Many years ago, I managed a fast food restaurant, in a mall food court with multiple choices available AND with another restaurant in our chain directly across the street in the food court there. It was more established, had a much larger take, size of footfall and generally was the 800 pound gorilla, at first.
We put twice as many people on the register, compared to what we 'should have', and overportioned our food by nearly 50%. If you wanted a burrito and bought one across the street, and from us, and compared, it was staggering - loaded with meat and cheese. We made ours up just an hour before people arrived, instead of 3 hours before, like the competition, so our tacos and taco salads had crunchy fresh lettuce and tomato that hadn't soured. In short, our quality of product and size of portions absolutely devastated the competing store.
By doubling the people on the register, improving the layout of the kitchen, premaking as much as possible that would keep well - our service time was less than half of the competition. We were doing $400/hour per kitchen staff which was considered a blazing pace that couldn't be matched within our chain.
Of course our food cost was higher and profit percentage lower, but our top line sales growth broke every record the chain had ever seen. It was enough to qualify for an all expense paid trip to the Bahamas that year in recognition.
Sell a faster cup of coffee, a fresher cup of coffee, bigger cup of coffee and a cheaper cup of coffee. Get 2 out of 4 and you'll be fine. Get 3 out of 4 and you'll be swamped with customers. Get 4 out of 4 and who knows...
My points are rather simple
1) Speed kills. It kills the competition!
2) Quality kills the competition!
3) Overportioning can kill!
Sometimes less profit percentage is a winner by simply tweaking your operation a bit and delivering massive sales gains.
