— By Scott Benson — No longer an afterthought, food and beverage is taking up more space in the retail landscape than ever before. The ways in which consumers choose to spend their time and money are changing and so must the industries that serve them, and the food and beverage industry is no exception. Food and beverage is flourishing in a time when many traditional retailers seem to be treading water. People are dining out more than ever — the average American household spends approximately $3,365 per year …
Industry Voices
— By Rick Sung — Leveraging the power of predictive analysis in facilities management. Renowned management consultant Peter Drucker once mused, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” For leaders seeking ways to advance their facilities management (FM), measuring progress is a complex and nuanced process requiring a sophisticated, data-driven approach. In this quest for improvement, however, gathering data is only half the battle. To make truly informed decisions, business leaders and facilities managers alike need analytics to better understand the staggering volume of data flowing through …
— By Ray Hatch — How restaurants can help curb the plastics epidemic. With 2020 having been set as a benchmark for business’ sustainability programs, many restaurant operations are working hard to achieve their waste-reduction goals. One area that restaurants are starting to focus their attention, and rightly so, is on the problem of post-consumer waste. Your operation can be squeaky clean and generating a relatively low volume of waste, but once you account for single-use packaging… your environmental footprint becomes significantly larger. Nothing can derail an environmental program …
— By Anthony Vross — Addressing ponding water on a heavily penetrated low slope roof. There are essentially two ways water leaves a roof: positive drainage or evaporation. When neither can occur quickly enough, the result is ponding water. Ponding water is defined as any water remaining on a roof 48 hours after a rain. Most commonly occurring on low-slope commercial roofs, ponding water can result from poor building/roof design, poor drainage and pockets forming on the roof after a building or substrate settles. Retail and restaurant facility managers …
— By TJ Durham — Four keys to successful property management. Often flying under the radar, a trusted property manager is among the most valuable assets a retail owner can have in its corner. The role goes far deeper than landscape and curb appeal — it also includes managing the finances and operations of the asset, creating a budget and working within that budget to hire contractors for routine maintenance, fit-outs and overseeing basic improvements on the property. The ability to rely on a professional who can seamlessly maximize …
— By Ted Stouch — From service programs to vendor selection, everything you need to know about choosing a national sign service provider. An integral part of any business owner or facilities manager’s job is looking for a national sign service company to maintain their storefront signage. Your signage is a significant part of your brand identity, and it’s how customers, executives and prospects identify your location. Maintaining this signage can become a challenge with all the other tasks associated with running a business. For instance, we’ve all seen …
— By Erich Lawson — 6 simple ways to reduce food waste in restaurants. Every year a lot of food is wasted, of which restaurants are major contributors. Recyclable items like cardboard and paper waste find their way to landfills instead of being recycled. As a restaurateur, you can do your bit for the planet by reducing this waste. You can even install self-contained trash compactors to handle waste efficiently. Audit the Waste If you cannot measure how much you are wasting, there is no way you can minimize …
— By Tom Dunn — How active fryer management improves employee safety, reduces costs and increases sustainability. Restaurants and commercial kitchens are demanding environments. Quick-service operators, fast-casual franchisees, full-service restaurant owners and facility kitchens everywhere often struggle with a number of challenges in today’s competitive market: increases in minimum wage, joint-employer positioning, new government regulations, evolving consumer tastes, and more. It’s abundantly clear to anyone involved in the industry that foodservice is a challenging field and frontline employees in the kitchen are at high risk for serious injury because …
— By Jamie Johnson — Seven energy-saving changes businesses can make to save on energy costs. Operating a business has various costs, some we have control over and some that we don’t. In my business, I love the costs that directly contribute to sales and new revenue, and I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about those fixed costs to keep the lights on. Ironically, we focus on helping our clients reduce energy costs, and we love clients who have 24/7 operating hours. Businesses with 24/7 operations have …
— By Jeff Hill — The growth of self-service kiosks presents new challenges for quick-service restaurant facilities teams. Do you like self-service kiosks, or would you prefer to interact with a human cashier when visiting your favorite quick-service restaurant (QSR)? Your answer to that question, unsurprisingly, is likely driven by your age: 18- to 24-year-olds are more than 70% likely to visit a restaurant if it had a kiosk option; 25- to 34-year-olds are 65% more likely to visit; 45- to 54-year-olds are 60% more likely; and Over 55-year-olds …