Category Archives: food

February 21, 2014 · 1:14 pm

Casual Dining Isn’t A Casual Decision

For our Foodie Friday Fun this week let’s think about dining out.

Guess what type of restaurant we photoshooted

(Photo credit: A&A Photography Services)

In tough economic times, that’s not an easy decision for many people and the restaurant industry has felt that over the last few years.  More on that in a minute.  Where to eat?  In many places there really aren’t many alternatives to the big national chains.  As with booksellers, coffee shops, and clothing stores, many of the little guys have been undercut by the chains, at least when it comes to price and in many cases quality.  So you’d think that the national chains, particularly the casual dining chains, would be doing well.  You’d be wrong.

As a recent article stated:

The casual-dining industry has largely worn out its welcome. Customer traffic to these restaurants has declined in nine of the past 13 years, according to retail-research firm Black Box Intelligence. Even as the U.S. economy began healing and consumer spending recovered, beginning in 2010, same-store sales were stagnant, based on Black Box estimates.  In December, industry-wide sales at restaurants open at least a year slid by 2%, even as the unemployment rate hit a five-year low and the stock market hit all-time highs. For sure, harsh weather didn’t help, but that can’t account for tepid nationwide results.

This raises a few instructive questions in my mind.  Turns out that in the process of upscaling fast-food and undercutting fancier local places on price these chains – Applebees, TGIFridays, Red Lobster and others – left a niche that’s suddenly being filled by Chipotle and others.  They’re getting beaten not just on price (a relatively easy thing to fix) but also on quality of ingredients and food served.  As we’ve seen many times here on the screed, if price is the only thing you have going for you, you’re in trouble.

The reality is that casual dining out is not a casual decision these days.  Cooking at home can be an attractive alternative when one figures in time and cost but who wants to clean up?  Even those of us who are dedicated cooks like a night off.  Most folks prefer to spend that night in a welcoming environment with interesting food.  The chains seem to be duplicating what a decent home cook could do (and generally in a less-healthy manner but that’s another rant).  Consumers also see that they raise prices by offering smaller portions or offering cheaper, lower-quality meals.  Charging for every drink refill may help margin but angers customers (especially if you don’t tell them you’re charging until the bill comes).

Any business needs to give customers a reason to buy.  That means a great product that meets customers’ desires that’s priced fairly and supported by great service.  That’s how I see it.  You?

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February 14, 2014 · 12:37 pm

Chef? What Chef?

Our Foodie Friday Fun this week coincides with Valentine’s Day.

Chef preparing food 2

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many of us will be taking our valentines out for a special meal to celebrate.  It’s nice to have someone else do the cooking every so often and hopefully that food is of a higher quality and more sophisticated that what we’d prepare ourselves.  Then again, it might just be frozen vegetables and a microwaved entrée.  Think I’m kidding?

Anyone who has ever watched any of the “kitchen rescue” shows – Restaurant Impossible or Kitchen Nightmares – knows that some lower quality places substitute the microwave for the stove, presenting reheated frozen food as freshly made.  However, as a recent Wall Street Journal article pointed out, even high-end places in France serve food that has been cooked elsewhere.  In fact, of the 80,000 table-service restaurants in France, fewer than 10% have labels certifying that most of their ingredients are fresh and that the dishes are cooked on site.  The reasons they cite are high labor costs and high food costs.  Who needs a chef when you have a factory?

The reasons behind this aren’t the point today.  Instead, let’s think about the diner.  When most of us go out, there is an expectation that we’re paying for convenience, sure, but also for food that’s prepared on site.  As with any business, when the business knowingly delivers something that differs widely from what the customer is expecting, that business is teed up for problems.  Put aside the fact that you’re deceiving the customer.  If all the restaurants serve the same frozen food from the same factory, what is it that distinguishes their product from the competition?  Service and decor to be sure, but is that enough to keep a customer in the face of the guy across the street with the same food at a lower price?

The message for all businesses is pretty clear in my mind.   If we cut corners, do everything cheaply, and sacrifice quality for margin, what are the long-term prospects?  Someone else can always find a cheaper way (hello, U.S. electronics industry, car industry, etc.) to do what we’re doing.  Instead, we need to provide value, quality, and something uniquely our own.  We need to honor the expectations WE set in our customers’ minds.  Deception is a self-defeating business practice.

I’d be angry if I found the exact same meal for which I paid $25 in the frozen food case for $4, and question going back to that restaurant again.  Wouldn’t you?

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February 7, 2014 · 11:55 am

Full Of Beans

Our Foodie Friday Fun revolves around stupid food labeling tricks.  It’s hard to believe some of the things food marketers do.  Some are just silly; others are downright deceptive by design.

From Alphaila.com

The latter is what I want to talk about today.  You really wouldn’t think that any smart brand manager would try this stuff in a time of massive social interaction among consumers.  You’d be wrong.  In fact, a bill was introduced last year (the Food Labeling Modernization Act of 2013) which seeks to change food labeling requirements as well as dealing with package labeling and allegedly misleading claims about what foods are “healthy,” “natural” or “made with whole grain.”   Now given the state of affairs in Washington, it’s not unlikely this bill will become law (oops, no politics here!).  However, the fact that the issue of deceptive packaging and marketing  is on the minds of both state and federal legislators doesn’t speak well of the industry.

Just because a package can say “No Trans Fat” if there is less than half a gram in the product doesn’t mean “no trans fat.”  If there is a half gram per serving and you eat two or three servings (as if you only eat the amount of snack foods that’s a single serving…), you’ve ingested an amount that should be identified.  “Natural” is sold as healthy when it’s can be anything but (see “high fructose corn syrup“).  Telling consumers that high-sugar products are good for them (Nutella) or how they’ll protect a kid’s immune system (Rice Krispies) is more dumb than dishonest.  But food brands aren’t the only ones.

Since it’s that diet time of year, false weight-loss claims are in vogue.  So much so that the FTC has issued Gut Check: A Reference Guide for Media on Spotting False Weight-Loss Claims, which is an update of a 2003 booklet on how media should treat weight-loss advertising.  We still saw ads for wearing sneakers that can make you skinny.  Let’s not even get started on airbrushing models.  It’s nice that someone is charged with verifying advertising claims but it does raise a very basic question.

Why would you lie?  Labeling lawsuits are skyrocketing.  Maybe in part because we live in a litigious world but maybe because it’s much easier for consumers to get information and to communicate.  Why would you feel the need to lie given those things?  Why does it take a lawsuit or governmental intervention or a social media blow-up when all that should be required to fix this is a brand manager’s common sense? Your ad may be for cereal but it often turns out the box is full of beans (as my Dad likes to say about people who are full of something else…).

Consumers are smart and getting smarter every day.  Treating them any differently is dumb, which you’re not, right?

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