Dallas prototype serves as testing ground for innovations — from sustainable uniforms and cashless transactions to a kitchen display system and grease extraction for bio-fuels
Wingstop Inc.’s new “Restaurant of the Future” in Dallas is 100% digital and cashless, which provides the parent company with additional customer data, says Marisa Carona, the company’s chief growth officer.
The Addison, Texas-based fast-casual company in the prototype location also has shifted its modular, changeable kitchen into a back-to-front configuration, rather than running it in a line down the side of unit, and shaved square footage off the real estate by about 300 to 400 square feet.
The digital unit provides useful data on customers, Carona said, and that can be used in marketing.
Carona, in this video interview with Nation’s Restaurant News, said Wingstop “been able to accumulate a massive unique user database” of more than 25 million customers and can send those users messages and offers “with unique relevant content.”
The all-digital location covers about 1,300 square feet and offers no tables. It does offer three bench-style seats for waiting.
The company-owned location is an innovation laboratory, Carona added, with low-energy lighting and a built-in holding system for cooking oil that is convenient located for bio-fuel reclamation.
As of Sept. 25, the end of the third quarter, Wingstop had 1,673 locations globally. Same-store sales domestically were up 3.9% in the quarter and the system generated 61.6% of sales via digital channels.
Correction Feb. 3, 2022: This story had been edited to correct Marisa Carona's name.
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