As we digest the recent news that Amazon is buying Whole Foods, there's another important statistic the foodservice industry needs to consider. According to the USDA, for the first time in our nation's history, food spending away from home has surpassed food spending at home.
Not so long ago, there was a huge buzz on how the fast casual restaurant segment was going to completely disrupt the foodservice industry. The idea was that smaller chains focused on higher quality and diverse menu offerings would continue to grab more and more of the market share.
One of my favorite parts about the National Restaurant Association Show is eating my yearly allotment of hot dogs. These aren't the hot dogs of my youth with (gasp!) ketchup. They're the Vienna dogs with the perfect snap. Drag them through the garden with pickles, peppers, relish, and everything else that makes a Chicago dog so great, and I'm a happy camper.
Here at TMC, we're big fans of Seth Godin's daily insights. If you don't follow him, you should. In today's post, he talks about the downfalls of the "sort by price" mentality, and he argues that buying the cheapest widget almost never winds up being the right choice. Can you think of a time when you bought the cheapest item possible, and it wound up being the best option in the long run?
