In 2023 The HDTV Syndrome Will Continue to influence Restaurant Sector Customer Traffic

 

Once again in 2022, the restaurant sector continued to bleed customers.  Just in-case you don’t understand the consequence of capitulating year over year same store customer counts for 9 years, well; it’s not a good thing according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® who stated, “it has not been a one-off pandemic event.  It has been an ongoing problem for the restaurant sector.”

The simple fact is consumers food consumption patterns have evolved and many restaurants menu’s look more like yesterday.  Does your restaurant look more like of the 1990’s, 2005 or 2018?  That my friends that is a long way from what a fresh food restaurant will look like five years from now according to Johnson.  Something has to change.

There can be no doubt that in 2022, the restaurant industry leadership was once again comprised of the ‘unwilling to evolve’ as they continue to follow the old CEO adage / first rule of a new CEO ‘do no harm’. What they did is defer, deflect, and delay following the consumer.  That simply has not worked and will not work moving forward. There is a clear and present danger for many legacy restaurant brands.  That danger is an increasing lack of customer relevance according to Johnson.

Is Building a Larger Share of Stomach Important

Are you Customer Counts on the UP

Back in the day the team at Foodservice Solutions® was first to identify, quantify, and qualify The 65 Inch HDTV Syndrome, and few chain restaurants were willing to evolve.  Most simply hunkered down and practiced brand protectionism.   However, those in the foodservice that did evolve are garnering incremental customers today.

However the restaurant industry has been to slow moving forward, simply look at the latest numbers. In November same store sale were -3.4% year-over-year. When comparing November against the growth rate reported for both September and October, sales took a 1.8 percentage point drop. This November’s sales growth is the lowest posted by the industry since July’s +0.3% according to BlackBox Intelligence.

What matters even more is the fact that customer traffic was down too.  So same-store traffic growth was -4.3% in November, down by 1.1 percentage points relative to the previous month and the worst outcome for the industry since July according to BlackBox Intelligence.

If success leaves clues and it does, restaurant brands that embrace change, evolve with consumers, will do well moving forward.  If not, many will continue to capitulate customer traffic, lose sales, and close stores.  Are you driving top line sales, bottom line profits, and building customer counts?

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, www.Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or www.twitter.com/grocerant/