This month we look at: a deep dive into cauliflower prices, what statistics to track for success, tips for making social media marketing videos, inflation and national restaurant sales trends from December.
Hello from a brand new year! I hope you all are recovering from a busy and successful holiday season and have been able to reset or recharge to take on 2025. If the first 16 days indicate what we can expect, I'd say we're in for a wild ride.
As a Californian myself, the devastation from the LA fires has been particularly horrific to watch and read about. But what has impacted me even more is the amount of support, donations and resilience we've seen for (and from!) the affected communities.
That support has come in no small part directly from our industry, with restaurants offering free food to evacuated people, free meals for first responders and WCK immediately jumping in to help as always. If you'd like to donate, here's a link to help! It's clear in these scary and devastating times more than ever that restaurants and food do more than just fill our bellies.
And on the topic of restaurants being more than just a place to eat, our favorite day to shower restaurants with love, Valentine's Day, is fast approaching. Each year we send out love notes and goodies to try and make one of the toughest days in our industry just a little sweeter. So if you've got a restaurant crush, or want to share some warm fuzzies with your favorite restaurant - let us know here!
February also marks the start of Black History Month, and this year we're celebrating and showing our support with a dedicated digital Gift Guide! If you are or know of and love a Black-owned restaurant that sells retail, food, subscription boxes or other items (even gift cards!) online and want to be included in our Black History Month Gift Guide, please reply to this newsletter and let me know!
Despite the rocky start, we are very excited for 2025, and rest assured this newsletter will continue to bring you industry data, insights, laughs and tips every month. We'll see you in February!
Know someone who would like to join our 86,446 subscribers? Forward to a friend or send them this link.
- Rachel & the MarginEdge team
P.S. If you took our very, very accurate Restaurant Personality Type quiz, your January mantras are here!
MONTHLY SALES METRICS & UPDATE
Fast Casual showed strong performance, particularly peaking at ~7% growth on Christmas Eve this year, before ending the year at 0% compared to December 2023. Full Service also saw positive performance over the December holidays and ended the month with strong New Year's Eve sales at just over 2% on a 7-day moving average.
Food costs averaged 28% of sales last month, reflecting a 2% drop from November's average.
Dig into the full report.
ITEM TO WATCH
Cauliflower
Often regarded as broccoli's much less-sexier cousin, cauliflower caught a break and our eye this month as average prices for MarginEdge customers increased 21% last month, peaking at $4.46 per crown nationally, $4.76 in the Midwest, $4.27 in the Northeast, $4.41 in the South and $4.31 in the West.
Heatwaves in California impacted the growing season this summer, and now inconsistent cold fronts are further hindering the supply of cauliflower which is predominately grown in CA. Domestic shipment volumes were 9% lower this year and imports from Mexico were also down 24%.
Thankfully this Brassica beauty won't be playing hard to get for long, as prices should improve when warmer weather (and a little tan, perhaps?) helps growth into January and beyond. Have your cauliflower menu items seen a change in food costs?
Seven Reasons | Washington, DC
ASK [me] ANYTHING
What statistics other than my finances should I be tracking?
Oftentimes we define a successful restaurant business simply by how profitable it looks on a P&L, but there's a lot more to it than just what's in your bank account at the end of the month. Seasoned operators know the importance of tracking their COGS, Prime Costs and cash flow, but what other statistics contribute to their business' success? A P&L statement only shows a snapshot of how successful your business is at one point, or period, in time.
To truly understand where you're heading and to make sure it's in the right direction, you should start looking outside of your bank account. Here are a few suggestions from our friends at FIXE on where to start:
- Average Check: Tracking the average amount spent by customers per visit can tell you a few things, but is mostly an indication of how well your menu is working. Did you take a popular, but less profitable app off the menu and now average check amounts have gone down? Might be worth bringing it back. It won't tell you everything, but tracking the trend and making adjustments when necessary is a great way to measure success.
- Number of Covers: Covers are a great indicator of your restaurant's popularity and can help you plan staffing and ordering more efficiently by determining peaks and when you're slow.
- Table Turns: This statistic is all about efficiency and measures how often tables are occupied and vacated during service. You might think more turns per night are always something to strive for, but it's important to note that optimizing for more turns should not come at the expense of guest experience and potentially lowering check sizes. Rushing someone in and out just for the sake of getting a third (or fourth) turn in a night could leave guests unhappy and damage your reputation which will not make your business a success in the long run.
- Sales By Day Part: Along with measuring covers, sales data by day part is also an important statistic to measure for operational efficiency. If you know that Wednesday nights are busy after 8 PM because that's when the weekly Pee-Wee soccer tournament ends at the park across the street, you can plan accordingly and even create pick-up specials those nights to maximize profits. Or if you're really slow for lunch on weekdays but not weekends, you can adjust your opening times and labor schedules.
- Product Mix: Product mix measures the proportion of different products sold in your restaurant, which is another good indicator for not only how your current menu is performing, but what else may perform well in the future. You can also use this statistic to test new menu marketing techniques. So say for instance, you changed your menu design to promote a new burger slider flight by putting it front and center, where your salads used to be. Your product mix can show you how well the slider flight is selling, and also the impact (if any) moving the menu around has had on your salads so you can adjust if necessary.
💬 Ask [me] anything!
Really. Each month we’ll take a look at the questions we get and answer one here. Have a question about our product, accounting, or restaurant operations in general? 💌 Email me or message us on our social media channels.
Copper Shark | Baltimore, MD
THE ECONOMY
Inflation Up (again)
The December 2024 Consumer Price Index (CPI) report is in, and indicates the following month-over-month changes in food inflation:
Overall, inflation came in at 0.4% up from November, trending upward again. Year-over-year inflation is at 2.9% which is another increase from the previous month. The biggest culprit this time was soaring gasoline costs, and food because (say it with me now) egg prices were up 36.8% year-over-year.
Tl;dr - No big changes from last month, food inflation is keeping steady with the rest of the index.
Cranes | Washington, D.C.
'TIS THE SEASON
Social media video marketing
With the TikTok ban soon approaching (don't rub it in, Canada), January feels like the perfect occasion to dive into social media video marketing for restaurants and cover some tips and tricks to help start or add to your video marketing strategy. If this feels like the Wild Wild West to you, you're not alone. And while it's incredibly daunting to step in front of a camera (there's a reason BOH works in the BOH), the first step to getting jiggy (and comfortable) with it is understanding why video is so important to any restaurant marketing strategy.
Making social media videos is not about going viral. While no doubt amazing when it happens, the reality is that it's a lot like winning the lottery. The best way to think about video is to reframe it as a search engine tool. When people are looking for new restaurants to try, they may go to Google or Yelp, but they also search on social media. A 2023 survey found that 37% of consumers search for restaurants by looking at their social media pages and that percentage was even higher for Millenials and Gen Z.
Here are 6 things to keep in mind for your next social media marketing video:
- Authenticity - This is in the number one spot for a reason. Authenticity will sell your brand and your restaurant faster than fancy lighting or hashtag captions can any day. The key is to give viewers a taste of what it's like to dine with you in your videos. Are you a fun, spunky burger joint with inappropriate menu item names? Be fun and show it off because yes, I do want to try your Mother Shucker oysters! Are you a romantic, cozy, hole-in-the-wall date night spot with immaculate vibes? Capture those vibes and keep it real - you don't have to try to be funny if that's not your brand. Don't try to be like anybody else, because your restaurant isn't like anybody else's either. Hone in on what makes your restaurant unique, and shout that from the rooftops.
- Lighting, framing and video quality - Most iPhones (and Samsungs, I guess), have excellent cameras these days, so no need to splash out on fancy film equipment. If you're capturing food or drinks, find a big window to film them by so you can take advantage of natural light. If you're filming your team in the kitchen or back office, make sure the space is well-lit and the audience can clearly hear whoever is talking.
✨ Pro tip: Adding captions to your videos helps a lot with search because social media platforms scan them for their algorithms. For this reason, try to use the built-in captioning system for each app and add the captions when you upload the video so that the text is recognized, rather than editing the video with captions in your editing software.
- CTA (Call to Action) - It is good marketing practice to always have a call to action at the end of your video, social post, email - really anything sent out for marketing purposes. Essentially it's how you direct your audience towards your desired outcome. So if you make a cool video showing off your new dinner specials, add a call to action in the video and caption with a link to your reservations page. The optimal time to get someone to book a reservation is right after they've engaged with your content (because you're top of mind), and you're making it easier for them to book by providing a link. People are forgetful, and sometimes a little lazy (myself included!) so CTAs make it easier to push your potential guests towards your desired outcome.
- People - People love people. Yes, beautiful food is enticing to look at too, but save that for the still photography. Whether it's you or your team, feature the people who make your restaurant what it is. Show off their personalities so your audience can get a better sense of what it would be like to dine at your restaurant. This is where your authenticity can really shine. The best part is if you have team members who like making social content or are comfortable in front of cameras, they can help with the heavy lifting. Just make sure you show them your appreciation afterward!
- Consistency - As stated earlier, not every video is going to go viral and they don't have to! Your restaurant is not a one-hit-wonder, and your video content shouldn't be either. Try to post videos consistently to build up your social pages with tons of content. This way, when prospective guests find you and check out your page, they'll have plenty to scroll through giving them more opportunities to find something they connect with and will remember next time they're in the mood for puffy tacos.
- Sharing - Finally, it's important to remember that uploading the video is not the final step. The final step is sharing that video on all your channels and having your team, friends and family share too! Social media algorithms try to show people what they think they want to see, so if your video is being shared, liked and commented on, the algorithm can flag that and should help promote it more. Your mileage may vary, however, as social media algorithms are notoriously complex and ever-changing. (Hence why we recommend consistency over virality!)
What's [me] into
😂 WHAT WE'RE LAUGHING AT
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- Richard Blais - A restaurant New Year's resolution literally no one will stick to (but it's the thought that counts right?).
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- Jonathan Kite - Probably the best Tony Bourdain impressionist, reviewing probably the best place on earth - Costco (except for the parking lots).
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- Palm City Social - When marketing your cocktail menu, sometimes the best inspiration comes from unusual places.
📖 WHAT WE'RE READING
🎧 WHAT WE'RE LISTENING TO
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