ENTERTAINMENT: Content is King at Restaurants & CHIVE TV Wears the Crown
Even in the restaurant industry, content is king. What you show on your restaurant’s TVs makes a difference. With just 200 days’ worth of major sporting events to show, operators need to get creative to fill the rest of the year. Fortunately, CHIVE TV provides operators with amazing viral and entertaining family-friendly content that has shown to increase sales and restaurant foot traffic.
DID YOU KNOWS…
More Likely to Vent Than to Recommend?
According to new research conducted by the Temkin Group, people tend to share their customer experiences with others, be it in person with friends or family, on social media or elsewhere. Interestingly, the tendency to publicly comment on an experience with a certain company is stronger when the experience is negative. 34% of the consumers surveyed by the Temkin Group stated not to have told anybody about a very good experience with a company recently while only 27% kept a very negative experience to themselves. The good news is you can bounce back and turn a negative into a positive.
The Bourbon Warehouse Collapse Worse Than We Thought
We’re sure a lot of us mourned when we saw images of the Barton 1792 Distillery warehouse that held more than 20,000 barrels of bourbon collapse over the weekend. If that damage wasn’t bad enough to bring a tear to your eye, a large portion of the alcohol spilled into the nearby creek, killing upwards of 800 fish (so far). Brutal.
Goalscorers Leave it Late at the World Cup
Who says soccer isn’t exciting? There’s been a slew of important last-minute goals during the World Cup in Russia. Through the first two rounds of group matches, a total of 10 goals have been scored in injury time, with Germany, Brazil and England among the prominent teams to capitalize from a goal in the dying minutes of the game. Talking about big game heroics, eh?
Be sure to visit our 2018 International Soccer Central to download the tournament’s TV schedule (for free) and start building some great World Cup promotions. With the Elimination Play about to begin, now’s a great time to re-energize and incentivize your guests to make your bar their World Cup HQ.
BAY AREA? MORE LIKE “NAY” AREA (SORRY ABOUT THAT)
Why it matters to you: San Fran restaurants can’t afford servers anymore; they’re learning how to transition.
In a city/county where a household making $117,000 is now qualified as low income,it is no wonder San Francisco restaurants can no longer afford to hire wait staff. Some restaurants just have runners for guest meals but no servers. Other restaurants are following the Sweetgreen & Chipotle fast-casual models as a workaround to a large wait staff. Even with the minimum wage in San Francisco hitting $15/hour in July, it is impossible San Fran servers to make a living and live in the city, meaning it’s nearly impossible for restaurants to find or afford staff.
This is leading to a “something has to give” scenario. As everything else in the area skyrockets in price so would restaurant prices, but menu prices can only go up so much before people start to push back.
Restaurateurs in the Bay area have often referenced Norway (among the highest median wages in the world) as a new industry standard. The vast majority of Norwegian restaurants rely on counter service due to high labor costs. Will anything change here? We’re doubtful in the near future. We wouldn’t be surprised to see something similar happen like New York City restaurants asking for a mandatory surcharge fee to stay afloat.
OUR INDUSTRY, ADDICTION, AND MENTAL ILLNESS.
Why it matters to you: Our industry struggles the most; what are we doing to help our staff navigate it?
One of the first times anyone outside of the industry heard about restaurant workers’ hard-partying escapades was in Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. However romanticized, the fact remains a lot of our coworkers may be self-medicating through the thinly-veiled mask of partying after shifts.
In an industry where the workers are historically overworked and underpaid, it should have been no surprise to any of us when news of this all broke but for some strange reason, it was. Then, bringing us up to present times, Bourdain killed himself after lifelong struggles with depression. This news rocked everyone inside and outside the industry as the latest eye opener that we need to talk to and take better care of our own while we still can. If he is struggling,then imagine who else could be?
It’s time to look at ourselves in the mirror as an industry. When was the last time we checked in with our staff? The nature of mental illness and addiction is a whirlwind; they feed off of each other and when they’re combined with a very pull your own weight no matter what industry it can get extremely dangerous and unhealthy. People who struggle with depression feel alone and when all you know is self-sufficiency it makes perfect (unhealthy) sense to self-medicate and try to keep it moving. The issue is that this cannot be maintained and that is where our coworkers and loved ones begin to fail. The best we can do for everyone is be more open and available. We need to share stories of our own struggle so nobody feels alone in their issues. We need to be there for our friends/loved ones/coworkers, and no longer just let our industry drown before our eyes… We owe it to ourselves.
