SheeFood

Indulgence, Anyone?

In an age when it’s PC for restaurants to be on the same team as anti-obesity advocates, I sometimes find it refreshing to find chains that just don’t seem to “get it,” and rather go the other direction.

One recent one stunned me – and NBC’s Brian Williams on his Rock Center program. He showed the Golden Corral commercial that I had already picked out as one worth mentioning in a trend report I’m working on. The commercial shows people of various ages enjoying and commenting on Golden Corral’s Chocolate Wonderfall (a chocolate fountain you can hold your ingredients under to coat them) and the chain’s new cotton candy. How fun. “It makes me feel like a kid again,” says one commercial actress. I actually don’t know what to say about that commercial, and neither did Brian Williams, other than to say, “wow.”

And now for some other “wow” menu items that go over the top in fat and/or calories that someday the chains won’t feel as comfortable promoting, probably for the pressure they will receive:

• Earlier in the year and for a limited time only, Jack in the Box offered a bacon flavored milkshake. But they may have been too chicken to go completely decadent, because the shake was said to appeal to vegetarians because, after all, it wasn’t real bacon, but bacon-flavored syrup. Come on guys.  
• Burger King, on the other hand, just rolled out its bacon sundae made up of bacon, vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup and caramel (510 calories, 18 grams of fat and 61 grams of sugar). But why am I mentioning nutrients? That’s not the point. They have guts. And that’s the point.
• Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Tacos Supreme is a hit with me for its Doritos shell. Now that’s an idea. Besides the winning flavor, it’s also a great example of co-branding that we don’t see much of. I’d love to hear the story of how that came about.
• While we’re on the subject of Taco Bell, the chain is testing another idea for its new breakfast menu in Fresno and Southern California. It has added Mountain Dew A.M., which is a mix of Mountain Dew and orange juice. Well, why not?

 This kind of sad state of traditional American cuisine may continue on (thinking of it from the perspective of any other culture looking at American food and the size of Americans), but what I think we’ll be hearing more about over time are things like this:

• Subway restaurants just became the first fast-food restaurant to meet the American Heart Association’s Heart-Check Meal Certification Program nutritional criteria. The Heart-Check logo will start showing up on Subway menus next to the Subway Fresh Fit meals.

That doesn’t sound as delicious, does it? But it’s certainly PC, and it’s a good thing. But it’s also a good thing that we all have the freedom to choose where and what we want to eat.

Tell me what you think.

Jody

Who Loves Ice Cream?

Ice cream anyone? You can get it absolutely anywhere right now for absolutely any price. I’ve been researching ice cream for the past month—writing a trend report as well as a magazine article—and I have to say, the big grocery store brands we all love (Ben & Jerry’s, Dreyer’s/Edy’s and Breyers, to name a few) are in a challenging position for two reasons: cheaper private label ice cream and fast-food restaurants that have the scoop on ice cream as well.

The consumer research I’ve been poring over for weeks shows that consumers most of all love flavor, but almost equally, they love the best price, and that puts the store brand at an advantage. Nestle (with its Dreyer’s/Edy’s and Haagen-Dazs brands) sells the most ice cream, but even Nestle doesn’t have ice cream sales and thus market share higher than private label. In fact, Nestle has been losing sales over the past year, while private label has been gaining sales. That’s because the brands have to offer coupons and discounts or consumers aren’t apt to buy their product. Thus, the brands don’t make as much money as they could if we would just forget about price and dive in. But we won’t. I won’t. Nestle has said enough of promotions. It’s not going to focus on price deals any more. It needs to make a profit. I say good luck.

The other challenge facing ice cream brands is fast-food restaurants, and never mind the ice cream, yogurt, and custard shops. I’m talking McDonald’s, that has now added its ice cream cones to its dollar menu. Granted, we’re not talking quality here. But what about Burger King, that just announced it is putting bacon sundaes on its menu for the summer. That’s been all over the news, and I bet there are plenty of people who are foregoing the grocery store freezer aisle and heading out to try this interesting flavor. Jack in the Box did its LTO bacon and ice cream thing in February.

But what I really want to talk about is Sonic. Has anyone missed the TV commercials talking about getting milk shakes for half price after 8 p.m.? Brilliant move corporately. It claims it has really picked up sales for the slacking evening daypart. I also know from my research that many consumers eat their ice cream as a late night snack. And so, hello Sonic after 8.

It’s a great corporate strategy, but probably an operational nightmare. How would you like to be scheduled to work at Sonic after 8 p.m.? You’d need those roller skates. My husband and I have jumped in the car at 8 p.m. and screeched on over to Sonic—us and hoards of others. The other day it took us more than half an hour to get our two milkshakes. The place was a traffic jam. We had our windows rolled down, and I could hear others ordering—milkshakes—and nothing more. We would have been mad having to wait half an hour, but we felt so sorry for the servers who were probably wondering whose bright idea this promotion was: “Probably someone sitting in an office somewhere.”

But back to my point. The grocery store name brands have their work cut out for them trying to make a profit, at least this summer.

Tell me what you think.

Jody

Just How Do Restaurants Make a Profit?

A fair share of restaurants bite the dust for lack of profits. Competition keeps them from raising prices much, if at all, while their costs (food, transportation, labor, utilities, taxes, rent) all go up.

So I was curious. How do restaurants do it? I asked the editor of the National Culinary Review magazine if I could write an article on how to build profits. Here are five tips I learned that others may apply, or consumers may observe:

1. Meal/price option 1, 2 or 3. Rather than expect one price point to fit all, restaurants are starting to cater to value-oriented customers with a value menu of sorts (think 2 dinners for $20) as well as to the indulgent with upscale items for higher dollars. Wendy’s made the news when it went with three tiers, which has turned out to be disastrous for them. So the jury is out on how customers will ultimately respond when they see cheap and expensive on the same menu.
2. Raise drink, appetizer or dessert prices. But keep the entrée price reasonable, since that is what a restaurant is judged on.
3. Keep the basics low, but make customers pay for add-ons. “Oh, you want chicken on your salad? That will be $1 extra.” Or, “Wouldn’t you love to dip those fries in chipotle mayonnaise? Perfect. It will only cost you $1.”
4. The meal is cheap (but let’s show you the wine list). This works for bars, pubs, wine bars and the like. The goal is, get customers in the door for cheap (or free) pizza, and totally expect that they will drink (and pay) like fish.
5. Our delicious alligator is only $30. Offer items that no other restaurant in the area offers, and then customers don’t have anything to compare the price with. They will think $30 is probably reasonable and won’t squawk.

There are probably other ways, but one thing all the restaurateurs I talk to agreed on: you can’t just raise prices across the board. Customers will push back and cross the restaurant off their list. That is a door-closer for sure.

You can read the specifics on the tactics above by reading my “Price for Profits” article on the right under “my articles.” I talked to some amazing experts.

Then tell me what you think.

Jody