QSR February 2023

EVOLUT ION

LEMONADE AND MODERN MARKET WELCOME ROUGHLY 30 PERCENT OF SALES ON-PREMISES.

the pressure on restaurant team members by fielding all calls to their in-house corporate guest relations team. Callers can place takeout or catering orders through guest relations, who also can give them directions or information on hours. Modern Restaurant Concepts tested out a call center years ago, but they found it too difficult to continually train people at a third-party company about their menu and operations, says Robin Robi son, chief operating ofcer at Modern Restaurant Concepts. Dine-in represents about 30 percent of MRC’s sales, while all other channels account for the remaining 70 percent of busi ness, which includes sales fromMRC’s app, website, third-party channels, guest relations, and catering. “[Restaurant operators] wouldn’t know what to do if the phones started ringing in the restaurants again,” Robison says. “They have a huge appreciation for us being as innovative as this so they can focus on their operations, and guests are very appreciative of it.” FINDING SOLUTIONS TO SUPPLY CHAIN CHALLENGES Despite progress being made in so many areas, the restaurant industry still faces strong headwinds, from supply chain and labor to inflationary pressures. The National Restaurant Asso ciation published a survey in November 2021 that found 95 percent of restaurants experienced significant supply delays or shortages of key food items, and 75 percent of restaurants have made menu changes because of those issues. At Slim Chickens, having a menu centered around one protein helped, Rothschild says, plus boasting an experienced supply chain team who developed great relationships with ven dors. “We were chasing some supply stuff around, but we never had a real issue where we couldn’t serve our menu,” Rothschild says. “Where we ran into issues like my peers was the cups, the lids, the straws, and plastic ancillary items in supply chain,

which was one of the most challenging we saw.” Issues with plastic ancillary items had more to do with man ufacturers being understaffed and not being able to keep up with orders, he notes. While restaurants experienced issues with stocking enough of their inventory earlier on in the pan demic, it’s now transitioned to feeling the effects from sta ing challenges hitting broadliner and supplier partners. “There’s a greater incident potential for new people at a broadliner pulling product or mispicking, so we could get romaine instead of spring mix,” Robison says. “We’re going to have to continue to work on this industry side by side with our broadliners to understand what they’re facing, yet also hold them accountable for what we need from them to take care of our guests.” King echoed Robison’s comments about food distributors’ labor challenge in competing for truck drivers. “There’s not a lot of excess capacity in supply chain distri bution, so it’s time to really work with those partners, because there really are no options to go anywhere else. It’s been a real challenge for us to have to think about it differently than we’ve ever thought about it,” King adds. Aside from trying to f ind out about food shortages and changes in advance, King is also pushing stores to make sure inventory levels are higher than ever, and be “more f lexible on when those deliveries are going to come, because we have to be,” he says. BOLSTERING EMPLOYEE BENEFITS IS NO LONGER A TREND, BUT A THOUGHTFUL NECESSITY According to the National Restaurant Association, no other industry has faced a longer road to reaching a full employment recovery. As of April 2022, eating and drinking places were still down 794,000 jobs, or 6.4 percent below pre-pandemic employment levels.

SLIM CHICKENS (2), STAFF: MARK JACKSON, SAM ROTHSCHILD: HATCH AND MAAS LLC

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FEBRUARY 2023 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com