June 30, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Why, in a time of economic downturn, with the housing collapse and high gasoline prices mauling the restaurant business, would it matter for operators to be focused on the concepts of authenticity and wellness?

Why?  Because in times of stress and uncertainty, consumers seek products and services that will help them feel good about themselves and their place in the world.

So, here is Trend 4 of my promised 5 Trends for 2008:  "Customers are on a search for Wellness and Authenticity."  And here is why.

A restaurant is a place to be restored, to be renewed, to be refreshed.  In a complex and overwhelmingly material marketplace, it should be obvious that offering an authentic experience where guests can become both physically and psychologically "well"...Read More
Industries: Commercial, Food & Beverage, Management Issues, Operations

June 13, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (3)

Today it’s tomatoes and salmonella. A while back it was spinach and E. coli. Add gasoline at $4 a gallon, and simply defining what “Going Green” means suddenly has taken on new significance. Green isn’t just about turning lights down and using recycled takeout containers; it’s about finding a way to open for business tomorrow morning.

Going green is the Zeitgeist of American society: Who in our industry doesn’t want to guarantee a steady supply of safe and affordable food for our guests? And who doesn’t secretly want to trade-in their gas guzzling SUV for a hybrid?

Anyone who refuses to see the connections between going green and the runaway prices for corn, wheat and rice (and, as a result, for beef, dairy and baked goods) and soaring energy costs simply isn’t paying attention to the world outside their res...Read More

Industries: Commercial, Food & Beverage, Noncommercial, Operations

May 27, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

Since the 1950s, supermarkets have been selling groceries, meat, vegetables and other staples in a raw or semi-finished form at low prices.  To use these products, customers need to have both the knowledge to convert them into a cooked, edible form and the time to do it.  Doesn’t everyone know how to make Pasta Pomodoro (spaghetti with tomato sauce) from scratch?  Making dinner at home is neither convenient nor easy but it is generally cheap.

Likewise, since the 1960s, in a direct relationship with a majority of women entering the workforce, restaurants have been selling meat, vegetables and other staples as finished meals in easy-to-use formats at reasonable prices.  To use these products customers need to have both a knowledge o...Read More

Industries: Commercial, Noncommercial

May 12, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

In my last posting I wrote that there are five compelling trends for the industry to learn, and that the Baby Boom Generation is becoming irrelevant as a market force.  Let me start with the first of the trends below, and see how the two suggestions fit together.

The Five Trends I believe are most compelling for our industry in 2008 are these:

1. Consumers' desire for “convenience”;
2. The expanding challenges of supermarket “made for you” foods;
3. Defining the meaning of “going green”;
4. Identifying the search for Wellness and authenticity;
5. Targeting the shifting “value-sensitive consumer.”

If you are of a “certain age” (meaning you were alive before 1980), your definition of “convenience” was associated with places such a...Read More

Industries: Commercial, Noncommercial

April 22, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I’m proud to have recently been invited to be a keynote speaker at the 75th anniversary meeting of the Foodservice Packaging Institute. FPI President John Burke assembled a world-class group of speakers and the conversations after each of the sessions were forward thinking and remarkably candid. Personally, I learned a lot by being with this group, always a great reason to attend such events.

Part of my presentation was “Five Compelling Worldwide Trends, 2008,” in which I identified the issues that are setting the agenda for the industry for the next few years. As a time frame, you might consider this: We are about as close to the events of 9/11/2001 as we are to those of April 2015; r...Read More

Industries: Noncommercial