Samples From Restaurant to Retail

Throughout the handbook, the terms "restaurateur", "chef", "food entrepreneur" and "operator" are used interchangeably: All the titles refer to a person who seeks to produce a specialty food product. That person can be any of the above, including innkeepers, winery or microbrewery owners, farmer market entrepreneurs or college dining directors. The main thread that makes any of these industry sectors well positioned is that each business already has brand name identity with an established customer market.

Determining what product you should produce and how you should position the product (selling it on-premise or branching out into retail stores) is an individual journey for each person - there is no simple template to follow. This handbook presents the insights and perspective of restaurateurs who have already ventured into food retailing so that you will become familiar before you start, on the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

Following are two sample exercises included in From Restaurant to Retail, A Handbook for Food & Hospitality Professionals

Table of Contents (PDF 392KB)

An overview of everything this comprehensive book has to offer the hospitality and food professional.

Exercise 1 - Initial Questions to Ask Yourself (PDF 184KB)

From Chapter One:
Restaurateurs, Food Manufacturers, and Retailers Align to Meet the Demands of Today's Consumers

You have to know what your customers' expectations and needs are and then decide whether the product you are developing, conveys the right message to meet those needs. Is the product a memory or souvenir of an experience? Is the product a way to make a meal preparation at home easier? Does the product fulfill a new niche in the marketplace that doesn't already exist? You need to identify the purpose of the product and whether that purpose is important to the customer.

This is a process of discovery and your opinion will change once you begin a systematic process in assessing both the product and the market. In Exercise One, you will log your initial assumptions about why you think the product will be of value to your customer. As you progress through the handbook, these answers may very well change, but each time you make a change you will find you've developed more insight. You may discover that sometimes just being a restaurant-driven product will be the hook that catches the consumer's attention, while other times such a distinction could be irrelevant. Remember, as previously noted, the term restaurant broadly embraces other industry sectors as well.

Exercise 7 - Market Analysis (PDF 190KB)

From Chapter Three:
Motivators that Drive Decisions: Pride, Profit and Public Relations.

The Exercise outlines how to conduct a market analysis by going to two retailers - one large supermarket and one specialty food store. Take an inventory of the products you believe are similar to the product you want to produce. You not only need to know what products are already out in the marketplace (even if you decide to just sell on-premise), but you will get ideas about packaging and understand the price range associated with your product.