Toast Tipping Suggestions are One Thing but Charging Customers to Use Their Service is a Tipping Point

 

The original thesis of technology use in restaurants was to save restaurant employees time thus saving the restaurant money. When Toast came along with it, was a ‘automatic’ tipping charge added to the bill in most cases it started 18 percent.  For those of us in the industry we thought nothing of it as most of us tip well above that as a professional courtesy.

The team at Foodservice Solutions® consists like most companies of workers in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, and some as old as our Grocerant Guru® who has worked in the industry as long as the other have been on earth. All however thought the minimum was a bit high for beginning workers buying a fast-food meal.

Steven Johnson Foodservice Solutions® senior expert contends that Toast is near a tipping point where the cost of the service becomes a greater annoyance than benefit for the retail outlet or the consumer.

In case you did not know, Toast is adding a new consumer-facing $0.99-cent surcharge to all online orders, without giving restaurants the option to opt out of the new fee, in an unpopular move that has caused restaurant operators to post letters and tweets of protest on social media. The Boston Globe, reported that the fee will be added to all online orders over $10 and will be beta-tested with a small group of restaurants before being rolled out nationwide on July 10.

Now according to a mockup of Toast’s interface, the .99-cent fee will not show up separately and will be instead part of a combined line called “taxes & fees” that already regularly shows up when customers place online orders. Unless consumers expand the “taxes and fees” subsection, they won’t see the new “order processing fee,” which, according to Toast, is intended to “help fund product investments” like SEO menus, customization, and chargeback coverage.

However, if President Biden passes what has become known as the Junk Fee Protection Act, hidden fees like this one from Toast or others from ticket-selling websites could be under fire. NOTE: The team at Foodservice Solutions® that includes all workers of all ages support the JUNK FEE PROTECTION ACT.

Talk about double talk, here is want they are quoted as saying about the new fee; “As we innovate, we remain committed to keeping restaurant digital ordering costs low and protecting restaurant bottom lines from third-party commission fees,”]. “We also take any changes to our pricing model at Toast very seriously. That is why to help fund ongoing innovation in restaurant technology, we are updating our pricing model to add a nominal $0.99 fee paid by guests on orders $10 and over on Toast online ordering channels. This change helps fund product investments and continued innovation in support of helping restaurants maintain the direct relationship with their guests.”

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideas look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how our Grocerant Guru® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation, and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit: us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Restaurants Check Out Chekout

At the intersection of the consumers and fresh food discovery technology is driving more interactions than any restaurant operator wants to admit according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Digital native’s aka Gen Z and Millennials continue on a quest for fresh food discovery. The simple fact is technology is the avenue of distribution they prefer.  Gone are the days of reaching for a phone book, or flyer stuffed in a drawer today, or looking for the first exit off the freeway.  

Paytronix Systems found that consumers spent a collective $769 billion ordering food from restaurants last year, with 63% of that — or $486 billion —consumed at home.

Of the $486 billion, 89% was ordered via desktop websites, mobile apps and aggregator apps, the report found. Additionally, 61% of digital food orders in 2020 was spent at restaurants that had only offered dine-in service before the pandemic.

Clearly consumers are dynamic and they are migrating to a platform / avenue of distribution faster than most restaurants or fresh food retailers want to admit.  According to Johnson, the information superhighway is open and both Gen Z and Millennials are on it.  It is important restaurants are as well.  However, making money with online ordering and delivery has become more and more difficult until now. Have you heard of Chekout?  Well, you will. Here is why.

In a Battle for Share of Stomach

Profits Matter 

Chekout will not charge restaurants to use its service. Restaurants keep 100% of the profits made on orders and can consider Chekout an actual “partner”. The Chekout platform not only offers delivery service for its restaurants but also provides free online exposure, marketing, and advertising.  The Chekout delivery fees are low; they charge just a 10% service fee on orders which is 17-81% less than any of their competitors.

For dinners, the Chekout platform guarantees that menu process will never be inflated, and consumers will never pay more than $2.50 for a delivery no matter their distance from the restaurant or their total bill. Of success leave clues Johnson stated Chekout is doing all the right things. How much do you pay for delivery?

Don’t over reach. Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit us on our social media sites by clicking the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter