Restaurant and Food Service Blog

Restaurants here in the Triangle area are also feeling the pains from the financial meltdown. Sue Stock, staff writer for the Raleigh News & Observer, points out that for many restauranteurs here in the Triangle – flat is the new positive. Most hope to just break even this year and have tried several things to attract diners to their restaurants such as cheaper items, BOGOs and even opening up on holidays that they typically would not in the past.

But what I think that many restaurants are forgetting is that everyone is looking for value. In our household, I can admit to now buying only items that are on sale or with a coupon. In the past, I would scoff at the idea and could not think of wasting my time. But now that times are a bit leaner and we are all making every dollar stretch a bit more, all sectors of the industry need to get back to basics.

Simply gimmickery such as BOGOs or slash and burn sales may only bring the one time diner into the restaurant. but it will not retain them as long term customers.

I am witness to it.

After cutting out coupons from the Sunday paper, I thought that taking the kids out to lunch at Quizno’s was a good choice since there were 8 coupons to pick from. I could certainly take my two children and myself out and eat relatively cheap before we went out to run errands. We each had a sandwich with chips and a drink and after the coupon, I paid under $14. Not bad for a quick, cheap meal.

But I probably will not go back to Quizno’s anytime soon. It was not because of the meal. Overall, I got what I expected. It was the service. No one behind the counter engaged us. The help looked like they did not want to be there and with only one other person ahead of us, it took almost 5 minutes before our order was taken – very slow by many QSR standards, especially with a solo diner ahead of us.

If restauranteurs can do the ordinary things extra-ordinarily well, I think many will get out of 2009 with only a few bumps and bruises. But get away from delivering great service and operations, the core of the business will wither away