FINANCIAL: Managing Your Frozen Drink’s Pricing for Profit
With summer around the corner, guests are more inclined to visit a restaurant during the week than in the dead of winter. Kids are out of school and vacations are planned. This summer freedom means midweek traffic increases and guests are more inclined to have a cocktail than during the rest of the year. This is precisely why reforming your summer drink menu is such an opportunity for profit.
The combination of profit potential and the higher likelihood a guest will order an adult beverage, means your summer drink menu is a crucial aspect of driving your business this season.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Never Underestimate the Power of Twitter
Wendy’s is bringing back its spicy chicken nuggets after Chance the Rapper mentioned on Twitter how much he missed the item. At first the chain responded with “It won’t be today, but there’s always a chance” (no play on words); eventually, however, Wendy’s bent to the social media pressure and announced that if their tweet for over 2 million likes, they’d bring the spicy nuggets back. It currently sites at 2.21 million likes.
Bud Light Debuts Pride Month Bottle
Bud Light has debuted their rainbow aluminum bottle for Pride Month. This is the first time the beer mega-giant has gone with a World Pride themed packaging. They’ll be donating $1 to GLAAD (up to $150,000) for every case sold between May 27-June 30th.
“Pitch-by-Pitch” Betting?
Sinclair’s stock jumped after news broke that it purchased the Fox Sports RSNs. Now Sinclair CEO is floating the idea of “pitch-by-pitch” prop betting abilities on the RSNs. This ability is currently being explored on the Tennis Channel and would be partnered with sportsbook operators. It’s an interesting idea but not without some hurdles such as lag.
LET THE MUSIC PLAY [Song]
Why it matters to you: The monopoly enjoyed by BMI and ASCAP is about be even less joyous for you.
If you’ve never had the pleasure of receiving a threat from BMI or ASCAP, then you just haven’t lived. These two organizations manage 90% of the music that is available for commercial use. They are specifically referred to as performance rights organizations (PRO) and they operate a near-monopoly under something called consent decree. A consent decree is “a mutually binding agreement between two parties to resolve a dispute.” The first music related consent decree was entered into by the PROs and the Department of Justice in 1941. This decree confirmed their monopoly as long as they abstained from price fixing, collusion, and antitrust violations.
Fast forward to the present and the PROs are welcoming a pending decision by the DOJ to vacate the consent decree as pertains to music rights. This would essentially occlude and already opaque approach by the PROs to copyrighted works. Imagine being told you have to go the speed limit, but we aren’t going to post it for you to see.
This is a bad idea and will take an industry already cloudy by obfuscation and make it even less transparent. You as an operator won’t even be able to turn the sound up on your TVs for a guest to watch a game without risking a mammoth lawsuit from a PRO. Consequently, if music (especially live music) or TV sound are a part of your entertainment strategies, this will be bad for you. We strongly encourage you to research more about what this means. Additionally, reach out to your representative and let them know you don’t want to be subject to any monopolies -- ever!
[Source: Nightclub & Bar]
THAT’LL DO PIG! [Video]
Why it matters to you: Expect pork prices to rise in light of killer virus destroying herds worldwide.
When I took biology in college, I answered a question about causal links with “What does that have to do with the price of bananas in Bolivia?” My professor didn’t think my wry wit was appropriate and gave me a D, but my thinking wasn’t wrong. We live in a global economy and the fact that China and most of Asia is experiencing massive destruction of their pork herds, due to a killer virus, will likely impact you on Main Street, USA. Why you ask? Well, Asia – and China specifically -- are the largest consumers of pork in the world. The catastrophic loss of their herds means they will be looking elsewhere to satisfy their demand.
Given that their losses are larger than the entire herd size in Europe and US combined, you can see the disaster right along the horizon. If demand stays steady and supply drops precipitously, the only thing that can happen is prices going up. The inelasticity of demand for pork in Asia means demand isn’t lowered when prices increase and that’s bad news for pork prices. The only silver lining is that this virus is not communicable to humans. However, it does beg the question about how we can sustain our meat supplies in the face of increasing pressure from disease and other health concerns. Anyway, you’ve been alerted and hopefully it won’t make bacon too pricey for your menu…because…mmmm, bacon.
[Source: Forbes]
