How restaurants are adjusting their menus to stay viable

Confronted with labour shortages, inflation, supply-chain stretches, and other operational challenges, restaurants are having to find a variety of ways to adjust their business model to stay attractive to consumers and stay viable within a competitive industry. Many of those changes have come on menus. Toast’s first Voice of the Restaurant Industry survey found that […]

The critical importance of loyalty members

In today’s crowded foodservice climate, offering a robust loyalty program is a must. Loyalty members visit more, spend more, and provide your business with vital insights into customer behaviour. Those were some of the key conclusions of the new Paytronix Loyalty Report 2022, which found that the top loyalty members are foundational to a restaurant’s […]

Restaurant operators becoming more pessimistic about the future

The pain of the height of the pandemic may be behind us, but the trauma continues for foodservice. U.S. restaurant operators are getting less and less confident about the future of the industry, according to new data from the National Restaurant Association. A new survey from the association found that nearly half (46 per cent) […]

Restaurants can be guilty of overselling diversity, finds report

A new survey released on August 3 by the U.S. National Restaurant Association found that the restaurant industry has a far greater percentage of female entry-level workers than female executives — but restaurants don’t necessarily report that accurately. The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF), the Multicultural Foodservice and Hospitality Alliance (MFHA), and the Cornell […]

Despite labour crisis, 4 in 10 restaurants can’t afford to hire

As the labour crisis continues to plague restaurants, we are reminded yet again that there is no simple solution. Many restaurants are still struggling desperately to maintain a viable level of staffing, and there is no easy answer. The labour pool has shrunk dramatically with many former gig workers leaving the industry, leaving operators to […]

Most consumers don’t know what carbon-neutral actually means

Sustainability in food has been an increased focus for consumers and companies in recent years, and the effects of emissions on climate change have been in the spotlight again recently due to extreme weather in several parts of the world. But a new survey has suggested that most consumers don’t actually know what “carbon-neutral” means. […]

People spend 40% of food budget on restaurant dining, suggests survey

While general inflation and the prices of gas and food are presenting challenging situations for consumers, a new survey suggests that restaurant dining remains a large part of people’s life. A recent Popmenu survey of over 1,000 U.S. consumers found that those consumers spend about 40 per cent of their individual or family food budgets on restaurants. […]

Half of Canadian restaurants fear closure by fall

Nearly half of Canadian restaurants are struggling to stay afloat and fear they will not even make it to fall. According to Alignable’s Small Business Revenue Report, 47 per cent of Canadian SMBs say they are at risk of closing by the fall due to multiple persistent pressures including inflation, labour struggles, and a stretched […]

Why do Canadians want to shop local?

“Shop local” has been a mantra for a while now, and a new survey from Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab (AAL) in partnership with Angus Reid has found that most Canadians feel that it is important that the products they see and buy at the grocery store are local. That sentiment is the strongest in Quebec, where […]

One of restaurants’ toughest tests? Attracting Gen Z diners

Capturing diners across all demographics has always been part of the challenge for restaurants. Attracting Gen Z is a unique test, particularly in the current economic and social climate. Gen Z have less disposable money and more competition for how to spend that money than perhaps any other generation in recent history. Throw in the […]