Restaurant News Roundup: July 2017

From mealtime evolution to McDonald’s self-serve kiosks, July was filled with plenty of newsworthy restaurant industry topics. It was hard to narrow it down to just a few but we think you’ll enjoy our choices. Below is a recap of restaurant news that hit the wire in July.

Buffalo Wild Wings Opens New Store to Win Back Millennials

Buffalo Wild Wings is adapting to the millennial dining preference with their new restaurant called B-Dub Express. The new restaurant’s primary focus will be on counter service and take-out. Seating will be available, but only for up to 35 to 50 customers. The first B-Dubs Express just opened in Edina, Minnesota and a second location will open soon in Hopkins, Minnesota. Read the full story here.

Traffic at Outback Steakhouse Booms

Outback has recently experienced an uptick in sales for two quarters in a row. In fact, Outback has seen the highest traffic this year since the second quarter of 2015. The restaurant has put increased focus on customer experience, less reliance on strength discounting, and growing incremental sales layers. Read the full story here.

Changing Consumer Preferences and Mealtimes

Scheduled meal times have gone by the wayside. The custom used to be to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the same time every day, eating similar foods for every meal with no snacking in between. Today, people rarely eat three meals a day and snacks between meals are more of a regularity now. People are relying more on quick fixes and fast meals and it is changing the general makeup of the restaurant industry and how it operates. Read the full story here.

Analysis of the Food Delivery Market

More and more restaurants are partnering with delivery services to tap into the reportedly $100 billion market. Quick service and sit down establishments alike are all transforming their businesses to adapt to the changing market of off-premise dining. Some key factors anticipated to drive the market are urbanization, increased usage of internet, growing household consumption expenditure and rising use of mobile internet in emerging markets. Read the full story here.

Maximize Your Snapchat Exposure With Geofilters

Restaurants can now take advantage of one of the most popular social media platforms available, giving them huge exposure. Snapchat is used by people all across the country and restaurants can now use its “geofilters” to promote their restaurant at low cost. A geofilter is an image overlay that can include texts and pictures to reflect your location. Snapchat allows users to customize nearly everything about their templates and gives free range to be as creative as possible. Read the full story here.

McDonald’s Successfully Launches Self-Serve Kiosks

McDonald’s is rolling out its newest idea in staying tech savvy with the use of self-serve kiosks. One of the chain’s locations in Kalispell, MO has added one of the kiosks and seen great results so far. The plan for the machine is to increase speed of order time as well as increase sales by serving more customers. Despite concerns about how the self-serve kiosk could eliminate staff, store owner, Scott Hadwin, said the kiosk has created three jobs in the front of the store to help manage the influx of customers in the lobby, as well as three jobs in the kitchen to help handle the increasing number of food orders. Read the full story here.

How to Get the Most Use Out of Restaurant Technology

The restaurant industry is in the midst of its arrival to the digital age and maximizing the tech in your restaurant is more important now than ever. Three focus areas are the customer experience, automation, and comprehensive record keeping.  Investing in restaurant technology restaurant can ultimately save you time and money. Read the full story here. Subscribe to the blog for more interesting restaurant content!

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About the Author

Conor Mullaney is a marketing contributor at QSR Automations. He attends Morehead State University where he is studying Sports Management and Marketing. Outside of school and work, he loves watching baseball and is a member of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity where he is the Community Service Chair.