It’s hard to believe that having a 3rd party inspection service show up twice a year, maybe once per quarter (we very rarely see this), has a big impact on the daily execution of operations. Anyone can be great for a day or a shift with some notice. But to be great every shift …
Restaurant Industry
Slower Restaurant Employment Growth in San Fran & Seattle
A preliminary look into employment data by Forbes Contributor Stephen Bronars points to slower employment growth since the minimum wage increases in San Francisco and Seattle. In the article Higher Minimum Wages in San Francisco and Seattle Mean Fewer Restaurant Jobs takes a look at year over year quarterly changes in employment averages. Here are …
Scientific Trick to Increase Server Tips
I was watching this YouTube video, a summary of Robert Cialdini’s book Influence. They talked about experiments that were run in restaurants and how the server’s used the rule of reciprocation to increase tips. The reciprocation principle recognizes that people feel indebted to those who give them a gift. The social obligation to return a …
Will Minimum Wage Increases Accelerate the Robot Invasion?
There’s an interesting article in the Washington Post, “Minimum-wage offensive could speed arrival of robot-powered restaurants”, suggesting that $15/hr minimum wage will accelerate the move to robots in restaurants. It mentions that shedding labor in the restaurant industry isn’t a new phenomenon. According to the article in the late 60’s a McDonald’s would have 70-80 …
Norm Macdonald Takes Over as the Colonel
I caught an article on entrepreneur.com about KFC bringing in Norm Macdonald to replace Darrell Hammond in their attempt to revive Col Sanders as part of their latest marketing campaign. The author focusing more on the marketing aspect of the change, but he’s a little harsh on some points. Probably trying to get some shock …
Early Job Loss Results From Seattle
We have been actively following the minimum wage hike in Seattle very closely at OpsAnalitica. We have written four blogs about it this year. We found this article from the American Enterprise Institutes that discusses restaurant job losses in Seattle since the beginning of 2015, it is only 3 paragraphs so I encourage you to read …
Running Restaurants is Getting Harder – Part 3
To read part two click here Labor cost is another issue that is going to affect restaurant operations. We can’t just look at labor as bodies and do we have enough. We are going to have to redesign our entire operations strategy to minimize labor and operating complexity so we can operate with fewer people …
Running Restaurants is Getting Harder – Part 2
To read part one click here Food trucks are another segment of the industry that have prospered from wireless technology. Until recently it was incredibly expensive to take mobile credit card payments. Now it’s comparable to hardwired credit card payments. Mobile technology has made it easier for food trucks to service customers. It used to …
Running Restaurants is Getting Harder – Part 1
If you are a restaurant manager responsible for one location or thousands of locations, then you need to keep reading. Is running restaurants getting harder? Profitability is being squeezed from every direction. From $15 hr minimum wages, increased competition, commodity prices, and technology to name a few. When I came up in the industry in …
Over 29k Restaurant Jobs added Across Segments in July
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 …