The Restaurant Community » Forums » Restaurant Business

[mattm]

After two years of "the Great Recession" who could blame people for thinking that the light we are seeing at the end of the tunnel is just a freight train? But, it is looking more and more like it is blue sky!

The Commerce Department said total retail sales jumped 1.6% in March. It's great to have the consumers back in the economy again!

But, as food service futurist Dennis Lombardi notes in his article "Light at the End of the Tunnel? Don’t Stumble on Your Way Out", restaurants will have to be patient and cautious when it comes to how to regain previous profit margins.

What strategies do you think will work?
* When will you be able to raise prices?
* When should you bring back additional staff?
* When can you pull back on special offers?

[Ronnie]

Here's a related article from the NYTimes:

Restaurants See Slow Recovery From the Recession - NYTimes.com

“There’s no question about this,” said Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst at the NPD Group, a market research firm that tracks sales at 47 restaurant chains with a total of 103,000 outlets. “There’s a recovery going on.”