By Jimmy Frischling, Managing Partner at Branded Strategic Hospitality
The COVID pandemic continues to rage and its impact is being profoundly felt on both a personal and professional basis. So many industries are being hit hard, but there’s no segment of the market that has been more impacted by the pandemic than restaurants.
Starting this week in NYC, in-room dining has once again been suspended. 25% of restaurants in NYC have already been shuttered and this latest shutdown measure is sure to result in an acceleration of additional closers. As longstanding owners and operators of restaurants here in NYC, it’s particularly painful to see and live through this most challenging environment due to the fact that our industry has worked incredibly hard and spent precious money to keep up with the government’s-imposed restrictions and requirements. There’s no question that safety and the health of all New Yorkers is the paramount issue, but this newly imposed shutdown will once again test our resolve and will be a real body-blow to so many people.
The New York City restaurant industry is as creative, agile, hardworking and gritty as any you can imagine, so I’m not betting against my brothers and sisters that drive the NYC restaurant business (and you shouldn’t either). Let me be even more clear with this message, here’s how you can help! It’s simple, easy it’s and I bet you’ll even have some fun.
Delivery and Take-out: Indoor dining is shut and let’s face it, despite a mild winter thus far, dining alfresco in December, January and February isn’t for everyone. This is the moment to embrace your local restaurants delivery and takeout offering and do so by ordering DIRECTLY from the restaurants (their websites, apps or call them). We know the existing delivery service platforms (“DSPs”) and the apps on your phones have made ordering as easy as buying something on Amazon, but if you go directly to your favorite restaurants websites, you’re going to find they’ve come a long way to create an equally easy and user-friendly experience. You will also find that your restaurants of choice will have something special for you when you order direct and have likely embraced loyalty programs to make ordering direct as attractive as possible. But even if they don’t have specials or loyalty, I saved this key value proposition to the very end, if you order direct, you will save money and save the restaurants money. The DSPs charge the restaurants 20% to 30% commissions on the order you make through their apps and websites, so please understand how NOT profitable your orders are to the very restaurants you love when you order through the various DSP platforms. Next week I’m going to write more about the DSPs and specifically the DoorDash IPO. Here’s a little teaser, the travel industry was disrupted by Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline and others, but the airlines and hotels came back strong. At Branded Strategic, we believe content wins!
Gift cards: This is the most direct way you can be helpful and immediately impactful to your favorite restaurants. Purchase gift cards for friends, for your family and for yourselves. This isn’t charity, you’re simply paying now for a meal you’re going to have at a later date. We all have our go-to joints, the ones that know your name, know your drink, know where you like to sit. Even if you’ve never bought a gift card, this is a fantastic moment to do just that. Make gift cards to your favorite restaurants something you give this holiday season. It’s a win-win. You’ll be introducing your places to your friends and family and helping to give these restaurants some much needed near term cash. At Branded we subscribe to the belief that “it takes a village”. It takes a village to raise a child, a village to build and succeed as a company and a village to make sure our neighborhoods maintain a sense of community. Let’s help protect the restaurants that do that for your neighborhood.
Branded Strategic Hospitality is an investment and advisory company exclusively focused on Hospitality Technology, Food & Beverage Innovation and Emerging Concepts. For more information, please go to our website: www.brandedstrategic.com.
