Penny Wise, Pound Foolish

“Statistics show that of those who contract the habit of eating, very few survive”George Bernard Shaw

While I was working as an operations manager for a very colorful Greek called “Pondo Tatziki” I had to have many debates with old and new franchisees regarding ingredient specifications. (Pondo was a nick name given by the staff due to his pony tail, I was told it means horn....Tatziki was my personal nick name for Pondo)

The debate was almost always that they could purchase this or that ingredient at half the price and so save on their food cost. The problem with this perspective or attitude is quite obvious! Cheaper is not always better! These items are cheaper for a reason.

One of the debates concerned the bacon specification. The Franchise recipe specification called for “three slices of Fry’s Short Back Bacon”. However a fly by night supplier offered another cut of bacon at almost half the price. I quickly picked up on this while on a casual visit to a

franchised storewhen I noticed a pale un-appetizing piece of bacon being returned to the kitchen to be made “crispy” I followed my interest being piqued by this out of place abomination that did not fit into my reality. The bacon took considerable efforts to crisp. Further grilling on the flat top was going slow, sticking it in the sandwich press was much the same, finally an enterprising line cook not knowing any better and unaware of my presence decided to chuck it in the chip fryer….Sailors can curse but this man decided to become a security guard after I was done with him.

So what is wrong with this fish?

• Nobody wants to eat unappealing food so it got sent back to be “fixed”
• That customer will remember the abomination even subconsciously and go elsewhere next time
• Any returned item slows down the kitchen and delays other orders and we have now succeeded in pissing of some more folks.

So what about that spec you ask?

The franchisee still used three slices of bacon on the plate as required. However the presentation and cooking time was affected as well as his all sacred food cost! You see the better quality “Fry’s Short Back Bacon” actually yielded several more portions per kg resulting in a better food cost without compromise.

The Conclusion:

Being pennywise can be pound foolish. So carefully consider what you buy and think about the whole process not just the price of goods.