SOCIAL MEDIA: What Sports Bars Can Learn About Social Media from Pro Sports
Since the social media was fully embraced by the sports industry, the management of teams, leagues, and associations began to use them as a tool to promote their growth and connection to the fans. And while you’re not running a sports league team, you’re still running a sports organization. Your roster is your staff and, like pro teams, you’re trying to generate interest in your organization by marketing yourself to sports fans. To that end, sports bar operators should use social media like pro teams and leagues do — to enhance the fan experience.
DID YOU KNOWS…
The Biggest Winos
The U.S. was the largest importer of wine in dollar terms last year, shipping $5.71 million worth of wine into the country. The U.S. and the UK were both top markets for the beverage, each importing over 300 million gallons of wine. While these are major markets for wine, both are preparing for possible instabilities in the market.
Dish Dumps NBC Sports Chicago
Yes, there’s even more carriage disputes but this one, amazingly, isn’t about AT&T/DirecTV/Sling. The latest dispute is between NBC Sports Chicago and Dish Network. Dish pulled the plug on the Chicago RSN, claiming a short-term extension was rejected by the sports network.
Chef’s Salaries Surpass National Average
According to a report by Chef’s Pencil analyzing 2018 US Bureau of Labor statistics, chefs’ and head cooks’ annual salaries averages $52,160 last year, a 5% increase from 2017. This also puts them ahead of the national average of $51,960. It’s also almost double that of what restaurant cooks make ($27,580). This is an 89% difference in pay, a stark contrast to 2001 when that gap was only 58%.
LEASING YOUR FUTURE
Why it matters to you: If you are ready to grow, start with a great location and lease
Many operators believe that if you want to have a life in this business you have to own multiple units. But before you grow you have to choose the right location and sign a lease that will allow you to operate profitably. So when we came across two blogs that address both of those issue, we knew we should share. The first outlines how to find real estate. This is the most important decision you’ll make when expanding, consequently you need to be methodical. The blog reviews important elements in that decision like local competition and site visibility, but it also tackles more esoteric issues like what the neighborhood will demand from your restaurant.
The other aspect of this is then securing a lease for the restaurant site of your dreams. This blog reviews the process of securing a space by first suggesting a local broker. There is no substitute for local knowledge and they get paid by the landlord. Make sure you know the market by first visiting it and then doing your own comps on sites like Loop.net. To successfully negotiate the optimal lease, you need to know what the market looks like and be firm in your bid. Your desire for the place cannot be a reason you choose it; you need proof it’s the right choice and the research is how you accomplish that task.
[Source: Toast POS & TouchBistro]
LET THE DATA DECIDE
Why it matters to you: What does this survey about demand tell us?
The National Restaurant Association (NRA) recently commissioned a survey asking consumers by generation if they were using delivery or restaurants as often as they would like. According to the NRA’s reading, there is a lot of pent- up demand in all of the generations for delivery with Baby Boomers topping the list at 51% saying they wanted to do more delivery. Generation X participants were only a little less enamored of delivery at 49%, but their desire to dine more often at a restaurant was the highest by five points at 47%. Millennials, by comparison, were less likely to want to do either. If you are reading this and hoping it means that there is some untapped demand, we would caution you to not get your hopes up.
Presumably this demand has existed before today, but those consumers haven’t changed their behavior. We think the NRA is interpreting this wrong and they don’t realize a desire to purchase that doesn’t translate into a sale must be impacted by a factor their survey doesn’t take into account. It could be the economic uncertainty that many folks are feeling these days, or for Baby Boomers, maybe the technology is an impediment to ordering more delivery. What we don’t believe it says is that the best days of this post-2008 recovery are ahead of us. No, there are just too many headwinds like restaurant saturation and consistently dropping traffic that make this survey suspect.
[Source: National Restaurant Association]
