Quiznos & Subway Idiots

quote:

Originally posted by essvee

Respectfully, I disagree, chewing. Good restaurants fail for the most mysterious of reasons, but one reason that's not a mystery is that many folks _prefer_ the pap and gruel dished out by the chains. Lines out the door for the various Roadhouses, Outhouses, Bennigans and Chilis and Applebees and so on, wherever you go. It can be impossible to compete with these behemoths no matter how good your food is. And when they are undercutting you in price, as Mr. sandyeggo notes above, you might well start throwing good money after bad. My condolences, ken.

Well you might be right about biz in a food court, but in my experience, over 6 straight years of steady growth, a lot of people happily pay my prices. within 1 to 4 miles of me I have Mickey D's,BK, KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Quiznos, Subway, Roy Rogers, Dominos, about 4 Chinese slop shops, 3 private Pizza places, a cheap BBQ and 12 other private tourist food restaurants, that have CHEAP crummy food. I serve food the way I want it to taste, with big portions, when I eat somewhere. It's working for me, maybe I'm lucky, who knows?

Without being disrespectful, I know from personal experience what mark up prices are in a restaurant.It is 100% to cover all expenses.For instance,one pays 4.99 per lb.from a wholesaler for roast beef, the public price will be(and is in our area, anyway)9.99 per lb.In the food business, that is 100%-but maybe sounds like 50% to others.Its even a higher mark up in finer dining establishments.

I think wine is 300% mark up or least 200%. I have no experience though.

You are pretty much on the mark, my friend!!

quote:

Originally posted by kensandyeggo

I'm stuck with a Quiznos 2 doors to the left of me and Subway 4 doors to the right of me. There are 10 other foodstands/restaurants within the arcade. Can almost spit from one end to the other. Subway comes up with a foot-long sub for 5 bucks. About 3 days later, Quiznos copies them. Most of their customers for these items are 2 people. They buy one foot-long, split it and wind up spending $2.50 for a sandwich. I can barely sell a hot dog for that.

The short answer is MOVE! You're never going to compete with a national chain on price, advertising, or brand recogition. It's fruitless to even try. What you can up them with is better, more personable service and usually better food.

Subways always seem staffed by idiots - like the lowest of the foodservice foodchain. Even with me stading their telling them exactly what I want and watching them make it, it's like pulling teeth to get them through it without screwing something up. From my my limited experience with Quizos, they are not much better.

But 10 food vendors in a small food court is not a good situation no matter who they are. I'd rater sell on the roadside than be in a mall type situation. But that's just me.

quote:

Originally posted by brittneal

Franchises can kill you. I worked for a couple in Newark, Oh who became the Top Steak house franchise. Fist they payed a fortune for the name, then had to buy all the monogrammed silver and plates, etc. Then they had to buy all meats pre cut from the Top. They were paying over 7 bux for a NY strip(in 87) and had to sell it at the tops prices. Same with specials. They had no internal control. The mgt from the top even equipped the kitchen. It was an old Cork and Cleaver with a tiny libe with no ventillation. They jammed a 2-tier Vulcan broiler in the corner and that was awful. Cook got burned all the time. Eventually they just dropped the name. Then they tred to go it alone with no knowledge at all. I felt so bad for them as they lost everything they owned over the deal.
britt

I'm with you. To me, even in the best of situations, no amount of potetial profit would be worth having to answer to corporate to run my own place. No amount of support would be worth not being able to call my own shots 100%. I guess it all boils down to the fact that people ARE sheep.

I don't want my Soylent Green undercooked. And I don't want ketchup on it.

The Bear

quote:

Originally posted by ScreenBear

I don't want my Soylent Green undercooked. And I don't want ketchup on it.

The Bear

I totally agree: I hate Subway.

quote:

Originally posted by jman

quote:

Originally posted by annpeeples

Every single restaurant has about 100% mark-up.Doesnt matter the supplier.It is how savvy an owner is to get the best price...

I'm sorry, but I don't believe that. At one time, 40% food cost was a standard that most restaurants strived to meet, but now in most cases it doesn't produce enough margin to cover all the operational costs, labor and its associated costs, taxes and profits.

Show me a typical Mom & Pop that buys something for $1.00 and sells it for $2.00 (across their whole menu) and I'll show you a Mom & Pop soon out of business. Even most street vendors couldn't survive that.

Now, if you include all costs, not just the cost of food, to reach an operational margin of 50%, that's a different story.

If you had an umbrella hot dog cart, how many hot dogs would you need to sell per week to survive if you sold a hot dog that cost you fifty cents for a dollar? Don't forget to figure in all your business expenses before you draw the first dime of wages. Unless someone is in business as a hobby or is independently wealthy, or selling a beskillion of something, selling fifty cents worth of food for one dollar just doesn't equate to being successful.

A 50% food cost would be very high. A 50% profit margin would very good. Most of the successful restaurants I've studied keep their combined food and labor costs below 60%. 65% of total sales at the highest. Equipment expenses, insurance, rent, etc, will eat away at the remaining expenses very quickly. With that said, business that run a lower labor cost can usually afford to run a higher food cost.

Since there seem to be quite a few hot dog vendors on this forum, look at it this way. Lets say you food/paper cost on a fully dressed dog is $1.00, and you sell this dog for $2.00. Now, lets assume you are open for four hours, and it takes you two hours on top of that for prep, setting up, and tearing down (6 hours of your time). Now, if you sell 200 dogs in that four hour span, you will have grossed $400. You have to pay for your cart, and I'm not sure what one costs, or how they are depreciated, but lets just say the cart itself costs you $35 a day. Insurance maybe $20. Of course these fixed costs are proportional to the number of days you sell. Lets say the property owner or event organizer wants $50 a day. I've never sold dogs, serving and collecting the money on 200 dogs in a four hour span sounds more like a 2 person job to me, so figure you pay a helper $7.00 an hour for the four hours, or $28. I'm sure I missed a few things, so let's say $20 for incidental expenses. After expenses, you've netted yourself $47, or $7.83 an hour. Ok for a part time job for extra cash, but it's not gonna make you rich. Really, for $8.00 and hour, I'd get a part-time job and let someone else take the risk. But... if you sell your dogs for $3.00 (which would be a 33% food cost), you'd look at netting $246. Then you're looking at $41 an hour for your time, and that IS something you can get excited about. Even if the market won't bare $3, $2.50 a dog would get you $24.50 an hour, still not a bad wage. I see too many start-ups underprice their product, then wonder what do to when the competition undercuts them on price. I think it's easier to serve the best product, and charge what it's worth, than try to compete solely on price.

I've been in the restaurant business for almost 20 years, but never been in the hot dog cart biz, so if my numbers are off base, please forgive me.