MARKETING: BOO! Create an Unforgettable Halloween Experience at Your Restaurant
Halloween is just around the corner and it’s a great opportunity for bars and restaurants to lean into the season and have a lot of fun with their décor, menu, and social events. Here are some tips for prepping your restaurant for the spooky season and giving your guests a memorable Halloween experience.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Where Obesity Places the Biggest Burden on Healthcare
Obese people tend to use health services more often with higher rates of specialty care visits, inpatient stays and surgical procedures, all of which drive up health expenditure. The OECD states that people with obesity have 2.4x more prescriptions than healthy-weight individuals, experience longer hospitalizations and require costlier and more complex treatment. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, according to the research, the U.S. has to spend the most money battling the bulge. Obesity is expected to cost the American health system $644 per capita on average annually from 2020 to 2050 - that's 14% of total U.S. health expenditure.
Online Groceries
We talk a lot about restaurant delivery, but what is the grocery delivery market looking like? E-commerce makes up only 4.4% of all FMCG revenue in the United States, according to analysts at Kantar. By comparison, nearly a fifth of groceries are bought online in South Korea. China is pulling up behind South Korea, with 14% of all groceries purchased online, marking a 40% increase compared to 2016. Countries in the developing world, like India and Brazil, have yet to make a significant breakthrough in online grocery shopping.
Drunk Scootering
While 100,000 Oktoberfest mugs were attempted to be stolen this year, another 250 people lost their drivers’ licenses at Oktoberfest due to drunk scooter riding. Under German laws, e-scooters are categorized as motorized vehicles, meaning car laws apply – including DUI laws. About 400 Germans and tourists were caught drunk scootering this year and 254 lost their licenses because of it. More than 6 million people attended the two-week festival this year.
MAYBE JUST A LITTLE CRACKED
Why it matters to you: Q3 saw more significant traffic drops but check growth couldn’t compensate.
While there isn’t much any of us can do about the state of the economy, it’s still important to see what’s happening in advance if you can. The most recent Black Box Intelligence reporting revealed a 0.4% drop in sales for the quarter, but conversely same stores sales rose as the quarter ended in September. The real problem is that overall traffic fell 3.5% for the quarter. The other telling revelation is that restaurants have slowed their blistering pace of hiring new people. Couple the traffic drops with the slowdown in hiring and you have some clear signs that the tide has turned. So, the house may not falling quite yet, but there are also clearly cracks showing all over.
This is, of course, the hard part. What do you do? Well frankly, nothing. Maybe sock away some cash so you can weather a storm, but there are some operational choices you may want to implement while the market remains relatively stable. Rededicate yourself to labor and inventory controls. By tightening your grip now, you will be in austerity mode before it’s forced on you. This is also a great time to focus on training your staff. Turnover is expensive and every effort you make at training and retention means you’ll have much more prepared staff, which saves you money in more than just turnover. Think of it like your depression-era grandmother would and save everywhere you can so you can have breathing room later.
[Source: Restaurant Business Online]
WE HAVE A RESERVATION
Why it matters to you: Reserve with Google is another feature that will make you rethink your reservation systems.
When Google releases a new product for our industry it normally sends waves through the market. Their newest offering, Reserve with Google, is an absolute must have for your restaurant. The reservation system appears when your restaurant is specifically searched or chosen from a list based on location. It’s now automatic, but they have a ton of partners that have integrated the new system into their platforms. For example, a former partner of the Daily Rail, WaitList.Me, has it integrated into their system. This means, if you subscribe to their service, a reservation taken via Reserve with Google will be added to your account on WaitList.me.
The Reserve with Google service isn’t just for restaurants. It also boasts salons and other appointment-based business as well. However, if you take reservations or just want to let people join your waiting list remotely, this integration is for you. Start first by checking the list of partners that have the integration currently enable. From there you can choose the one that you already use or pic your new reservation partner from those listed. Notably, OpenTable is not among the reservation service providers that doesn’t offer the integration. We would observe that ignoring anything Google does is a mistake. Their ability to communicate their advantages and sheer scale make them.
[Source: Modern Restaurant Management]
