— 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 offer a unique experience that both brand partners can share. This is called cross-pollination within retail, and it has become one of the hottest trends in the business world. In this column, we’ll explore what exactly cross-pollinating your retail experience means and how you can use it as an opportunity …
Chick-fil-A
57% of consumers believe restaurant employees have more control over their experience than the brand itself. Chicago — Labor demand is continuing to outstrip labor supply by a wider margin despite record job openings. The hospitality industry is just one industry taking hard hits, with some restaurants reporting temporarily closing or cutting hours due to the labor shortage. But just as restaurants look to robotics, apps and digital tools to fill the voids in the frontline workforce, consumers are pressing pause, expressing their desire for more human experiences. Big Red …
Chicago — Englewood Construction, one of the country’s leading commercial construction firms, has a number of new restaurant projects underway this spring, including two new Outback Steakhouse locations in Columbus, Ga., and Hialeah, Fla.; a new Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Lutz, Fla.; a ground-up Chick-fil-A in Novi, Mich.; and the interior remodel of a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Seattle. “In recent years our Restaurant Group has continued to be a strong and steady part of our business as we partner with long term clients on not only ground-up new-construction opportunities, …