The top three soft drink companies agreed to stop selling sweetened sodas to schools. Mayor Michael Bloomberg started his attack on sweetened sodas. At the same time, more and more restaurants started buying local produce. “Farm to table” became prominent in that never-ending search for a healthy image.
At the same time, white tablecloth restaurants saw shrinking customer counts during the week. We saw a distinction between “eating” and “formal dining”. A full-service dining experience would take an hour and a half to two hours typically. With more women in the workforce not cooking home meals as well as folks working later and, on their computers, available time for dining shrank. The demand now was for casual dining. Consumers wanted to be in and out in under an hour. Chili’s, Cheddars Scratch Kitchen, Red Robin, California Pizza Kitchen and the like were just what the doctor ordered. Meanwhile, restaurants began to shrink. Not in numbers, not in sales, but in footprint. TGI Fridays shrank its footprint from 8,300 square feet (SF) to 6,700 SF. At a construction cost of $350 per SF, the reduced footprint could be built for a savings of $500,000 per unit at a cost of only losing 15 seats. However, the loss of seats wasn’t a problem. Due to shifts in consumer habits, lunch time wasn’t just 12 p.m. – 2 p.m. More people were having lunch later in the day. Later evening dining was a result of people working later. Restaurant developer Norm Brinker took up the fight against mandatory insurance. He found that only 26% of his employees were the primary wage earner in their families. All the others were covered by the insurance of the primary earner in their household. He also fought against minimum wage increases. Half of his employees earned far more in tips than they did in wages. So, in the full- service restaurant industry, things were just fine as they were.
Seattle led the charge by imposing a $15 minimum wage.Like flipping a switch, the substantially higher minimum wage was implemented. As quickly as they could, employers substituted technology for staff. If you walked into a McDonalds, rather than finding a counter backed by smiling faces, you were confronted with self-service touchscreen terminals; not by staff giddy about their higher compensation. Conversely, if a politician or a legislator raises minimum wage, they fully expect to get the full backing – and vote – of all those who would benefit.
HOSPITALITY NEWS OCT | Page 49
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