Foodserviceclub

Online Club for the Foodservice Industry

Sharing information, tools and knowledge for the Foodservice Professional.

Members

  • Patricia Kelly-Ruiz
  • Frank Kehayias
  • Mary Ann Poulos
  • Roger Marvin Crosby
  • Mendy Cunningham
  • Manuel V. Pereira Jr.
  • Abd Al Salam Husni Abdouh
  • hyana rose
  • Paul Clarke
  • Fernando Lopez
  • bcbyrd
  • Tony Di Rico
  • nhari
  • Pete Kane
  • Tim Sereda
  • Kristi Hensley
  • Wes Babcock
  • praveen
  • Mohamed
  • Rohan Reginold Edirisinghe

Latest Activity

Massive portions are not of the same importance they once were, however the special feeling and value of going out has been forced to the forefront of the diner. People demand quality now more than ever for their hard earned money. It is of my st...
4 hours ago
Also, what about the cost of training? This month, the minimum wage goes to $7.25/hour which will make a huge difference on the already high cost of training new staff members. In restaurants, we have so many comps due to mistakes made by new (and...
5 hours ago
Restaurant owners always look to cut corners when the economy / sales are off. Think about it, as restaurant owners we are all guilty of cutting corners, sometimes too much, other times not enough. We beat our salesmen, cut hours, buy cheaper food...
18 hours ago
Frank Kehayias updated their profile
on Tuesday
Patricia Kelly-Ruiz and Frank Kehayias joined Foodserviceclub
on Monday
Mary Ann Poulos is now a member of Foodserviceclub
June 30
Lets discuss environmental concerns and industry initiatives.
June 30
sunilkumar updated their profile
June 29
Roger Marvin Crosby added a photo
Turkey legs
June 29
June 29
Roger Marvin Crosby is now a member of Foodserviceclub
June 29
Mendy Cunningham is now a member of Foodserviceclub
June 26
Keith Gellman added a blog post
I had the pleasure of visiting the US Open last week. The annual Golfing event was held at Bethpage Black. A public golf course on Long Island in New York. To be fair, I had never been to a major golfing event and didn't know what to expect and we...
June 26
David Maloni added a blog post
The chart of the week is weekly dairy cow slaughter. This is an important statistic to monitor because it can indicate the trend in the size of the milk cow herd and thus milk production levels. Dairy cow slaughter for the week ending June 13th wa...
June 25
John McGrath and Jeff Epstein are now friends
June 23
June 20
June 20
Abd Al Salam Husni Abdouh added a discussion
first i would like to ask the correct way to make a food daily flash cost
June 20
i wanted to know of how was the flow of cost control in a business.a restaurant. please help me..
June 20
Paul Clarke updated their profile
June 19
 

Blog Posts

Keith Gellman

How NOT to run an event- opinion

I had the pleasure of visiting the US Open last week. The annual Golfing event was held at Bethpage Black. A public golf course on Long Island in New York. To be fair, I had never been to a major golfing event and didn't know what to expect and went in with eyes wide open.

Unfortunately it was sogging wet on the ground due to heavy rains from the previous day. Regardless, my expectations of hospitality, food, beverage and safety were higher than normal prior to arriving. What I found dissapoint… Continue

Posted by Keith Gellman on June 26, 2009 at 9:00am

David Maloni

Milk Production Declines on the Way

The chart of the week is weekly dairy cow slaughter. This is an important statistic to monitor because it can indicate the trend in the size of the milk cow herd and thus milk production levels. Dairy cow slaughter for the week ending June 13th was 50% larger than the 5 year average for the week. Dairy cow slaughter has been trending well above last year’s inflated levels for about 7 consecutive weeks. Thus, we anticipate that a notable net reduction in the milk cow herd is likely to occur this… Continue

Posted by David Maloni on June 25, 2009 at 5:34pm

wsm190

Distributor Electronic Reporting - What to Ask for & Why

Electronic Reporting comes in many shapes and sizes. Depending on the Foodservice Distributors that you purchase from, the complexity and breadth of information that is reportable vary greatly. Large broadline distributors such as US Foods and Sysco, have the ability to provide foodservice operators with detailed information on purchases. Sysco many times refers to their usage reports as Satrak’s which simply stands for Sales Tracking. Other popular titles which for all intensive purposes mean t… Continue

Posted by wsm190 on June 15, 2009 at 11:15pm — 1 Comment

David Maloni

Signs of Sow Herd Liquidation

The chart of the week is weekly sow slaughter. A sow is a female pig that has produced a litter of piglets. The weekly sow slaughter numbers can give the trade an indication of a building or contracting hog herd. It works like this. When farmers want to reduce the size of the herd, they liquidate a portion of their breeding inventory (sows) as well as send more gilts (female pigs that haven’t produced a litter yet) to slaughter instead of retaining them to produce. The net effects from these act… Continue

Posted by David Maloni on June 12, 2009 at 7:45am

Joe Dunbar

More Food Cost Tweets

My ongoing test of Twitter continues. In case you are not a Twitter-holic, here's my recent #FCTips:

Local chain is offering $2.99 cheesesteaks. Deep revenue drops on popular items destroy the % analysis model for costs and profit.

Keep entree prices below $25 in 2009!

Develop food cost controls you can depend on during peak volume (both seasonal and day of week).

Accurate forecasting on busy nights is the key to success. Keep ordering and production tight (especially if you close on Monday)… Continue

Posted by Joe Dunbar on June 6, 2009 at 10:27am

David Maloni

Beef Supply Surprise

The chart of the week is the year to date change in the number of prime cattle slaughtered in 2009 compared to prior years. As noted in the latest issue of the Weekly Commodity Report, the percentages of cattle grading choice and prime are trending well above average levels for this time of the year. And as written in previous notes, despite the 4% decline so far in overall beef production, our models suggest that prime and choice beef output are somewhere around 3% higher than a year ago. If yo… Continue

Posted by David Maloni on June 5, 2009 at 12:00pm

Keith Gellman

Moments of truth in full service- opinion

Facebook, twitter, myspace, restaurant.com, even sites here at ning are inconsequential for most participants. How do I come to such conclusions?

One more; I have read many an authors attempt to direct foodservice managers to the web beyond their websites. In fact, I have read some great stories of how twitter and facebook have driven sales succesfully to locations.

So where is the rub?

For me it comes down to plain vanilla basics. Time and time again I notice, observe and interact with the f… Continue

Posted by Keith Gellman on June 2, 2009 at 11:49am — 6 Comments

David Maloni

Grain Markets Concerns

The chart of the week is corn, soybean and wheat ending stocks per use ratios. Basically, an ending stocks per use ratio formula is; stocks leftover at the end of the business day on the last day of the crop year divided by how much we use in the crop year. So for example, if we have 10 bushels of corn leftover and we use 100 bushels for various outlets during the crop year, we would have a 10% ending stocks per use ratio. What you need to know looking at this chart is that the lower the ratio t… Continue

Posted by David Maloni on May 28, 2009 at 11:51am

Jeffrey Summers

Twitterraunts How Restaurants Can Successfully Engage with Social Media



Click here to view or download the e-book. (PDF)

"One of the best articles I have read on social media that relates directly the restaurant business. Great job Jeffrey and RCS!" ~ Keith anContinue

Posted by Jeffrey Summers on May 28, 2009 at 8:06am

Joe Dunbar

Food Cost Tweets

I started posting short food cost tips on Twitter. They all begin with FCTip to make it easy to follow. To make it easy on the members, I'll post summaries here on FSC:

If you use a 10% safety factor when ordering perishable food, try 9% for a few weeks. If it works, keep slicing until you hit 5%.

Is waste a problem? Designate a special waste basket for spoiled food. Weigh this basket daily. Record the weights on a chart.

Your food cost % tends to have a direct relationship to the number of p… Continue

Posted by Joe Dunbar on May 26, 2009 at 11:19am

David Maloni

Historic Chicken Production Slowdown

The chart of the week is annual chicken production. As stated in the latest issue of the Weekly Commodity Report, chicken production in 2009 as an annual average is forecasted to decline for the first time in 34 years. Why? It’s well documented that chicken producer margins have suffered during the past 18 months or so which has caused them to cut production. Chicken production for the better part of 2009 has been trending 5% plus below year ago levels. 2009 will almost certainly mark only the f… Continue

Posted by David Maloni on May 22, 2009 at 9:49am

Keith Gellman

Opinion and observations regarding this years NRA show.

Joe Dunbar and I spent all four days at the NRA show (which ended yesterday); we walked all the aisles at least twice. Being completely non-scientific but trying to be observant we came up with the following:

1) We estimated that floor traffic was down 35% plus.

2) Exhibit space rental seemed to be off around 20-25% upstairs in the North and South sides. We saw huge areas that were never sold and a reasonable amount of companies who pre-paid that didn't bother to show up at all. Downstairs (Fo… Continue

Posted by Keith Gellman on May 20, 2009 at 11:30am — 15 Comments

wsm190

Food Cost % vs. Gross Profit $

Would you rather have a 20% or 40% food cost %? The answer is - "I need more infomation!"

Suppose you purchased a $2 food item and sold it as an entree for $10. Well you realize a 20% food cost and $8 in gross profit. Now imagine you purchased an $8 food item and sold it for $20. Well you now realize a 40% food cost but reap $12 in gross profit. I would rather receive an extra $4 in profit each time I sold a food item. Food Costs are important as they can be used to benchmark your operations, h… Continue

Posted by wsm190 on May 15, 2009 at 4:30pm — 6 Comments

Joe Dunbar

Food Cost Techniques - Counts

Most food service people are out in their storage areas each and every day. If they stopped to keep a record of their observations, they would have an incredible tool for solving the usage riddles each week. The normal tendency is to check the stock level of the highest volume items frequently. These same items make up a major portion of the cost of goods sold.

Production teams communicate with clipboard lists. The current shift needs to leave a sufficient stock of batch recipe items for the ne… Continue

Posted by Joe Dunbar on May 11, 2009 at 7:25pm

David Maloni

Dairy Market Confusion

The chart of the week is the Wisconsin Dairy Cow for Slaughter Market. Dairy cow slaughter prices typically fluctuate with dairy farmer profitability and are a solid indicator of the building or the contraction of the dairy cow herd. And the size of the dairy cow herd is important because it greatly impacts milk production and thus the supply of cheese, butter and other dairy products. As the chart shows, dairy cow slaughter prices in Wisconsin have climbed to their highest levels since October… Continue

Posted by David Maloni on May 8, 2009 at 7:00am

David Maloni

Chicken Market Expectations

The chart of the week is various chicken market trends for the next 11 weeks. It’s been well documented that chicken producer margins have been historically poor leading to a downturn in chicken production. So just like economists look at prior economic recessions and not any other normal year to gauge the current recession we are in, I have a tendency to model expectations for the current chicken markets comparing them to other years where production has been cut. And the latest year that we ex… Continue

Posted by David Maloni on April 24, 2009 at 3:08pm

Joe Dunbar

Food Cost Techniques - Receiving

The second biggest opportunity for saving money in a restaurant is available at the loading dock. Receiving controls can save you a bundle. The amount of savings is directly proportional with the number of miles from the supplier. If you are the last stop on the delivery route, the morning's rejects may find their way onto your doorstep.

We once followed a rejected case of salmon all over New York when I was working with a local chain. The driver tried to unload the case at each and every locat… Continue

Posted by Joe Dunbar on April 23, 2009 at 11:09am

Joe Dunbar

Food Cost Techniques-Orders

The number one component in your weekly or monthly food cost percentage calculation is food purchases. This figure is modified by the net inventory change before you divide by sales. Many operators tell me they don't count inventory any more. I always ask them how they order food.

In every case, food service operators go to their storage locations when determining the order requirements. This activity is an inventory count. Although there may not be a formal report or a careful valuation, the p… Continue

Posted by Joe Dunbar on April 18, 2009 at 11:31am

David Maloni

Choice Beef Surprise

The chart of the week is the Weekly USDA choice boxed beef cutout. The choice beef cutout is an indicator of overall choice beef prices published by the USDA twice a day. The index is relatively seasonal and is a good indicator of upcoming beef price expectations. As one can tell from the chart below, in mid April the choice beef cutout typically begins a sharp upward move to inflated price levels that carry through the Fourth of July holiday. This is due mainly to a seasonal rise demand for the… Continue

Posted by David Maloni on April 17, 2009 at 7:42am — 1 Comment

David Maloni

Dairy Trade and Contracting

The chart of the week is US CME block cheese and International Cheddar markets. The principal reason cheese and butter prices were so inflated for the better parts of 2007 and 2008 was tight world supplies. This factor and the deflated dollar opened up literally a world of export business for US butter and cheese. Roughly 14% of US butter production was exported in 2008 compared to 6% in 2007 and 1.7% in 2006. Roughly 2.8% of US cheese production was exported in 2008 compared to 2.3% in 2007 and… Continue

Posted by David Maloni on April 9, 2009 at 1:34pm

Forum

Howard Appell

Cost Saving Ideas 5 Replies

Started by Howard Appell. Last reply by Keith Gellman 4 hours ago.

Abd Al Salam Husni Abdouh

Food Flash Cost

Started by Abd Al Salam Husni Abdouh Jun 20.

ABRAHAM GLADSTON

Regarding Food Cost controll 17 Replies

Started by ABRAHAM GLADSTON. Last reply by hyana rose Jun 20.

thefreshpalate

Food Costing Software 1 Reply

Started by thefreshpalate. Last reply by Joe Dunbar Jun 5.

Marko Hytonen

Bar & Restaurant Staff Incentive Plans 1 Reply

Started by Marko Hytonen. Last reply by Saurabh Kumar Gupta Jan 24.

Tim Kozlowski

PCI-DSS Compliance

Started by Tim Kozlowski Jan 21.

Andrew Schwartz

Use your takeout packaging to help to sell more food 1 Reply

Started by Andrew Schwartz. Last reply by Figueiredo Jan 15.

 
 

© 2009   Created by Keith Gellman on Ning.   Create Your Own Social Network

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Privacy  |  Terms of Service