A Lot To Look At

— By Jason Srain — How to use your parking lot to make a great first impression.   According to a Princeton study published by the Association for Psychological Science, first impressions are made within the first 7 seconds of

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Cooking Up Value

— By Bruno Hanelt —   Unlocking hidden value and difference-making savings in restaurant (re)construction projects.   Restaurant owners and operators looking to expand to new spaces are facing some structural market headwinds right now that makes completing reconstruction and

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Now Is the Time

— By Doug Groves — Is your retail business insured for a cyber attack?   A critical piece of information for retail businesses and franchisees to consider is the exclusion of cyber liability from standard insurance policies. In fact, most

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Long Term Strategy

— By Tom Dawson — Tips to extend the life of a roof.   A new roof is a substantial investment that can cost thousands of dollars. With adequate maintenance and attention, a roof’s lifespan can be significantly increased. If

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Crash Course

— By Garrett Fishaw — Storefront crashes: the incoming cost you can’t afford.   60 times a day. More than 4,000 injured annually. As many as 500 killed each year. According to the Storefront Safety Council, those are the statistics

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Maximizing The Experience

— By Jon Jaggers — Cross-pollinating your retail experience: store-within-a-store, dual brands, and sub-brands.   In today’s retail climate, many customers are looking for experiences beyond the store. These days, more and more brands are partnering with other businesses to

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Current Data

— By Ramez Naguib, P.E. — Mitigating COVID-19 spread in restaurants using CFD analysis.   The world is having an unprecedented time due to the pandemic. Currently, more than 93 million people have been infected, and over 2 million people

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Catalyst for Transformation

— By John Gajewski, MRICS — Retail strategies for leveraging historic assets to build a competitive edge.   In a highly competitive, complex and dynamically shifting retail market, all eyes are on innovative solutions, and the conditions created by the

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Reliable Roof Data

— By Tom Coble — How facility managers can improve the performance of their roofs without increasing spend.   We’re at an exciting time in the national commercial roofing industry (yes, I said “exciting” and “roofing” in the same sentence)

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Smart Solution

— By Meg Mason — How Lowe’s has reduced water use and its carbon footprint with smart irrigation.   Lowe’s is focused on reducing its environmental impact while also increasing the efficiency of its operations. To address these goals, Lowe’s

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SMB Employers Want to Hire More Workers

— By Chuck Casto —   While the majority of SMB employers want to hire more people, the percentage of small businesses facing labor shortages continues to rise in key industries.   The U.S. Jobs Report was a highlight of

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Are You Experienced?

— By Charlie Meyer — How brick-and-mortar retailers can leverage in-store technologies to beat the online competition.   The last 2 years have been absolutely awful for owners of physical stores. Online competition has been around for decades, of course,

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Before The Flood

— By Tiffany Largey — 5 steps to prepare your property for a flooding emergency.   Flooding is the most common natural disaster and leading cause of weather-related deaths. It is becoming a larger threat each year with 25-30% of

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Be Prepared

— By Bill Flynn — Preparedness is the best protection against workplace violence.   Restaurant and retail workers have been on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic since the beginning. Every day these essential workers are exposed to the

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Power…Full

— By David Sansenbach — Efficient energy management requires high-quality power, not just high-quality equipment.   For businesses in an industry that operates on tight margins, restaurants have incredibly intensive energy demands that continuously increase costs and challenge the bottom

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In Case of Emergency

— By Amanda Anderson — Do you have a team in place to react and respond?   It is nine in the evening and the doors to your business are locked, drawers counted, shelves faced for a successful tomorrow. The

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At Your Service

— Interview with Jeff Crivello — Famous Dave’s expands its first line-service model and even adds a drive-thru as it grows through ghost kitchens, virtual brands, dual concepts, and strategic acquisitions of complementary brands.   Nearly 30 years after the

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Inflation’s Impact

— By Aliyah Kaye Crawley —   How is inflation affecting the restaurant industry?     Inflation impacts everyday decisions in restaurants: how they price their food, what type of service they provide, which menu items they can afford to

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Immersive Entertainment 2.0

— By Chris Roy — The next level of tech experiences for retail and restaurant venues.   Before the pandemic, immersive entertainment was an emerging trend in the retail sector. After a year and a half of reduced experiences, consumers’

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Embracing a New Normal

— By Mark Kapczynski — Why we should never go back to a pre-COVID supply chain.   For the past decade, global supply chains have been running a seemingly normal path. However, when COVID hit the U.S. in March 2020,

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Sign of the Times

— By David Tracz — Modern restaurant design and its evolution.   If there is one common experience that (most) humans share a love for, it’s probably food — especially when that food is cooked by someone else. Enter: the

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Convenience Is Key

— By Garrett Fishaw — 4 ways to improve your curbside pickup and delivery services.   Curbside pickup and food delivery apps have taken the restaurant and grocery industry by storm. No longer do customers have to physically enter retail

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Rethinking a Re-Roof

— By Tom Dawson — How to save on roof-related costs during a remodel.   Remodeling a building tends to be costly, but there is a chance businesses can bypass a major — and often assumed — “necessary” cost. The

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2022 Pest Predictions

— By Nancy Troyano — Entomologists provide their 2022 pest prognosis for retail and restaurant managers.   As the world continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the business and operational world has shifted. Labor and supply shortages

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Safe & Sanitized

— By Del Williams —   UVC light inactivates viruses and other airborne pathogens, improving indoor safety in commercial spaces.     With commercial facilities taking precautions against viruses as never before, an effective new tool in their arsenal is

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In For A Sweet Treat

— Interview with Justin Reese —   Ghirardelli Chocolate Company enters its 170th year with major renovation plans for its iconic Ghirardelli Square flagship locations in San Francisco.     As experiential retail returns across the country, an elevated experience

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Flipping the Script

— By Danny Koontz —   Advantages of having worked on both sides of the same coin: on the facilities management side and the vendor side.   Ever wondered when ordering something, buying something or taking a sales call, why

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