Economize At A Restaurant

[lizzy_09]

I'm trying to help a friend of mine not loose jobs for her employees in the restaurant she owns and manages. Followed observations in some restaurants like closing one station area if their are only a few people there. Buy containers and just refill them, then buying a lot of condiments and place them in each tables. Is it better to use tissues then cloth napkins? What other suggestions can anyone give me?

[Will]

Seth Godin: Outlast the competition. I was amazed at all the empty storefronts I saw in LA on my last visit. On one particular block, three or four of the ten lunch places were shut down. And the others? Doing great. That's because the remaining office workers who used to eat lunch at the shuttered places had to eat somewhere, and so the survivors watched their business grow. A war of attrition is never pretty, but if you're smart about overhead and scale, you'll win it." 101 Tips From the Top 50 Small Business Bloggers

Not exactly a tip, but maybe this quote can help inspire your friend to hang in there and fight for her business.

I really hate the paper napkin dispensers at fast food restaurants. Most people grab way more napkins than they need.

I think cloth napkins will be more economical and maybe better for the environment. If you go with paper napkins, just hand out 1-2 pieces per customer and bypass the dispenser.

[bhkyra]

Originally Posted by Will

Not exactly a tip, but maybe this quote can help inspire your friend to hang in there and fight for her business.

I really hate the paper napkin dispensers at fast food restaurants. Most people grab way more napkins than they need.

I think cloth napkins will be more economical and maybe better for the environment. If you go with paper napkins, just hand out 1-2 pieces per customer and bypass the dispenser.

I agree! I was at a bagel place yesterday, and somebody grabbed at least 20 napkins for their bagel! I mean.. MAYBE two, if you're really messy or drop it cream cheese side down on your shirt or something, but seriously.. wow.

[sliceoflife999]

Some great tips mentioned so far, did you consider smaller portions? Reduce them by maybe 10% and present them in a way so that people do not notice (and they shouldn't) and you can save 10% off some of your fixed costs. Should be enough to save a couple of jobs.

[bhkyra]

Not sure what the laws are on this, but if anything is deep fried, the used oil can be used to make biodiesel, so people will pay for it. Otherwise, it is considered a "waste" and you have to pay to dispose of it.

[hermione]

I have worked and managed at a couple of food services places in the past and my advice is to keep an eye on the employees. I don't mean stealing (though that may be a problem for some), but in their use of restaurant resources - food, cleaning supplies, etc.

I worked at a Togo's for a few months, and while we were all trained exactly how much of each ingredient to put in a sandwich, it never ceased to amaze me how lax the other employees were. The rule was 2 small handfuls of lettuce (1/4 oz. or 1/2 oz., I can't remember), 2 slices of tomato, 2 onion rings, etc. A lot of the employees would pile on way more than they were supposed to, and while I'm sure the customers loved it, if the store owners were there to see it, they would not have been happy.

Almost all the people working at my food services jobs were young - high school to early 20's - and I think a lot of them just didn't really think about waste and how everything - each napkin, cup, bit of food - cost the store owners money.

[Booksalemanager]

Maybe your friend can try shopping around online for napkins etc. I know I had to buy napkins for an event (not full like like a resturant) I went to a resturant supply store and it was very expensive. I went online and ordered 10 times as many for less than the then the amount I needed to buy at the store. It is now 4 years later and my house still has yet to buy napkins (it was also cheaper than buying some at the grocery store as well) Saving a little here and there on non perishables can help, especially if there is a sale and you can buy bulk.

[trustno1]

My family owned a couple food serving establishments when I was a kid. One thing is for sure...the overhead is high, profit margins are low and employee management is a nightmare.

Ok, so much for the "good parts" of the restaurant business, lol.

Now for the "challenges". There is some truth in employee management being the one of the greatest resources affecting the success of ANY business. But extra caution is required when addressing any business serving food. Especially when many of the employees are typically young kids with no business insight.

Meetings suggesting cost saving techniques can innocently be interpreted by teenage employees as permission to "cut corners" where possible. Well intentioned workers can result in serious health and inspection consequences for the owner if not presented correctly. A better strategy is to reward the staff for submitting cost saving "ideas" to management, for their review.

Any cost saving methods should be analyzed for their long term impact before they are implemented. Short term decisions based on financial crisis many times have negative long term consequences that are not considered originally.