SPORTS: 5 Alternative Sports TV Content Sports Bars Should Show
Football. Basketball. Baseball. Hockey. Soccer. Every sports bar worth its salt shows these games. Your loyal patrons and irregular guests expect you to be showing these sports on the regular. So how do you stand out? You could give your guests a superior guest experience through technology or your atmosphere. That’s something we’ve harped on a ton in the past couple of years. Another way is to show alternative or “off-beat” sports programming on some of your TVs.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Most Popular Tech Gifts of 2019
As our chart illustrates, tech gifts range from big ticket items such as laptops or smartphones to smaller, more affordable things such as activity trackers or digital media streaming devices that connect to a TV set. Headphones and earbuds are the most popular tech gift this year with 58% of U.S. adults planning to give a pair away.
Going on Strike
Rail workers, air-traffic controllers, teachers and public sector staff are staging the biggest strikes of Macron's presidency as they protest against proposed changes to France's pension scheme. As figures from the Hans Böckler Foundation show, France is no stranger to strike action with an annual average of 118 days of industrial action per 1,000 employees recorded between 2008 and 2016. The US averages just five.
Trade Restrictions
A recent report by Euler Hermes shows just how far the number of U.S trade restrictions has surged past those of other advanced economies. Since 2008, the U.S. has passed almost 800 protectionist measures, compared to 357 passed in the UK and 390 passed in Germany. Other advanced economies, like Canada (199) and Australia (174) passed even less of these restrictions.
FLAT RATE DIFFERENCES
Why it matters to you: Do the math to determine which credit card processing paradigm is right for your restaurant.
Any conversation about credit card processing is bound to send most operators hurtling towards the door. The issue is notoriously complicated and the numbers can be confusing. Recently, there has been a new trend in processing that uses a flat price model to regularize the costs of accepting credit cards at your location. Without getting into the granular aspects of this, you really want to look hard before you leap into a flat rate processing agreement. Today we offer two blogs that have opposing views regarding the efficacy of the flat rate processing. On the one hand we have a post on Toast Tab (they offer flat rate processing with their POS systems) and the other is a blog page dedicated to processing questions, but that also advocates and sells processing services.
So, let’s be clear, flat rates processing fees are more expensive than the alternative which is called interchange plus. The flat rate approach costs are a higher percentage per transaction and they typically include a fixed processing fee (ex: an additional $0.10 per transaction). They do not typically include a statement fee or other additional charge. Interchange plus normally offers lower rates that also include a fixed processing fee and a statement fee as well. These are simple math problems and by comparing the fees from a current statement to an offer of either paradigm, you should be able to easily determine which is better for you. Don’t let anyone try to convince you; just do a little homework and you will likely save yourself thousands per year.
[Source: Toast Tab & CardFellow]
LESS MEAT IS MORE
Why it matters to you: Vegan & vegetarian cuisine continues to dominate ordering in terms of growth.
The unending conversation about the Impossible Burger appears to not be, well…ending. In their recent year end trend list of popular items from their delivery logs, GrubHub has identified an explosion of interest in vegetarian food items. Vegan orders have risen 27% from 2018 to 2019 and that trend shows no signs of losing its momentum. Leading the pack is the new pizza sensation that includes cauliflower. In fact cauliflower pizza has seen a 650% increase in its popularity and won the top spot in growth. But don’t think that interest is limited to meatless burger meat (which is up 203% itself) and cauliflower, as spicy Brussel sprouts have jumped 622% and black bean & sweet potato tacos are up 513%.
Now we understand that most of you are still very happy selling real burgers and savory chicken wings, but you simply can’t ignore this trend. Oh and by the way, why would you? Customers have demonstrated they are willing to pay a premium for high quality healthy (read: vegan) items. Adding them is both easy to do and frankly quite profitable. Let’s face it, some trends don’t go away quietly.
With all the news about sustainable farming and the consumption of meat’s impact on the environment you can bet that this trend will remain in force and eventually just be the new paradigm. As we always suggest, find some fun recipes and run them as specials. From those, take your most successful and incorporate them into your menu. It’s either that or lose those folks that are changing their preferences to vegetarian to someone who does.
[Source: GrubHub]
