Convenience Concepts: Carry Segment Combines Customers' Desire For Fast, Healthful Meals With Their Wishes To Eat
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THEMES, BRANDING, AND MORE ■ 9
Convenience Concepts
Convenience is crucial—so much so that many restaurants are appealing to customers who
can’t even take the time to come into the building to eat. Industry observers refer to the phe-
nomenon as convenient meal solutions, and interestingly, research indicates that the “to-go”
side of a restaurant’s business augments the more traditional, dine-in dollars rather than tak-
ing away from them.
Call it what you wish—in addition to takeout and to-go, you’ll hear the terms “curbside,”
“carry-out,” “grab-and-go,” and the rather lofty “home replacement meal”—but if it is to be
successful, a food-to-go component must truly be speedy. Dedicated parking spots, online
ordering capabilities, and a separate counter or register for ringing up take-out orders help
guarantee a smooth to-go process from start to finish. Customers expect the same levels of
service and quality from a take-out experience as they do from the dine-in experience at the
same restaurant. And don’t forget the packaging, which should reinforce the concept and
quality as well as protecting the food. Chapter 19 includes a section on how to select single-
use packaging.
Even convenience stores have gotten into the act, with some populating a subcategory
known as convenience restaurants. Sheetz is one such chain, a $2.8 billion annual business
that ranked 87th on Forbes magazine’s list of the largest family-owned companies in the
United States. It operates more than 300 locations in six states and employs more than 10,000
workers. The Sheetz menu includes hand-tossed pizza baked on the premise, toasted subs
and grilled paninis, salads tossed to order, a children’s menu, and 14 gelato flavors made in
the store; some locations include coffee bars staffed by baristas. Everything is prepared in a
“food theatre,” a staging area in full view of customers—and all for an average check of
$8. The company also is testing drive-through access with weatherproof touch screens peo-
ple can use to place orders, plus indoor booths (with wireless Internet access) and outdoor
tables (with umbrellas) to invite on-site dining. To combat shrinking profit margins from
traditional convenience-store staples like gasoline and cigarettes, Sheetz is wisely targeting
its food and beverage sales for maximum profitability.
Another category of foodservice business has sprung up in the 2000s. The cook-and-
carry segment combines customers’ desire for fast, healthful meals with their wishes to eat
at home, at least some of the time. Now, with names like Dinner’s Ready and Super Suppers,
cook-and-carry franchises provide a roomy, well-equipped kitchen and “prepped” ingredients
that a person can use to prepare a preselected menu of items to take home with them, typi-
cally in large enough batches for several meals, days, and/or persons. These operations run
almost like cooking schools. Customers do their own mixing and cooking using the recipes
they have selected; employees circulate among the workstations with refreshments and
advice, if needed.
Cook-and-carry places can save families’ time as well as money, but they haven’t caught
on as well as many in the industry had predicted, perhaps because people aren’t motivated
to plan so many meals in advance. Many have dropped their minimum requirements of a
certain number of meals for a certain price, offering single meals instead. Others go a step
further—for an additional fee, they’ll do the cooking for you, and even deliver the food to
your doorstep.
Changing Concepts
Restaurateurs may come to the conclusion that they’re in the right place—with the wrong
concept. Repositioning and reengineering are the classy terms for updating a concept.
Whether it is simple décor change or a menu revision, a concept change involves two
basic parts: defining what the problem is with the current concept and addressing it correctly.
How do you know there’s a problem in the first place? Lagging sales, fewer visits from repeat
customers, higher employee turnover, sagging morale, or the general feeling that the restaurant
