A press release from the National Restaurant Association today reported that the restaurant industry added 29,300 (seasonally adjusted) jobs in July. This is the 17th time in the last 18 months that the industry posted job growth of 20,000 or more. Here are some more stats from the article: The industry is on pace to …
News Story Review
Total Number of US Restaurant Units Decline
Read an article today on Blue MauMau regarding the decline in the number of restaurant units over the past year. Independent restaurants are the culprit as chain restaurants saw growth in the number of units over the same period. It seems to be getting tougher and tougher on the independent restaurant operators to compete these …
What is the deal with GMO’s?
I would like to thank Chef Russell Furdell from Chef Resources for sending me this Slate.com article on GMO’s. We usually like to cut and paste these types of articles so you can just read them here, but this one is so long and has so many pictures that it wasn’t going to look good. …
CEOs Discuss $15/Hr Minimum Wage
This past week or so we have seen a lot in the news about Restaurant CEO’s speaking out on the $15 minimum wage push. The one that got the most press was Nigel Travis of Dunkin’ Brands, calling it “outrageous”. CNN Money posted an article today on the subject with thoughts from Sally Smith of …
Using Data to Make Hiring Decisions
I caught an article on Hospitality Technology talking about restaurants using data to make hiring decisions. The article, Hiring Seasonal Millennials: How Restaurants Can Rely on Big Data to Build a Better Workforce, suggests rather than the traditional hiring methods of scanning resumes and gut instinct that restaurant managers should look to data to take the …
Dunkin Brand CEO Blasts NY State
The NRA posted this article today where Dunkin’ Brands CEO Nigel Travis was critical of NY State lawmakers. Below are excerpts and you can view the entire article by clicking here. Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. CEO Nigel Travis criticized New York State lawmakers Thursday for “choosing to skirt the legislative process” by appointing a wage …
The Customer Experience & Mobile Apps
I saw an article on the Missouri Restaurant Association website where SmartBrief talked to Maya Mikhailov, chief marketing officer of GPShopper. She brings up some great points around restaurants and retailers using data and apps to interact with customers. Data is being used all over the business to help influence decisions and drive sales. Here are some …
US Pig Farmers Question Chipotle
I don’t anything about this “feud”, but found this blog from the Minnesota Pork Producer Council President on Minnesota Farm Living website very interesting. A while back we posted about Chipotle cutting off their pork vendors for not meeting their guidelines. This cost them revenue in some of their locations as they didn’t have enough …
Supreme Court Ruling On Affordable Care Act
With the Supreme Court upholding the Affordable Care Act today the restaurant industry is still looking for some changes to be made as their situation is very different than most businesses. I’ll post a full article from nrn.com on the subject from today. The provisions in the act that cause concern for the restaurant industry …
St. Louis Minimum Wage Increase
Here locally in St. Louis, like many other cities in the country, the discussions around the minimum wage increase to $15/hr have been going back and forth for some time now. The St. Louis Business Journal posted an article today on the subject, “Facing business backlash, the city plans tweak to minimum wage hike“. I’ll …