Nation's Restaurant News on the Go #66
Nation's Restaurant News
The #1 source of news and business intelligence for restaurant and foodservice industry professionals
Reconciling our people strategies with our business strategies??
Alicia Kelso here, Executive Editor for NRN. I took a bit of a break reporting on the restaurant industry – and all of its corresponding travel obligations – around 2014 or so while my son evolved from his helpless baby phase into something a bit more functional. Of course, had I wanted to stay the course, I could have easily done so because we journalists are not frontline or back-of-house employees. Those employees often lack flexibility while trudging through nontraditional hours that make caretaking a near impossibility. Such responsibilities while schools and daycares were closed is why women fell out of the workforce at a disproportionate rate during the pandemic.??
Societally, we spent years learning about and trying to solve for the glass ceiling, but as it turns out, the “broken rung” is a far bigger hindrance for career mobility for women, including and especially in the restaurant industry. The broken rung is when women are unable to break through entry-level roles, often because of added burdens at home, and how to solve for this challenge was brought up time and time again during the recent Women’s Foodservice Forum Conference in Dallas.??
If restaurant companies can figure out the caretaking piece for their frontline workers, it could very well become a major part of that solution. First Watch took a big step here, rolling out caretaking (child and elderly) for all employees, part-time and full-time.??
Another topic that came up often during the WFF conference was the mental health of our industry’s employees. Perhaps no executive is as passionate about this issue as Denny’s CEO Kelli Valade, who summed it up best during a WFF panel: “If the government and health care can’t fix some of these things around mental health, maybe businesses can. … If we get sales, traffic, stock price results, that’s really important. But if we can change a few people’s lives, I think there’s ROI in that as well.”??
Denny’s and many other companies have added a bevy of benefits in the past few years focused specifically on mental health support, or have added more robust benefits in general, knowing that a holistic approach – financial health, physical health, flexibility, etc. – all contribute to mental wellness.??
The advent of the pandemic is now four-plus years behind us, and it was unquestionably a dark and terrifying time. Loneliness and depression rates remain higher than ever, however. That said, our industry seems to be responding; according to new data from BentoBox, “PTO” mentions increased in restaurant industry job listings by nearly 400% from 2002 to 2023, while “mental health” mentions increased by 53%.?
As our industry continues to “normalize,” it’s clear our people strategies are starting to align with our business strategies. And, as an industry that prides itself on hospitality and service, it’s about time.??
Here’s what else was going on in the restaurant world this week:
Texas Roadhouse surpassed Applebee’s in sales in 2023
Texas Roadhouse has been on a roll for the past several years now, churning out record sales and average unit volumes and managing astonishingly high demand as it enters its 12th consecutive year of traffic gains.
Such momentum hasn’t necessarily been the case for many of its casual dining peers in a challenging post-pandemic environment. Many have experienced declining traffic patterns and, in some cases, unit count retrenchment. This divergence pushed Texas Roadhouse past one of its biggest segment competitors in 2023, as the Louisville, Ky.-based chain generated higher sales than Applebee’s for the first time, according to new data from Technomic Ignite.
Panera sees traffic surge ahead of menu overhaul and possible IPO launch
As Panera Bread is in the midst of a major brand transformation, traffic for the St. Louis-based company is up 5.2% year-over-year, according to recent data from Placer.AI — it’s biggest traffic growth spurt in almost a year, since a 10.8% jump last March.
While Panera originally made its mark by offering freshly baked bread and other bakery goods — and later on, used ethical sourcing and “clean” ingredients as an industry differentiator – the fast-casual brand has recently changed its outlook.
As Panera looks to “get back to its roots” ahead of a near-future IPO, the company recently introduced a menu transformation, while allegedly simultaneously axing about 19% of the menu, including flatbreads, grain bowls, select pastry items and cold brews, and more. Additionally, the company has quietly rolled back some of its ethical sourcing practices to allow for “judicious use of antibiotics” and ease supply chain pressures. At the same time, Panera is still grappling with several lawsuits surrounding Panera customers that died allegedly after consuming highly caffeinated lemonade energy drinks.
How Velvet Taco keeps up with its Weekly Taco Feature
Velvet Taco is very much attempting to redefine the standard definition of a taco and is doing so by offering unique creations such as the Kobe bacon burger taco, beer battered cauliflower taco, and the chicken and waffle taco.
There’s also the company’s signature Weekly Taco Feature, or WTF, which has included everything from chimichurri veggie to French dip tacos to its annual Pride taco to the 420 Blazin’. During a recent tour of a Dallas Velvet Taco location, the team served up a lasagna taco, with a parmesan crusted tortilla, meat sauce made in-house, and ricotta balls on top, as well as a potsticker taco, with seasoned pork, scallions, sweet chile sauce, sriracha aioli, and kimchee slaw.
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“Our unique product is definitely what sets us apart. We want to educate people on what a taco could be and that’s anything you want to be served in a tortilla,” CEO Clay Dover said during a recent interview.
March consumer prices rise as restaurant-grocery gap shrinks
Menu price inflation slowed a fraction in March, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index released Wednesday.
The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% in March, the same increase as in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
Over the last 12 months, the agency said, the all-items index increased 3.5% before seasonal adjustment, which was higher than many economists had expected. More than half the monthly increase was from gasoline and shelter, the agency said.
Food-at-home prices, from groceries and supermarkets, were up 1.2% in March, compared with food-away-from-home, or restaurant, prices that increased 4.2%. But restaurant prices slowed by 30 basis points from the 4.5% increase in February, the agency said.
Mark Kalinowski of Kalinowski Equity Research noted Wednesday that the latest report “shows that prices for food-at-home (grocery stores and supermarkets) rose by 1.2% in March — sequentially up by 20 basis points from February’s 1%. This marks the first sequential rise in grocery pricing since August 2022.”
“This marks the 13th month in a row for which restaurant pricing is outpacing grocery/supermarket pricing,” he said.
Senate votes to overturn NLRB’s joint employer rule; President Biden likely to veto
On Wednesday evening, the U.S. Senate narrowly voted to repeal the National Labor Relations Board’s broadened joint employer rule introduced in October, joining the House of Representatives, which voted ‘yes’ on the resolution to overturn the rule back in January. The Congressional vote sets up a likely veto from President Biden, who had previously vowed to veto the resolution if it passed, with the White House claiming the resolution interferes with workers’ bargaining rights.?
The resolution passed more narrowly in the Senate than in the House, with U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (D-Va.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Az.), and Angus King (I-Maine) voting in favor of the appeal.? The joint employer rule would hold business franchisors and franchisees jointly liable for labor terms and conditions such as union contracts, pay, scheduling, and more.
MenuMasters winners collaborate to develop new menu for the MenuMasters Celebration?
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