Posted: Mar 26, 2020
Chef Ryan Gromfin founder of the Restaurant Boss Consulting Co. presented one of the most realistic assessments of the state of the food and beverage industry via Facebook Live yesterday. This summary of the presentation includes direct quotes and commentary from Chef as well as supporting information from Go-Wine.com
His session began with a powerful and refreshing reality check for the participants on line.
Ryan: “This is a challenging time. We are still not getting great information from the top. So if you think we are getting back to ‘normal’ in the next few weeks, you might want to rethink your timeline. A partial reset could take at least 8 weeks or more.”
He paused to ask us to consider these quotes:
Gary Allen: “Every storm runs out of rain” and Abraham Lincoln “This too shall pass.”
Remember 2008? People lost everything.
Between 2008 and early 2020 we have been on the strongest economic growth run ever.
So from this downturn, opportunities are on the horizon. Many business will come through better for it but not all of us.
Once Mr. Gromfin had given the facebook live audience a wake up a call, he delivered his call to action.
“Whatever you decide today, make your decisions quick, fast, and impactful.
Now is not the time to be in the area of indecision. The only poor decision we can make is not making a decision.”
Make your decision now
“Two decisions are on every food and beverage operator's mind, stay open or close. No matter what your decision is, be proud and fight for your decision.
Don’t bury your head in the sand. Don’t wait for the bailout. Now is the time to position our brains to think with an open mind set.”
Gromfin then delivered the truly bad news: “The world is going to change. Things will never be the same.”
Platform Maturity
He then introduced the business term Platform Maturity by keying in on long time concepts such as the self-serve kiosk, third party delivery, and on-line ordering. These have been adopted at varying rates over the decades. This challenging time according to Chef Gromfin is rocket fuel for technology to support the survival of the hospitality industry.
Uber eats is exploding. Generations who have never considered using delivery apps are using them.
The Era of Restaurant 3.0.
According to Ryan we have been through 2 restaurant eras.
Restaurant 1.0: "The Good Restaurant Era": until approximately the year 2000.
Restaurant 2.0: "2000 - YTD". This was the culture of the food network. Food as entertainment, food magazines, and the natural progression to Instagram. During the 2.0 era, restaurants that shouldn’t have survived, survived because of the good economy. At that time these establishments were serving the status quo. tThey were surviving not thriving. Now an operator needs to re-tool. Now is the time to renew.
Good restaurants are simply, gone. Only the epic will survive in today’s economic conditions.
Non-Politically Speaking
Due to our current leadership, as a nation, we are more polarized than ever.
Similarly restaurant 3.0 will be equally polarized by demanding great food with a lot more technology and digital support. Direct to consumer sales are here to stay. In the near term Ghost kitchens will rule. On the polar opposite side, arcades, and experiential environments could see a resurgence in the long term when social distancing, hopefully, will be eliminated. Ultra fine dining will always exist, albeit in a different subset.
People suffer from decision fatigue.
In bad economies, cut back on your menu selections, wine list and staff size. Try a focused menu. If the whole world is going on a diet, diet with them.
Chick Filet, and In and out for example, make the decision easy. If you want chicken of a hamburger, you know exactly where to go. Cut back on your menu items. Cut back your hours. Offer a family meal.
Consider offering bigger packages, groceries to go, basic produce, a dozen eggs, bananas, and box packages.
Alcohol: They are forgiving alcohol.
Many states are forgiving cocktail, beer, spirits, and wine sales deliveries.
Luis Torres an expert in the food and beverage industry runs a company, HumanityinEverything.com that uses the concept of micro-sites on the high ranking Go-Wine.com platform. These are quick production turnaround sites that offer focused menu and alcohol offerings (where legal). The microsite, markets, sells and focuses your menu items with your preferred vendor or your proprietary fulfillment center. Think of it as an electronic feature card. If you need a free consult on digital sales strategy or would like to know more about microsites contact Go-wine.com.
By Go-Wine.com team March 26, 2020 (Updated March 27, 2020) Part 2 on tomorrows Restaurant Section on Go-Wine.com
Source: What Now on Facebook presented by Ryan Gromfin
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