eBOOK: Improving the Tabletop Experience [FREE DOWNLOAD]
Your dining room’s tabletop is where all the magic happens. Guests experience most of what you have to offer at your tables. Great food, cool drinks, amazing service, and most of your direct marketing all happen there. But are you doing it right? That is a question we have decided to ask with this series on what great tabletop execution looks like. Our goal is simple: make you think differently about your tables and how you manage them.
Improving the Tabletop Experience will go over the basics of analyzing your current tabletop setups, tips for improving the guest tabletop experience, how to optimize your tabletop marketing efforts and more! Register now to get your free copy.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Wine or Beer First?
Should you drink wine first and then switch to beer? Or beer first and switch to wine? While every country has their adages for which alcohol should be consumed first to keep from getting sick, research has found that it doesn’t actually matter. Regardless if you start with beer, wine or liquor, you’re hangover is gonna suck regardless of which you downed first.
Trade Deficit Grows
The increase was mainly caused by a historically high deficit in goods trade, which amounted to a record $891 billion, of which $419 billion can be traced back to trade with China alone. While Trump has often stated his disapproval of America’s large trade deficit, arguing that the U.S. is on the losing side of world trade, there are several factors playing into the growing deficit, not all of which are bad. First and foremost, the U.S. economy is doing very well at the moment, resulting in strong demand for goods, many of which are manufactured abroad. At the same time, economic growth in China has slowed significantly last year, which reduced demand for American goods in the world’s second largest economy.
Jon Hamm: A Natural Commentator
Actor Jon Hamm is a well-known St. Louis Blues fan. While his fav team was in town to play the LA Kings, Hamm paid a visit to the Fox Sports Midwest announcer booth to shop talk some hockey. And we gotta hand it to Hamm, the guy knows his sport.
REALLY? COW FARTS?
Why it matters to you: Consumer trends have lowered food-related greenhouse gas emissions.
You may have heard a lot of discussion about cow farts as a result of opposition to the Green New Deal, proposed by left-wing darling Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Senator Edward Markey, but has anyone discussed what it all means to our industry? Let’s face it: full-service dining is where all this beef got its start, so to speak. But here’s the irony, we have been seeing a drop-in beef consumption since the mid-70s. What this means cannot be explained unless you first appreciate that beef is 20 times as land and greenhouse gas intensive as beans. However, diet-related greenhouse gas emissions actually saw a drop of 17% from 2005 to 2014. This is due to the dual trends of health and environment.
We have been told since the ‘70s that limiting red meat is a health-conscious choice. Consequently, consumers have been trading beef for chicken. However, overall meat consumption has increased, which still has environmental impacts -- just not the methane overload caused by beef farming. So, the Green New Deal promises to put further pressure on your beef eating guests to switch to less greenhouse gas emitting meat choices. Sure, poultry and pork can also both create some negative environmental consequences, but their resource needs and overall causation is far less than that of beef. Expect to see these trends continue as environmentally conscious Millennials continue their ascension to the dominant consumer class in the United States.
[Source: Mother Jones]
BWW ON THE RISE
Why it matters to you: The largest sports bar chain is on the rise again. Why?
There is no more obvious leader of the American sports bar segment than Buffalo Wild Wings. Consequently, when they struggle we should all be scared. And struggle they have over the past few years as is shown by traffic declines for the past six quarters. But all that seems a distant memory as new leadership has reclaimed growth for the 1200 unit chain and is retro-fitting their original mission. That mission was to be in a “category of one,” according to new CEO Lyle Tick. By a category of one, they mean their unique restaurant experience is its own reward and appealing to guests that are looking for something less structured than a normal full-service restaurant. The takeover by Inspire, owners of Arby’s and Sonic, has added some new efficiency knowledge and overall removed the pressure of being publicly traded.
The chain has responded by projecting both sales and traffic growth for the 4th quarter of 2018 and continued solid results through the beginning of 2019. It’s what they attribute their success to that demands your attention. Make note of their pint to give guests “an environment that gives them the freedom to engage in a way they want to engage; to feel comfortable in your place; to not feel like its structured where you have to go appetizer, entrée, dessert, and out but to be able to own the experience, you’re kind of creating an environment in alchemy for that.” In the end, it’s always going to be the guest experience that wins out. It would behoove us all to remember, as BWW has done to their own great success. Well done BDubs!
[Source: FSR Magazine]
