Tag Archives: Food industry

December 28, 2018 · 1:16 pm

Top Foodie Friday Post Of 2018

The most-read Foodie Friday post that I wrote this year was written in October. I can’t recall what prompted the thought behind it although I suspect it had to do with some unappetizing takeout food. As the new year approaches, some of you might be making up lists of thing you will do differently and, hopefully, better. I’d urge you to put your best steak forward, which was the original title of this piece. Enjoy!

It’s Foodie Friday and we’re back to our regular nonsense here on the screed. Today I want you to think back to that time when you ordered takeout and it was not very good. I’m sure you’ve had such an instance: we all have. Maybe you ordered some fried dumplings that showed up as soggy as your recently washed laundry. Maybe the pasta dish you ordered had aggregated itself into a small object better suited for football than eating. Maybe you ordered a steak frites to go and it didn’t travel well. No one likes soggy fries and a cool steak doused in cooling, congealing butter.

For many restaurants, takeout has become a critical part of their business. Life today often leaves little time for cooking at home, especially during the week. Think about how many places you know that have only a few tables but do a ton of takeout. The growth of delivery services and apps has accelerated the trend while actually decreasing profitability (the services take a cut of the bill and in many cases, it’s close to the entire margin on the order). I’m not sure, however, that many restaurateurs put enough thought into putting their best products out there for takeout. Why sell something that you know won’t travel well?

Putting your best steak forward, so to speak, is something that every business should do. The most customer-friendly takeout situations have a separate counter to speed customer service. They might have a menu that’s priced a little differently since the costs of servicing a customer are different. They pack hot foods apart from cold foods and they take care to make sure that condensation in the hot food doesn’t make it soggy (vent holes, people). As with any customer encounter, how you present your brand matters. I wouldn’t even offer to sell a customer a product that I know won’t travel well. If they’ve enjoyed it before in my place, they’ll be disappointed. If it’s their first time, they won’t be back. We see this in businesses that take on jobs for which they’re ill-suited. I’ve turned down many opportunities over the years to build people websites since my ability to design and to code is not up to my ability to perform other tasks. That’s not my best steak.

Is that something your business is doing? Are you gathering data and keeping records of every customer interaction? Are you constantly looking for feedback so you can adjust your menu? Are you putting your best steak forward each and every time?

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December 14, 2018 · 1:56 pm

Searching For Answers

Happy Foodie Friday! It’s the time of year when many entities try to sum up what’s been going on throughout the year from their perspective. Google is one of those companies, and they issue their “Year In Search” annually around this time. I thought it might be instructive to look at what were the top food-related searches in 2018 according to Google. They were:

1) Unicorn cake
2) Romaine lettuce
3) CBD gummies
4) Keto pancakes
5) Keto cheesecake
6) Necco Wafers
7) Keto cookies
8) Keto chili
9) Keto brownies
10) Gochujang

The obvious question is what can we learn, both about what’s going on in the food world as well as what we can take away from our own businesses, from this list. Here are a few observations from me.

First, half of the searches were related to “keto.” For those of you somehow unaware, keto refers to a ketogenic diet.  That’s a very low-carb diet, which can help you burn fat more effectively. Many people have already experienced its many proven benefits for weight loss, health, and performance. It’s not without problems but clearly, it’s gone front and center with a lot of people this year. I try to follow a modified keto diet myself, limiting carbs and trying to eat only low-glycemic foods. What can that tell us that might help our business? If you’re in the food business it’s pretty obvious, but even if you’re not it demonstrates that consumers are paying a lot more attention to their health and their diets. Movie theaters, airlines, and other transportation companies sell food. Your company or your building may have a cafeteria that does the same. Understanding that consumer eating habits are changing is critical to maintaining those bottom lines.

“CBD Gummies” point to the changing way we’re looking at weed. These are gummies made with cannabidiol, just one of the hundreds of compounds hiding within the cannabis plant. Some have no THC, others very much do. The point I want to make is that the weed business is exploding, so much so that tobacco and drug companies are trying to figure out how they can become involved. Is CBD a fad? Maybe, but once again, we can’t ignore trends in the marketplace and we need to think through if there is an opportunity or how our business might be impacted.

The “Romaine” search term clearly derives from the e-coli scares with that green this year. A great reminder that we all need disaster plans in place.

If you’re not familiar with it, “Gochujang” is a red chile paste that also contains glutinous rice, fermented soybeans, salt, and sometimes sweeteners. It’s a thick, sticky condiment that’s spicy and very concentrated and pungent in flavor. Another reminder that not only are tastes changing but as our population base is changing, our eating, media, shopping, and other habits are changing as well. We need to pay attention.

Finally, “unicorn cakes” are just silly. They’re multi-colored layer cakes generally covered in a highly-decorated white icing. They’re a great reminder that we all need to take a little time to have fun and enjoy ourselves by indulging in something that’s totally unrelated to our work lives.

Those are the insights I take away from the list. What are yours?

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November 30, 2018 · 9:59 am

Put It Away!

It’s Foodie Friday and today’s topic is an article I came across about something a restaurant chain is doing that I think is a fantastic idea. I’ll admit that I’m an old-school kind of a guy. When I go out to eat with family, friends, or business associates, I like to interact with them. You know: eye contact, conversation, a few laughs, that sort of thing.

That was the norm until about a dozen years ago when suddenly, everyone got smartphones. All of a sudden the table looked like the reading room at a library. Not a lot of talk and everyone with their heads down reading their phones. I hate it, especially since I generally keep my phone off the table and in a pocket when I’m drinking or dining with others. I figure if it’s an emergency, someone will call me. Responding to an email can wait a few minutes while I finish my meal and my conversation. And trust me – the intense argument on Facebook isn’t worth your time or attention.

What this restaurant chain is doing is simple and smart:

The lack of communication among its diners has prompted British restaurant chain Frankie & Benny’s to offer free meals for kids if families give up their phones when they enter the restaurant. The Italian-American restaurant…came up with the idea after examining the results of a survey it conducted about the way adults use their smartphones. After questioning 1,500 parents and children, the results revealed that around 10 percent of kids had at some point hidden their mom or dad’s handset in a bid to get their full attention. More than 70 percent of the children surveyed said they wished their parents would spend less time fiddling about on their phone, while about the same figure said it felt as if their parents preferred to be on their phone than with them.

Sad that it’s come to that but I often feel just like one of those kids. There is a broader point to be made as well. Walk into most meetings these days and one or more of the “participants” isn’t really participating because they’re preoccupied with their phone. Frankly, I’m a fan of turning phones to silent during a meeting and keeping them out of sight. If what’s going on in the room isn’t more important than what’s happening on your phone then either the meeting never should have happened or you shouldn’t be there.

I guess I have a love/hate relationship with my smartphone. I love that almost all the world’s information is right there and that I can communicate no matter where I am (I still remember running around NYC trying to find a working pay phone during a business emergency). I hate the fact that we respond like Pavlov’s dog to a beep or a buzz. I despise that we’re far less connected during our interactions even as we have the ability to be constantly connected. I didn’t like the fact that as the host I had to ask all the kids to put their phones away while the family was eating, at least for 10 or 15 minutes. You would have thought I had asked them to eat turnips.

Try putting down the phone in social situations and see if the quality of those situations doesn’t improve. Try it in meetings too. What do you have to lose?

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