sales

Spin doctors

The ability to take an idea from one area and generalize it to another is a sign of intelligence. So let's see how smart you can be about holiday marketing.

The week’s 5 head-spinning moments

Neck braces were needed this week after chains signaled a major shift in their value strategies, Panera disclosed intentions to drop its one-size-fits-all mentality and Jack in the Box discovered a lot can happen in a minute, never mind two.

There's a lot happening with wine out there. It's a buyer's market, restaurateurs are getting their own labels, wine lists are more selective, and fast-casual chains are trying to do wine better than the old boys.

Following the money could have triggered a whiplash epidemic this week. Darden didn’t make enough of it, fueling speculation of management changes, while disgruntled restaurant buyers said they want a professional snoop to determine exactly where theirs went. A hefty round of fines underscores who was really behind last month’s fast-food wage protests, and employees in Michigan are learning what it’s like to have skin in the game.

While many newcomers are clobbering themselves to assemble huge menus that try to be all things to all people, quite a few entrepreneurs are going the time-honored route of picking just one thing and trying to do it right.

Most of the increase came from traffic increases, a result in part of cranking six more customers per hour through the line during the lunch and dinner rushes.

Encouraged by a strong economy, restaurant chains are growing with confident—if somewhat conservative—steps.

The burger giant raised unit volumes to $1.6 and sold 237 stores, with 500 more on the block.

Just as there is no single approach to successfully growing grapes, there is no one recipe for creating an effective wine list. If a restaurant’s wine list projects the notion that wine is for special-occasion dining only, then wine sales will surely suffer.

Bad financial results have restaurant chain executives citing all kinds of factors for their top- and bottom-line difficulties, from an unexciting football season to high legal fees. Do they have a case? It depends.

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