Avoiding Menu Bloat: The Value of a Lean, Mean Menu
Falling into the trap of adding menu items purely for variety can be damaging to the bottom line. The challenge with large menus is that unprofitable items can lurk unnoticed. Even in a smaller menu, menu selections and pricing can erode profit if you aren't paying close attention.
Slow moving menu items cost money every day in stocking, storage, and potentially spoiled ingredients. On top of that, a bloated menu can slow down customer decision making and hurt kitchen efficiency.
Stock and Spoilage
Managing food cost is important, so stocking ingredients that aren’t selling is a bad idea. Spoilage eats profits.
Speed of Service
Order entry time on the phone, at the counter, and table turns for dine-in are critical performance factors for any restaurant. Slow-moving clutter in your menu extends the time your guests need to read and make a selection. That extra delay can extend through an entire meal period, slowing down service and sales for everyone.
Kitchen Errors
Slow-moving items pose an added challenge to kitchen staff too; when the restaurant is busy, it’s difficult to prepare an unfamiliar item quickly, without errors, and with proper portion control.
Unprofitable Items
How well do you understand your recipe costs and item sales? In the most balanced and profitable menus, every item comes close to contributing equally to gross profit—and both margin and sales volume play a part.
Review your item sales in the POS regularly. Run the Sales by Item report, and sort by total value, or for more sophisticated analysis, watch the Analyzing Item Sales video for tips on identifying menu stars and dogs using the Item Summary tool in Store Manager.
Look closely at your margin as well, to identify items that may be costing you too much. If you are using SpeedLine Inventory, the Product Margin report shows you at a glance your margin and cost percentages on each item. Ditch low-margin items that don’t sell well. Printing a new menu may cost you much less than absorbing ongoing losses.
And once you identify your best sellers, consider the effect of raising the price of one or two of them—even by just a few cents—on your profit margin. A few extra dollars in the till each day can add up to thousands of dollars over the course of a year.
A properly constructed menu helps you minimize spoilage, manage food cost, and maximize profit. Nothing helps your bottom line more than the top line: fast table turns and properly prepared and portioned items will result in consistently happy guests and top-line growth.
