Since spring of 2007 restaurant analyst Nicole Miller of Piper Jaffray has been asking high school students (54 percent male, 44 percent female) to list their favorite chain restaurants in order of preference. Some 1,200 students, age 16 on average, are told to write in responses on blank lines, rather than choose them from a list, she says. About a third of the students work part-time jobs. Their weighted household income is $75,000.
   The following percentages reflect the results from tallying each student's top choice.

Fall 2008         ...Read More

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SBUX management met with numerous investors in recent months in both the U.S. and Europe and the feedback is pointing to continued improvement in [same-store sales] and significant progress on the cost cutting front.Trading at 9X 2010 EBITDA, we [sic] think a lot of good news is reflected in the shares.

   That's advice from Jefferies & Company restaurant analyst Jeff Farmer, who has a "hold" rating on the ...Read More

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   I would have posted this note as soon as I spotted Bruce Buschel's "dont's" list on his blog "The Art of Running a Small Business," but I didn't take my computer to Denver last week, where a bunch of editors, operators and sponsors gathered for our annual conference, Chain Leader Live. 
   It was a good one, by the way, with presentations ranging from Granite City Brewery...Read More

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   Shall we start with a 50 percent tax on the retail value of beef? That's the suggestion of Princeton University professor and author Peter Singer in today's New York Daily News. 
   Why tax red meat? 
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   Conventional holds that now is not the time for restaurants to raise prices. See my last blog post. But, in fact, menu prices have been climbing, if stealthily, according to Boston-based Intellaprice. Particularly drink prices, which have risen 2 percent in 2009. 
   Says Intellaprice President Leslie Kerr: "This year, food prices overall are down 0.6 percent and bar beverage prices are up nearly 2 percent. That’s compared to our 2008 finding that food prices were up 2 percent overall and bar beverages were up 5 percent vs. 2007."

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"Both restaurant and food companies are pointing to stable commodity prices in 2010 as production capacity cuts are offset by still soft consumer demand."

   More evidence of a "new normal"? Jefferies & Company restaurant analyst Jeff Farmer doesn't say so in an October 16 note to investors but it's evident that the recession is increasingly problematic for chains. Stable wholesale prices-- for chicken, beef, cheese and butter, for instance -- usually means better marg...Read More

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   Like watching car wrecks? Then you'll love Adweek columnist Barbara Lippert's brutal dissection of Friendly's new television commerical. But before linking to it view the spot more than once--otherwise you'll find yourself replaying it to grasp the mistakes Lippert so cleverly points out. 

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   There were a few good moments during last night's Rachel Maddow Show. The best came during an interview with Rick Berman, a former Brinker International executive-turned-public affairs specialist (see videos below). The Washington, D.C.-based Berman opposes many liberal causes via a variety of Web sites, the most popular of which is consumerfreedom.com. 
   Many people, especially liberals like Rachel Maddow, write the sites off as nothing more than fronts for businesses that would suffer financially if left-wing initiatives became reality. Maddow wasn't bashful about saying so.
    Berman's consumerfreedom.com, for instance, is current...Read More

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   Does putting the kibosh on the development of fast-food restaurants reduce obesity or spur development of restaurants offering better-for-you fare? A year ago Los Angeles City Council decided to find out, enacting a year-long ban on new QSRs in South Los Angeles, a low-income area of some 32-square-miles. The ban's proponents believed there were more fast-food units there than elsewhere in the city.  So many, in fact, they crowded out restaurants or food stores that might otherwise offer healthier fare.
   Councilwoman Jan Perry, who led the effort, described the new ordinance as "a s...Read More

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   Darden Restaurants stock price is tumbling as I write this, down almost 9 percent, with shares trading below $33 or roughly $10 off their 52-week high. That's good news for many investors, who would like to scoop up shares of the casual-dining giant for less than $30.
   But is it good news for the industry? Darden executives don't think so. They've so far resisted discounting meals at their three largest concepts: Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Longhorn Steakhouse. It hurts the brand and margins, they insist. Yet not doing so now appears to be shrinking market share and trimming DRI's share price. Blended same-store sales fell 5.3 percent in the company's first quarter, with Red Lobster posting an unexpected 7.9 percent decline. 

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   Last month, Food Arts published an essay that every restaurant executive ought to read carefully. Written by culinary consultant Patrick McDonnell, it suggests that what separates struggling casual-dining chains from their betters is innovation. Granted, that's not news; new ideas put to good use typically define success in any business. What McDonnell is saying, and what makes his argument cogent, is that successful restaurant companies don't stifle innovation by measuring what doesn't really matter. In short, they act like restaurants.

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   Last week, Pillsbury, a Los Angeles-based law firm, used a webinar to talk about online and mobile marketing. Lawyers with expertise on the subject explained what's legal, what's not, and what's changed in the area of restaurants. 
   Risky stuff included hiring vendors that use deep packet technology to target a chain's marketing messages. Then again, dispatching unsolicited text messages can cause serious legal problems. So can emails to minors advertising, say, alcohol; companies that do so are probably breaking state law. In fact, the fir...Read More

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