The Food Scout

You may have heard in recent news that Spain is now producing “ethical” fois gras to help sidestep some of the controversy that caused fois gras to be banned in Chicago restaurants a couple of years ago. Times have obviously changed, as this is one of the many concerns that has fallen to the very bottom of the priority list, now that consumers and restaurants alike have gone on an “eating out diet.”

Foodservice was growing in recent years on the assumption that eating out had become a way of life–not just a special occasion–for consumers living in a time-crunched, convenience-driven world. But as gas prices rose and the stock market fell, consumers somehow were able to wean themselves off of a daily diet of takeout dinners and luxurious lattes in favor of home-cooked meals and home-brewed coffee.

This emerging “eating out diet” has the restaurant industry, of course, scrambling to make sure that consumers pull back on somebody else’s meals, not theirs. This means that no segment or sales tactic is taboo, and woe unto the restaurant that doesn’t get scrappy. Just like the real estate industry, it’s a buyer’s market, and consumers who have a job and money to spare are being wooed with all kinds of messages and deals.

Menu Madness: Probably one of the most common tactics being employed by all restaurants is “new” news. Technomic reported that menu introductions last month were the highest they have been in 5 years, registering 547 new items across the leading 250 restaurant chains. Of course, the challenge with this approach in retrospect, is that if all the leading chains are promoting a new menu item at the same time, this creates a huge amount of LTO clutter to penetrate.

QSR Quest for Patrons: Move over, Jared. Subway has signed on Olympic bling king Michael Phelps to help them sell sandwiches. Even McDonald’s is offering two TRIPLE cheeseburgers for $3, although today it announced the recommendation for franchisees to move the double cheeseburger off the Dollar Menu and to replace it with the slimmed down McDouble. Burger King is promoting loyalty with a Wii sweepstakes tied to Crown Card purchases, and Pizza Hut is now promoting gift card buying online.

Casual Dine Deals: TGIFriday’s is offering free dessert to its loyalty program members in the deal-driven days after Thanksgiving. And Cheesecake Factory has announced it will offer a new “value-focused menu” along with some price increases, and sweeten the pot with catering, delivery, and a guest card program.

McCormick & Schmick’s reportedly accelerated its plans to ship raw seafood and steak overnight to hungry patrons looking to eat at home, joining a growing list of icon restaurants like Gino’s Pizza, Anchor Bar, Cafe du Monde, and Carnegie Deli that cater to its expatriots around the country. Other restaurants are focusing on nearby patrons: Grill Concepts is using fixed price and happy hour meal deals on special “recession buster” menus to draw patrons in, and Mimi’s Cafe is offering lower-priced, smaller-sized entrees to slow its sliding sales.

Luxury Lives: Fine dining may be racheting down, but some QSR chains are bucking the trend. Burger King’s CEO told investors this month that it was planning to launch more premium items like “thicker burgers” and ribs in the near future. And Starbucks has just launched a Gold card that costs $25 a year but yields 10% discounts and wi-fi access at stores. More importantly, however, it alerts baristas that they have a “super fan” at the counter who deserves a little extra recognition for their loyalty. At the other end of the customer spectrum, Starbucks is said to be giving $5 gift cards to college students with postcard notes that invite parents to load up the cards with more money.

Right now a handful of restaurants, particularly McDonald’s, is bucking the trend and performing against the tide of news about restaurants filing bankruptcy, closing units, or missing earnings targets. These places seem to have the right ingredients needed while the consumer is on its “Not Eating Out Diet.” One immediate strategy could be to try and copy what they’re doing. But, hey, consumers never stick with a diet for very long, so a more important question could be “What do you offer when consumers get tired of this diet?”