The More Things Change the More they Stay the Same!
The More Things Change the More they Stay the Same!
I found a must watch video on Google. I mean it, it’s a must watch. This Black & White Video was made in the mid 1940s/early 1950s on what it takes to be successful in the restaurant business.
Ok, why do you have to watch it?
It’s an incredible example of the more things change in the competitive restaurant business, the more they stay the same!
As I watched the video, I found myself actually taking notes. Here’s what I found:
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1940’s |
TODAY |
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People like to eat and they don’t like to go through the process of fixing it themselves. That’s why restaurants are so popular. |
Fast Casual restaurants and meal replacement options (to-go, grocery store meals ready to-go) are so popular now. In fact, the average family now spends half of their food dollars in restaurants which is hurting the grocery stores revenues drastically. |
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Types of Restaurants were Table Service, Self Service, Counter Service and (NEW then) Curbside Service. |
Nothing really has changed. We just labels them differently, Full Service, Fast Food, Fast Casual, etc. |
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The restaurant is a factory too. It cooks food on the premises and assembles finished product. |
While restaurants have more pre-cooked choices, nothing has really changed. |
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The Manager is responsible for the success or failure of the business and to be successful they must poses knowledge, experience, perception, bookkeeping skills and tact. |
Today’s manager is still responsible for your restaurants success, but I think they must posses three skill sets to be make it, Qualitative Skills (gut feel), Quantitative Skills (the numbers) and have had Great Training. |
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To make it in the restaurant business you have to be good at more than one thing, such as cooking. |
It could be more true today! You have to have specialized knowledge in so many areas, such as, purchasing, production, human resources, advertising, regulations, food safety, cost controls, customer service, training and the list goes on. |
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50% of all restaurants that open fail in their first year of operation. |
Ohio State University found that the failure rate today is 61% of all restaurants that open fail within their first three years of operation and in some segments its as high as 87%. |
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It takes training to be successful as a line-employee, manager or owner. |
I couldn’t agree more! That’s why for the last three years I’ve been training restaurant owners and managers’ restaurant operational systems that have had huge impacts on so many restaurants. The same systems that have made the chain and franchise restaurants so successful. |
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Buying the right products is important to the restaurants profitability. |
That couldn’t be any more true today. Especially when you consider the addition of fuel surcharges and the rising costs of food over the last few years. |
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Training is the key! |
WOW, the more things change…the more they stay the same. |
While the video was very “Leave It To Beaver/Andy Griffith Show,” it’s an incredible example how while we think our business has really changed and gone cutting edge…it really hasn’t changed over the past 80 years!
Being someone who preaches the importance of systems training to be successful myself, I found the video to be dead on the money, even today.
Look I want you to be successful too. I want you to have systems in place to not survive, but to thrive, in the sea of chain restaurants out there today. You can have the systems I’m talking about! In just a few weeks, September 25 – 28, 2006, I will be conducting my Restaurant SMART Systems Workshop.
If you’ve been with me for any length of time, you know by now the incredible results past attendees have had. Now it’s your turn. But you have to act fast! There are only 10 seats left! And because I allow you to bring someone with your for FREE…that translates into possibly only 5 registrations left!
To learn more and register today, go to www.restaurant-profits.com.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 623-266-9611 or david@smilebutton.com.
Remember to keep smiling,
David Scott Peters
