Restaurant operators facing steep declines in sales because of the coronavirus pandemic are looking for tips, ideas and best practices to reduce costs quickly in the downturn.
Chad Spaulding, managing director of CapitalSpring, a restaurant investment firm with offices in Nashville, Tenn., Los Angeles and New York, over the weekend published a list of cost-saving ideas on LinkedIn taken from a March 18 Town Hall among the company’s leaders.
“We wanted to share a list of updates, ideas, tips and best practices that we hope will be useful to you and the restaurant industry,” Spaulding said. CapitalSpring’s town hall was for leaders of its portfolio companies who operate about 3,000 restaurants, ranging from quick-service to full-service, across the nation.
The “summary of the ideas we had aggregated ahead of that call, updated with more ideas from the call and other industry conversations since,” included useful suggestions from rent mitigation to marketing.
For example, in the now widespread application of curbside pickup, the suggestions included:
- Use gloves (masks where appropriate) to give guests comfort.
- Think of ways for customers to communicate from car and vice-versa: flashlights, honk horn, text, call.
- Position team members outside during peak periods.
- Communicate this option through marketing channels.
Attached is Spaulding’s entire five-page memo, which he allowed Nation’s Restaurant News to reproduce.
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