‘Share your meal’ – for NAM foodies everywhere

Given the 24/7 nature of the ‘day-job’, busy NAMs may not feel like cooking an evening meal, or even eating out?

Shareyourmeal has identified 75,000 home cooks across the world that are prepared to share meals with people that don’t have time to cook for themselves. The cooks prepare meals in their homes, and share them at cost with customers, living in the neighbourhood.

In other words, NAMs can now find out what meals their neighbours are sharing, reduce food waste and meet new people!

Launched in the Netherlands in 2012, the idea has caught on to the extent that Ahold have kicked off trials at an Albert Heijn outlet in Amsterdam, in conjunction with Shareyourmeal.

More details as part of a larger agenda within the sharing-economy via a Ted-talk by the founders here.

When you register on the website, you will automatically receive e-mails listing all the meals in your neighbourhood. Or you can check out the website to see which meals are on offer near you.

Incidentally, for UK NAMs that feel this might be a ‘foreign’ idea for use abroad, www.shareyourmeal.net already lists local consumer-cooks and their customers availing of the service in the UK...

Seriously, albeit little acorns thus far, the idea obviously taps into a felt-need reflecting these unprecedented times - like discounters/pound shops? - and is unlikely to simply fade away should the good times roll…

Time for food service suppliers - and innovative retailers, including Amazon (!) -  to find a way in, before this new marketplace discovers that it can survive, and even  thrive, independently…?

Nestlé Launches ‘ONE SQUARE METRE’ Coffee Shop Concept

Contract caterers, workplaces, universities, cafés, pubs, bars and restaurants are targets of a ‘one square metre coffee shop’ concept called Nescafé Milano Lounge that has just been launched.

It is a touch screen self-serve coffee machine that can deliver up to 400 customised drink varieties, access to nutritional content, aimed at consumer interaction, but outlets can optimise sales through personalised onscreen promotions and videos tailored to their specific business requirements. Its wireless facility also allows access to sales data and management of stock control.

A potential driver of food service performance? 
Apart from building and optimising traffic its square metre footprint should be an encouragement for food service establishments to focus upon a key retail metric, sales and profit per sq. m. {In fact, if food service suppliers encouraged their customers to adopt 'supermarket' metrics, it would help all stakeholders to assess value of goods, services and assets more effectively. Other potential supermarket metrics here}.

In other words, units located in the UK achieving annual sales of £10.8k and net profits of £646 (£1,000/sq. ft. and net profits of £60/sq. ft.) will outperform Tesco…… 

What if: a restaurant was run like a supermarket?

Suppose a major multiple decided to apply state-of-art principles to the Horeca sector, using expertise in space management, offering optimisation, efficient service-level and money management to bring something extra to the food service industry…

Space management:
Calculation of sales and profits per sq.ft. means converting annual sales into table footprint like a supermarket gondola, with spaces between tables treated as aisles. In other words, the total sq.ft measure of all tables divided into annual sales would give sales per sq.ft. of ‘selling area’.

Reducing the space between tables would increase selling intensity, with customer comfort and relative privacy a trade-off against increased productivity…

The offering:
Diners would need the equivalent of ‘shopping the aisle’ via a more interactive menu. In other words, it would be apparent that flowery descriptions of menu-ingredients, albeit in franglais, would then seem inadequate, as currently conveyed. However, the temporary provision of an ipad for each guest, listing available dishes, complete with provenance, attractive illustrations pitched at levels that would manage expectations, updated ‘live’ to match kitchen availability, would help in meeting diner need. Unforeseen demand-spikes would obviously trigger emergency deliveries from just-in-time suppliers. The addition of ‘ideal world ‘ needs and other personal details would aid the addition of award points and service improvements, thus providing a basis for follow-up marketing to satisfied guests.

Service level:
The ipad would also help in minimising waiter numbers (virtual self-service?) by allowing guests to place orders directly with the kitchen, with ‘are we there yet?’ queries answered regularly via text updates…(with a suitable app designed to delete expletives, as necessary...).
Meanwhile, live video coverage of the kitchen would facilitate on-going observation/monitoring of the cooking process where so required by anxious guests…Discretionary on/off soundtrack would protect sensitive guests in the event of sudden outbursts of ‘over-excitement’ by the chef/s…

The money:
In terms of pricing, the ipad would provide full details on pricing, by ingredient/unit, per chair, and full table, with a running total monitoring impulse bottles of wine and other add-ons. This ongoing build-up of the 'shopping basket’ would provide invaluable insight to restaurant management, enabling lighting and heating levels to be related to rate-of-sale and adjusted accordingly.

Tables could be priced according to popularity, size, position, degree of privacy and of course discounted via advance-booking…  At the end of the meal, payment could be made in a check-out area, thereby freeing up the table so much faster for the next party.

Finally, a discrete scanner would then ensure that the number of guests attempting to take home the 'menu' as a souvenir, would be minimised...

Impossible, or food for thought?

What if: Airlines sold paint?
What if: Orchestras were made efficient?