Recent Posts
- Rumors of closings
- Of red meat and smoking
- Those pesky franchisees
- Saint Cinnamon's franchising plight
- "Too good to be true"
- Wendy's is sold, finally
- Pricing with impunity?
- "Repeat patronage intentions"
- Same old, same old integrity
- Starbucks or char-bucks
Recent Comments
- STEVE on Of red meat and smoking
- Lane on Saint Cinnamon's franchising plight
- Lane Fan on Saint Cinnamon's franchising plight
- Chicago DR on "Too good to be true"
- Orrick Nepomuceno on "Too good to be true"
Most Commented On
- Same old, same old integrity (10)
- Max & Erma's, Part 2 (6)
- "Too good to be true" (5)
- McDonald's "gay support" issue (5)
- "Repeat patronage intentions" (3)
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Rumors of closings
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Vito Manarin, one of the managers of the Cheesecake Factory, 2090 U.S. 41 N., said other area restaurants have called looking to hire his staff because they have heard the restaurant is closing. “No, ...Read More |
Of red meat and smoking
I guess foodservice operators can relax a bit. On Sunday, the USDA's Dr. Richard Raymond declared government inspectors are diligently monitoring country's meat supply. His remarks came just two days after a New York company recalled nearly 300,000 pounds of ground beef, possibly contaminated with bacteria Listeria monocytogenes.
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"I want to assure all consumers – both domestic and abroad – that the U.S. beef supply is among the safest in the wor...Read More |
Those pesky franchisees
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| Note the logo above "crybaby." (Note, too, the fan wearing the t-shirt on his head.) |
Number 23 is Lebron James' number, the best Cav's player. The...Read More
Saint Cinnamon's franchising plight
Case in point (of vital data, that is): Franchising in the Middle East. It's going gangbusters, with restaurant operators rushing in to find deep-pocketed individuals who can throw up a half-dozen units, preferably, in fast-growing, multinational Dubai.
"Too good to be true"
My first and only Pinkberry experience (and impression) was last summer, in a fashionable mall in Huntington Beach, Calif. I was impressed with its sanitized interior, smart-looking employees, sleek menu board (with surprisingly few choices) and "salad bar" of fresh fruit -- blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and pineapple, as I recall.
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Wendy's is sold, finally
Today, UBS analyst David Palmer, in a note today on the deal, took the opportunity to apply Peltz's logic to Starbucks:
Pricing with impunity?
| ... Menu pricing appears to remain aggressive for most, with limited-service (QSR) chains averaging in the 4.4% range and full-service (casual-dining) chain averaging 3.9%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Restaurant Association. Given the escalating operating costs, |
"Repeat patronage intentions"
Far be it from moi to knock the expertise of people with Ph.Ds. (No way, my wife is one.) But I'm still capable of wincing at the research some of them produce, especially under the auspices of a university, where the pressure to "publish or perish" remains intense. Particularly for the nontenured.
Case in point: A recent study by one Alex Susskind, Ph.D., robustly entitled "Complaint Communication: How Complaint Severity and Service Recovery Influence Guests’ Preferences and Attitudes." You can read it h...Read More
Same old, same old integrity
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Even if someone is paying $6 or less for a snack or a meal, that food should taste the same each time. It should have the same feel in the mouth, be the same size serving, look the same and smell the same. Then you have integrity, and consumers can trust what they are buying. |
Starbucks or char-bucks
A tall, bearded Starbucks employee wandered about the room carrying a tray filled with small cups and looking, in his long apron, like a flight attendant on Southwest.
"Anyone want coffee, it's free," he wondered. No, thanks. I'd already swallowed enough to know I didn't particularly like the new brew, which the company was passing out, gratis, most of yesterday. Maybe the paper cup was the problem, but Pike Place Roast tasted burnt and bitter. Like its typical brewed offerings.
It's hard to imagine even a slim majority of the 1,000 customers who tested the product liking it. But then, I'm not a regular Starbucks customer. Maybe...Read More
McDonald's "gay support" issue
The American Family Assn., a Tupelo, Miss.-based family-values group led by Donald E. Wildmon recently alerted members that McDonald's Corp. was "aggressively supporting" a homosexual agenda. The evidence: the company's VP of Communications, Richard Ellis, joined the board of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (so have executives from IBM, Motorola and Wells Fargo).
...Read More
Speaking Spanish
The other day I popped into my favorite Mexican eatery, Mi Pueblo, on Cleveland's west side. I felt lucky for two reasons. One, I was with my oldest daughter who, in two days time, would leave town to start a consulting job in Washington, D.C. (By happy coincidence, she's working with the USDA on food safety issues.) Two, I'd get the chance to practice my halting Spanish.
It's the native language of all the workers at the re...Read More
Las salsas (rojo y verde) y las zanahorias en Mi Pueblo