and-away the superior way after all.
