Operations

Why smaller menus lead to bigger game-day profits

Givex COO Graham Campbell provides insight to help restaurant owners streamline their menus and maximize their share of game-day sales.

iStock

February 23, 2021 by Graham Campbell

While the first quarter of the year typically brings cold weather and post-holiday blues, it also brings an exciting time for restaurants: major sporting events like the Super Bowl and March Madness, which are big revenue drivers during an otherwise slow season. With COVID-19 forcing restaurants to operate at lower capacities, it's even more important for restaurant owners to make the most of this crucial time. One way to stand out from the pack? An efficient menu that highlights game-day favorites.

Why more isn't always better

Research shows that by eliminating superfluous menu items, restaurants actually improve their sales. With more concise menus, customers can order faster and restaurants cut down on food costs. Additionally, shorter menus allow many restaurants to create a standout menu item or dish that customers come to recognize and associate with that brand. When customers are looking to order their game-day favorites, they want the process to be as easy as possible and long menus often impede this process.

Trimming down menus has proven to be effective for many restaurant chains. Dave & Buster's, Texas Roadhouse and Romano's Macaroni Grill are just a few that have made cuts to menus in the past year. Many brands have positioned menu trimming as a response to the pandemic but it's been a winning idea for years.

What to cut vs what to keep?

The best way to analyze a menu's winners and losers is to look at the data. A POS system offers restaurant owners the data they need to determine which menu items are their strongest and weakest sellers as well as the most profitable and most cost-prohibitive. Among them, business owners can also determine which items complicate operations and supply chains — or simply create food waste.

Armed with this data, restaurant owners should evaluate these items based on margins. If a dish has poor margins and complicates operations in the kitchen, cut it. If a dish is a top-seller but has low profit margins, adjust the ingredients to become more profitable. If a dish has weak sales but a tremendous margin, look for opportunities to increase attention and sales around that dish through promotions or limited-time menu offerings on game day to pique customer interest.

Promotions that give people what they want

Once a restaurant has determined where its best sellers and best margins are, it's time for promotion. Buy-one-get-one deals and discounts are great strategies to encourage customers to increase their spending and provide restaurants with a way to highlight menu items with higher margins.

Major sporting events are a great opportunity to make some simple tweaks to create compelling offerings. Some examples include bundling smaller versions of popular and profitable appetizers as a sampler or determining which menu items can be easily made in larger quantities to market as a "game day feast."

With sporting events serving as a beacon of hope for struggling restaurant owners, it's more important than ever to maximize this opportunity. A good POS system can track food costs in real-time and constantly keep restaurant owners informed of the key players on their menu. By engineering an optimized menu based on real customer data and buying trends, restaurants ensure that they're giving customers what they want while shedding unnecessary food costs and waste.

About Graham Campbell

---

Graham Campbell, COO of Givex, a global cloud-based operations management solution designed to streamline business efficiencies and generate valuable and actionable customer data with offices in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, China, Brazil, Singapore and newly opened in Mexico City. Campbell is an innovative technology executive with over 13 years of experience in the payment, e-commerce and point of sale sectors. He started at Givex in March 2006 and since then has held positions including: VP of Projects & Implementations, VP and General Manager of Givex’s point-of-sale (POS), Senior VP of Product Development and now holds the position of the company’s Chief Operating Officer.

Connect with Graham: