“The owner of Panera Bread on Tuesday added yet another name to its growing collection of coffee and fast-casual chains with the acquisition of a majority stake in the British concept Pret A Manger from the private equity firm Bridgepoint.”
“About three quarters of Pret’s shops are in the U.K. There are 90 stores in U.S. cities, the majority of which are in New York. The deal is expected to close later this summer.”
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The New York City Subway is the lifeblood of the city, yet it seems perpetually embroiled in crisis; though it’s currently caught in a terrible backlog of deferred maintenance, the city can’t function without it, as the mounting panic over next year’s L train shutdown makes clear. Yet as a circulatory system, it leaves certain limbs significantly undernourished.
Why was there only one line for the whole East Side of Manhattan until the Second Avenue line finally opened last year? Why does the G train wind so lonely and awkwardly from Brooklyn to Queens? Why are the downtown Brooklyn lines such a chaotic thicket of difficult transfers, while other densely populated parts of the borough, like East Flatbush, are devoid of service?
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“The Arlo Soho hotel just updated their outdoor spaces for the summer. On the indoor-outdoor rooftop, you’ll find large-batch cocktails and bar snacks. On their summer-camp-themed patio, they have backyard games and daily hot dog specials named after different national parks.
If you tried to keep track of every brand new restaurant in New York City, you might go a little bit crazy. So just read this list instead. These are the new restaurant openings that seem like they have the most potential.”
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“Founders often want clean and concrete answers as to when they’re ready to raise. This is why the idea that VCs filter exclusively on metrics is attractive.
For instance: Saas companies are ready for an A when they cross $1m in ARR. This sounds good, but we’ve seen As happen for Saas companies with ARR between $200k and $9m with plenty of companies failing all along that range. Clearly VCs don’t care that much about this rule.”
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“Apart from the legal side, there is also a policy consideration to consider: what is the impact on employee recruitment, retention or—on the flip side—accountability, when you charge employees for mistakes?”
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A bill being introduced today by New York City council members would ban the use of plastic straws at restaurants, cafés, bars, stadiums, even the street’s food carts.
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“Most consumers say what defines a snack is not the category but the convenience and how it is used and consumed.”
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“We feel however many small restaurants & bars with a similar set up are feeling the pinch especially in Williamsburg. Increases in wages with more to come, product cost and operating costs all add up and make it difficult to break even, that and the uncertainty of the L train going down and how that will effect business were all factors.”
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Off-site orders are the future Chipotle sees. So much so, in fact, that the new CEO, Brian Niccol, has spent some $3m outfitting stores with new flatscreen ordering systems. So far, Chipotle as outfitted about 300 stores with these $10,000 platforms–and expects to roll out to another 600 stores this year.
The platforms are the brand’s effort to streamline and lean in to the mobile and delivery segment of the business. Employees see images of an order’s ingredients, instead of words, and labels are printed automatically instead of handwritten. The new system makes it easier and quicker to train workers, and orders are more accurate according to Chief Digital and Information Officer Curt Garner. The move will improve the additional production lines — dedicated to digital, online and catering orders — that Chipotle has added to supplement the front lines that serve in-store diners.
Taco Bell, KFC and McDonald’s are all now offering the service in some capacity, while Panera Bread has built its own network with 13,000 drivers. Chipotle, meanwhile, is eager to prove it can recapture growth. Chipotle has said about 8.8 percent of orders go to its second production lines. The chain is working to boost its delivery capabilities — in April it announced a partnership with DoorDash Inc. to add the service to 1,500 restaurants. It also delivers at some locations through Postmates Inc. and Tapingo.
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What’s old is new again. Conveniences store, the oft-forgotten stepchild of the grocery, restaurant, foodservice continuum are stepping into a new age. Over the past few years, we’ve seen the restaurant industry eclipse grocery sales in America, which was a huge first. Now, restaurant revenues have finally started to slow–not slip!–and some spending to return to other formats.
And C-stores want a piece of the action. At Choice Market in Denver, guests can get artisan sandwiches and staples like quinoa or kombucha on tap. Housed in 2,700 square feet–about the size of an average Chipotle, places like Choice Market and Green Zebra, in Portland, are finding a new niche between QSR’s and grocery stores, but well above the traditional Doritos-and-candy convenience store.
Traditional players, like Wawa, have long known the value of the their real estate and already provide an up-scaled convenient experience. And now Amazon is getting in on the action with Amazon Go–a cashless, cashier-less store that tracks you and bills your Amazon account.
We’re seeing a confluence of trends merge on similar themes again and again: grocery stores relying on prepared foods for sales, restaurants capitalizing on the fast casual trend, and automation in point of sale.
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