Restaurants are leaving huge amounts of money on the table.
- Takeout is an attractive area of focus because contribution margin from incremental volume approaches the gross margin on food once overhead is covered
- Given the above, chains should seek to implement a takeout cost model that is as close to fully variable as possible
- The high contribution margin on increases in takeout volume can result in significant bottom line increases to the overall P&L with only modest increases in takeout revenue
90% of all take-out transactions go poorly
While the dine-out segment of the restaurant market is growing at three times the industry’s overall growth rate, the dine-in patron experience is far superior to the dine-out patron’s experience with the same restaurant.
The University of Nevada-Las Vegas released a key study (read it here) in 2010 on the casual dining industry and about call-in ordering. In this report, they made several key conclusions about the industry:
- Restaurants are not built to process take-out orders.
- 90% of all take-out transactions go poorly.
- Poor sales and service cycle execution are leading to a large amount of unrealized take-out sales.
