When the menu "lose weight", some customers' doubts also arise.
"The weight is reduced by half, but the price is not reduced by half. Is the restaurant launching' small dishes' in a disguised price increase? "
For diners, a small number of prices do not seem to be "affordable"; But for the store, a small part of the cost is actually higher than the diners think.
How to find a balance between restaurant management and avoiding diners' waste has become an examination question facing the catering industry.
With these questions, Henan Business Daily reporter visited.
Large noodles can satisfy the "practical motivation" of consumers, not "more practical"
For Zhengzhou people who love pasta, noodles have become the first choice for consumers to vomit.
"Why is a small portion of Hui rice flour only about two yuan cheaper than a large portion of Hui rice flour, but half of it is missing? Is this a marketing tool that merchants induce me to buy a large part through the slogan of' avoid waste'? "
With questions from consumers, Henan Business Daily reporter visited many noodle restaurants in Zhengzhou. The difference between the "large and small portions" reported by consumers is half or nearly half, with a difference of 1-2 yuan.
Take the noodle shop "Qin Feng noodles with minced meat" in Ronghua Community as an example, with small portions 10 yuan, large portions 12 yuan and large portions of noodles with minced meat 14 yuan.
According to the proprietress Zhang, this practice is not to induce consumers to buy large portions because of the pursuit of so-called interests, but to hope that consumers will get greater satisfaction after eating noodles. If it's just to make money, according to the overall accounting ratio, diners who eat a lot will have a similar "unaffordable" mentality when choosing a large portion, so the two yuan added to the large portion and the extra large portion launched by the noodle restaurant just wraps up the cost.
"This is actually a marketing tool, similar to small profits but quick turnover." Zhang said to him.
In this regard, Chen Guangming, a marketing expert and head of Golden Book Management Consulting Company, believes that "big and small noodles" belong to the product category extension marketing strategy. For Xiao Mian, 1 yuan or 2 yuan money is actually earned by the merchant, but it can make his products have one more category and satisfy diners with different appetites. If one more diner comes in, he will have a chance to consume his drinks and side dishes. What really makes money is not the extra money.
Zhou Xiuting, director of the Marketing Research Center of Zhengzhou University, said: "The price difference seems to be only two yuan, but it is actually a psychological pricing. He said that adding two yuan to a small bowl of noodles will double the amount of noodles, so that customers who just came to eat noodles can eat more, increase their satisfaction after consumption and satisfy the psychology of "affordable motivation".
Why can't "side dishes" be as "affordable" as hot pot restaurants?
If the big bowl of noodles is an upgrade after adding two yuan to the small bowl of noodles, it is mainly to increase the satisfaction of diners after consumption, then the restaurant that mainly cooks is just the opposite.
On the Internet, netizens have come up with examples of "fishing for half a disc in the sea". "Half of the hot pot dishes are half price, and the' side dishes' are half less. Why is the price not half price? "
During the visit, Henan Business Daily reporter found that since the implementation of the call of "practicing economy and opposing waste", except for the dishes in hot pot, the charging standard for "side dishes" in cooking restaurants is only 30% -7.5% off the whole meal, which is not so "affordable" from the menu.
In this regard, Sheng, a China culinary master and executive vice president of the Henan Famous Chef Professional Committee, said: "Almost every dish in the restaurant should be fried separately. For chefs in restaurants, the time and energy spent on' side dishes' has hardly decreased, and the cost of dishes is far less valuable than the chef's time. In addition, from the perspective of a series of services of restaurants, the number of customers that restaurants can receive every day generally does not change much, and the salary cost and rent cost of waiters will not be reduced because of the reduction of food quantity. "
Take Sheng as an example. When two people come to dinner, they usually choose a table for four. A dish takes five minutes. In the past, it took them 65,438+00 minutes to order two dishes in the kitchen. Now they order three or four side dishes, which takes 15-20 minutes in the kitchen. The workload of the stove and the chef goes up, the serving time will slow down, the guest will occupy the table for a long time, the turnover rate will decrease, and the profit will drop. In this case, if the small dishes are strictly half-priced, it is estimated that many restaurants with ordinary business will lose money.
Generally speaking, if we can't find a balance between business model and avoiding waste, it will strengthen the three pain points of "timeliness, efficiency and standardization", leading to higher costs.
This round of upgrading and transformation of "small dishes" is not only an opportunity to promote the formation of a new fashion of saving and help consumers develop a good habit of ordering moderately, but also a new opportunity and challenge for the catering industry.
Formulate the standardized production ratio of "small portion"
Shen Qiang, executive deputy general manager of Awu Yellow River Carp Company, told Henan Business Daily: "In fact, when we see that our guests are very wasteful, we diners sometimes feel very sad. Improving food waste has always been a key task in our business process, and it is also an optimization for us. "
Shen Qiang said that different catering modes and dishes face different problems. In this regard, Awu Yellow River Carp has formulated a set of standardized "side dishes" production ratio according to the dishes. Although there is no direct discount, the proportion of meat and auxiliary dishes is adjusted in order to increase the sense of benefits brought by the reduced side dishes to customers.
Shen Qiang said, "For example, a large portion of fried chicken contains 500 grams of chicken and 300 grams of skin, but we don't just halve the ingredients. The content of our small portion of chicken is 350g, and the skin is 250g. The main ingredients and auxiliary materials are different, so the price is not calculated by absolute value. Therefore, we don't have a' half disc', only a' small disc'. "
Henan Business Daily reporter found in Awu Yellow River Carp Shop that if two people go to eat, the waiter will present a "side dish" and a vegetable to the customer. If it is not enough, they can order another rice staple.
It is suggested that the ordering platform give traffic subsidies.
Yuan Yue, the founder of Boom Marketing Consulting Company, thinks that if the "side dishes" are turned into half-price or half-price in a hot pot restaurant, it will be tantamount to doubling the operating cost for the restaurant, so the restaurant will price the "side dishes" at 7-7.5 fold.
For customers, ordering four "side dishes" will be much more expensive than ordering two "big dishes" before. From the perspective of personal expenses, such a "side dish" dinner is tantamount to waste, and it is also a waste for the kitchen.
However, China people have a tradition of "arranging noodles" when eating. They think that a dinner for six people needs six cold dishes and six hot dishes, or at least 10 dishes. The current "n- 1" ordering strategy, where six people order five dishes for dinner, will make guests feel very embarrassed. At this time, choosing "small portion" can not only save the face of the guests, avoid waste, but also give the whole table a feeling of direct discount of 30%.
Yuan Yue suggested that the introduction of "side dishes" in restaurants would be limited by "cost" to a great extent, but it was a bit uneconomical for consumers to pay half price. It has been suggested that the online ordering platform can give certain flow subsidies to restaurants that offer half-price "side dishes" to promote restaurants to realize half-price "side dishes" as soon as possible.