Zaxby’s family meal bundles continue to make a healthy contribution since the Athens, Ga.-based operator launched them in April in reaction to changes in consumption as a result of the pandemic.
Well, it is good to know that the appeal of cat videos and quarantine parodies has its limits as many industry professionals refocus at least some of their attention to the post-pandemic foodservice landscape.
It’s difficult to peer through the fog of uncertainty surrounding our collective response to the COVID-19 pandemic to see exactly what the post-crisis world will look like. Even the most fundamental aspects of our lives, like school and work, are subject to profound changes as a result of the upheaval that we have all experienced.
Few people grow up wanting to be a foodservice technician, but after stumbling on to this career path, many are hooked for life. Such is the case with Joan Albert, who, as a teenager, wanted to be a veterinarian.
Master Certified Technician, Gary’s East Coast Service, Oxford, Conn.
Normally, in May, we are gearing up for the annual FE&S Dealer of the Year and All Industry Awards Gala in Chicago. This year, that event is the furthest thing from our minds.
For years businesses large and small have extolled the virtues of thinking outside the proverbial box of conventional wisdom. Business leaders have lauded nimbleness in the face of rapidly changing competitive landscapes and oftentimes fickle consumer habits.
Menu drives all. A bold statement?
Following her 15-year position as director of Food and Nutrition at Pottstown Memorial Medical Center in Pennsylvania, Mary Cooley, RD, turned her attention to senior care.
A large, out-of-the-blue tornado hit downtown Nashville in early March, leaving casualties and demolished buildings. It was the type of natural disaster where, if power outages were the only thing that people experienced, it seemed like a reprieve.
The aspect of the foodservice industry that’s most consistent now is inconsistency. Consumers’ comfort level with the coronavirus varies, as do the rules and regulations from one region to another.
Regardless of their origins, disruptive forces share one common trait: they come into an industry with little to no notice, do their thing and change the course of business as usual forever.
How to rebuild trust with customers in a global pandemic.
From all of us here at Zoomba Group, our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone whose lives have been directly impacted by the COVID-19 virus.
From launching a 100% plant-based food truck to moving retail foodservice to the point where 50% of sales come from self-order devices, Zia Ahmed continues to keep The Ohio State University on the forefront of the trendline.
Consolidation, e-commerce, mergers, acquisitions and a continually changing array of unpredicted disruptive forces — welcome to today’s foodservice world. As a result, operators continue to evolve into much more elusive players, facing more financial pressures and with increasingly sophisticated needs. Product knowledge is simply no longer enough for the supply chain to serve today’s operator. To meet the demands of these operators, each of us in the foodservice supply chain must shift to a needs-based, consultative selling approach.
As the country emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to watch a grand experiment unfold with a patchwork of varied responses based on class, economics and politics. Opinions about where this will all lead are as varied as the number of opinion-makers out there, and individual responses seem to be mostly based on the sources of information that people are choosing to rely on.
Kelly Roddy joined fast-casual chain Saladworks in August 2019 after 12 years of leading Schlotzsky’s, a sandwich fast-casual. He’s now positioning Saladworks to take full advantage of its niche as an established good-for-you brand despite so many others joining the party. The chain has established an ambitious goal — to double the number of Saladworks units by taking advantage of some underused nontraditional markets.
This is an era of market consolidation, where small companies can increase their size and value with the goal of being acquired by a larger entity — and large companies can increase sales by branching out into more categories.
The pervasive nature of digital payment methods, mobile apps and third-party delivery companies continue to shape the way customers consume food prepared outside the home. These developments also show the wide-ranging impact digital systems have on almost every step that consumers take when eating food prepared away from home.
