August 1, 2025

Smaller Isn't Better

Major restaurant chains are always tempted to open smaller locations in an attempt to:

* Avoid impacting successful, traditional locations.

* Developing a smaller market that may not be ready for a full-size facility.

This rarely works. McDonald's attempted to build Mini-Macs in small towns in the early 1970s. Most locations had to be expanded or rebuilt because the volume exceeded expectations. That was a good result, but then there was the SPOD program at the turn of the century.

Starbucks: The end of the seatless coffee shop

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Starbucks tried to become something that its customers didn't it to be-a a fast, convenient kiosk. They wanted a cafe to sit down, spend hours and use the bathroom. They already have QSR coffee with drive thru, like McCafe.

Richard Adams said...

It's challenging to build year-over-year sales when customers are sitting around reading books and listening to podcasts—that works fine for the neighborhood coffee shop, but not for a publicly held company where investors demand growth, upon growth, upon growth.
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