Chipotle announced that they have removed all GMO ingredients from their menu. GMOs are getting a lot of buzz the last handful of years or so, and being in St. Louis where Monsanto is headquartered, I certainly hear my fair share of the GMO arguments. For Chipotle the move makes sense, they have been talking about …
Restaurant Industry
Pizza chains thrive on convenience, value, technology
Nation’s Restaurant News posted an article today on the turnaround and success of large pizza chains recently. Publicly traded pizza chains posted a 6.4% same store sales growth in the 4th quarter of last year. Domino’s posted 14.5% sales growth in the first quarter. Marco’s Pizza’s net sales rose 41% last year. So there are …
Letting your Why guide your actions
Check out this video on what makes Chipotle’s pork different.
Chipotle stopped serving pork in hundred’s of it’s stores back in January because one of their suppliers wasn’t living up to Chipotle’s animal care standards. I’m assuming that this cost them quite a bit in profitability as pork is a higher contribution margin item than chicken or steak.
I think that Chipotle’s corporate culture and commitment to selling humanely raised animals is a great example of understanding yourself as a company and what your customers value.
So often companies market their corporate responsibility but when the rubber meets the road, and they have an earnings call coming up, they cave and go for profits and alienate their customers and damage their brand. It is refreshing to see Chipotle practicing what they preach.
#chipotlerocks
Sexy Thermometer Calibration
Shame on you if you clicked on this because you saw the word sexy; you need to get some. We found this great article on Kitchen Thermometer Calibration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Here are some of the points that I found most interesting and the full article is at the bottom of the …
McDonald’s works on turnaround
McDonald’s has been a huge topic in the industry this year with their dismal financial performance, commitments to changing their food supply and raising the minimum wage at the corporate owned stores. Nation’s Restaurant News posted an article online following McDonald’s earnings call. Here are some of the highlights from the article: New CEO Easterbrook …
New guidelines require calorie count for food and drinks
An article from WIVB 4 in Buffalo highlights the upcoming federal requirements to post calorie counts on drink and food menus. The federal requirements only target restaurants and bars with more than 20 locations. The restaurant/bar owners quoted in the article don’t feel that it will affect their business negatively. They feel that most people …
Busy Work the Profit Killer
Everyday restaurant managers transcribe data from one system into another manually. This manual busy work is a massive waste of time, it keeps manager’s off the floor where they belong, it is soul-crushing and incredibly expensive. Here are some common examples: 1. Take labor numbers from the register system and enter them into a labor …
Spending at Restaurants Tops Grocery Stores for First Time
For the first time since the commerce department started tracking this stat in 1992 consumers have been spending more in restaurants than they have in grocery stores. This happened in March of this year. Again more promising news for the restaurant industry. Dailyfinance.com sites that “experts” believe it’s a combination of the sign of consumer …
Not Going Paperless Costs Money Too
It was 4:30pm on a typical weekday around our house and we had no idea what we were going to have for dinner. So my wife decided to go online and order Garbanzo. Garbanzo is a Colorado chain; they are like the Chipotle of Middle Eastern food. They make their pita bread fresh to order and …
Are consumers rejecting giant restaurant chains?
McDonald’s has been in the news a lot lately between their slugging financials and the most recently announced pay increase. This article from Nation’s Restaurant News examines the possible reasons for the sluggish performance of 4 of the top 5 restaurant chains; McDonald’s, Subway, Wendy’s, and Burger King. Burger King is the only one of the …