Bite Sized Restaurant Industry Happenings #2

More interesting tidbits currently happening in the restaurant and retail industries:

  • • NYC had a massive power outage on Saturday 7/13. The blackout, which started around 7 pm lasted until midnight, trapping people on the Subway, closing restaurants, halting Broadway shows, etc. No word yet on what causes the power outage. This illustrates exactly why using a battery backup system with your POS is so important!
  • • Starbucks opened its first express store in Beijing on 7/12 to compete with Luckin.
    Also, Starbucks Canada announced they are teaming up with Uber Eats for Starbucks Delivers. Customers in major cities, including Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary can now order from the Starbucks menu for delivery.
  • • Krispy Kreme is turning 82! The doughnut chain has created a special original filled birthday batter doughnut to celebrate. Also on Friday July 19th, Krispy Kreme will feature a special birthday offer where customers can purchase one dozen original glazed doughnuts for $1 with the purchase of any dozen.
  • • The Happy Meal is turning 40! In the summer of 1979, fast food giant McDonald’s premiered the Happy Meal nationally. Recently two young sisters created a petition on Change.org to get McDonald’s and rival Burger King to stop providing plastic toys in children’s meals. Some 388,000 consumers have currently signed. Today’s consumers, especially young consumers expect companies to be aware of their environmental footprint.
  • • A USA Today article crunched some numbers and claims that Chick-Fil-A is losing out on $1.2 billion a year by not being opened on Sundays. Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A was deeply religious and believed that the first day of the week should be for employees to have “one day to rest and worship if they choose.”
  • • Subway is in the middle of a huge remodeling project: 10,500 U.S. Subway restaurants will be remodeled with a new design and décor by the end of 2020.
  • • Walmart got the drop on Amazon and started its Prime Day deals yesterday.

Sintel System offers complete omni-channel POS solutions for the restaurant industry such as the Direct-to-POS online ordering platform. This system allows restaurants of all sorts to have a custom, secure website and mobile app to support customer ability for placing orders on the go. Using our omni channel approach customers can order with an employee using a hand held device at busy drive thrus, order from a kiosk, order from their phone or order from a computer. If they prefer, they can even order inside the restaurant from staff at the counter. All transaction from devices are seamlessly sent to the kitchen display system (KDS). Kitchen staff stays completely in the know of customer orders and what order to cook them in. That’s the goal of omni channel POS, service is provided to the customer where they want it, how they want it.