Modern Restaurant Management

MAY 30, 2025

billion transactions and $67 billion in sales in 2024. Companies saw a sales boost in 2024 as loyalty transactions increased by over 30 percent. This edition of Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine's Research Roundup features delivery data, tariff troubles, summer dining trends, and Beer Serves America.

Fast Casual 251

Fast Casual Food Point of Sale Mobile Ordering 251

Modern Restaurant Management

DECEMBER 31, 2024

“Through expansive experiences that inspire our guests paired with the ambiance of the space and the food on the plate, we’re setting new standards for the industry and creating truly spectacular moments for all who enter our restaurants and bars.”

Beverage 450

Beverage 2025 Fine Dining Guest Recovery 450

Modern Restaurant Management

DECEMBER 18, 2024

So much data is generated at every point within a restaurant, whether fast casual or fine dining. Restaurants are already experimenting with using AI to handle drive through orders to allow human employees to focus on customer interactions in the restaurant.

2025 419

2025 Loyalty Program Social Media Fast Casual 419

Culinary Cues

NOVEMBER 22, 2024

The magnetism of the kitchen dates to those early days of growing up in a home where food played an important role, not as much as some, but enough to leave an indelible mark on my life. Before children speak, they sing, Before they write, they paint, As soon as they stand, they dance. Art is the basis of human expression.”

Food 414

Food Front of House Back of House Presentation 414

Modern Restaurant Management

JANUARY 16, 2025

This trend of seeking out a more sustainable process of e-commerce related to food goods is not going away anytime soon. While this helps lower their carbon footprint, a good portion of all those produced goods must be moved from point A to point B. Fuel and e-commerce order management systems help streamline delivery routes.

Sustainability 221

Sustainability Delivery Recycling Food 221

ChowNow

MARCH 27, 2025

If youre one of the thousands of restaurants that added online food delivery in recent years, you might be wondering: is it actually helping my business grow? These metrics give you a clear picture of your delivery performancefrom order volume and customer retention to delivery speed and profitability.

Delivery 195

Delivery Online Ordering Loyalty Program Food 195

ChowNow

MAY 23, 2025

A spike in food costs, a drop in sales volume, or one slow season can wipe out months of hard work. A spike in food costs, a drop in sales volume, or one slow season can wipe out months of hard work. For example: Lets say your restaurant made $100,000 in total sales last month. What Are Restaurant Profit Margins?

Point of Sale 195

Point of Sale Insurance Fast Casual Customer Service 195

ChowNow

MAY 23, 2025

It blends sales data, food cost, and menu psychology to help you stop guessing and start making decisions that grow your margins. Real menu engineering efforts are grounded in hard numbers: data, food cost percentage, and how much profit each dish actually brings in, so you know exactly what to promote, rework, or cut.

Menu 195

Menu Seasonal Menu Point of Sale Online Ordering 195

Modern Restaurant Management

MAY 2, 2025

To tackle these challenges, restaurant owners are relying more on digital tools like mobile ordering, self-service kiosks, and AI-powered workforce management. Self-order and payment kiosks as well as QR code menus are streamlining front-of-house operations, improving order accuracy and speeding up service.

Technology 251

Technology Mobile Ordering Front of House Back of House 251

ChowNow

FEBRUARY 13, 2025

Identify your biggest pain points. Is online ordering inefficient? Do you lose money due to food waste? Do you lose money due to food waste? Experiencing over-ordering or last-minute shortages? Are you aiming to speed up service, cut labor costs, or increase online sales? Are labor costs too high?

2025 195

2025 Technology Loyalty Program Mobile Ordering 195

Modern Restaurant Management

JULY 27, 2021

Point of Sale (POS) systems have traditionally been the restaurant’s technological centerpiece, connecting guests, servers, and food through transactions. Gone are the days of archaic paper chit systems communicating orders from the front to back-of-house staff. Too Much Tech Is Not a Solution.

Front of House 609

Front of House Back of House Loyalty Program Customer Experience 609

ChowNow

MARCH 27, 2025

Somewhere in between is the number that makes sense for your food costs, your market, and your restaurants unique position. Food Costs: How to calculate the cost of each dish Lets start with the basics: how much does it actually cost you to make each item on your menu? Set prices too low, and youre leaving money on the table.

Pricing 195

Pricing Menu Point of Sale Customer Experience 195

Modern Restaurant Management

FEBRUARY 15, 2022

Here are a few examples of tech-centered solutions to ease the ongoing labor crisis in restaurants by putting more functionality directly in the hands of customers: Digital Tableside Ordering to Support Service Staff. Enter digital tableside ordering. For fast-casual or QSR brands, digital tableside ordering is equally beneficial.

Technology 563

Technology Loyalty Program Fast Casual Email Marketing 563

Modern Restaurant Management

JUNE 8, 2021

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restaurant shutdowns, online ordering has become the go-to method for many customers. By using loyalty programs as a way to encourage customers to order directly. So how can restaurants avoid these fees? What’s more, loyal customers spend more.

Loyalty Program 531

Loyalty Program Point of Sale POS Email Marketing 531

ChowNow

JANUARY 23, 2025

Regular customers make up the backbone of any restaurants sales , but if you put a group of restaurant owners around a table, the conversation inevitably focuses on growth through new customer acquisition. Sales: 80% of sales typically come from 20% of clients. Software Development: 80% of bugs often result from 20% of the code.

2025 195

2025 Loyalty Program Operations Email Marketing 195

ChowNow

MARCH 13, 2025

Managing delivery orders shouldnt feel like running an obstacle course, but for many restaurant operators, thats exactly what it is. Juggling multiple food delivery apps means switching between tablets, manually entering orders into the POS, and trying to keep track of ever-changing fees and commissions.

Delivery 195

Delivery Food Food Order Customer Service 195

ChowNow

APRIL 15, 2025

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) Cost of Goods Sold tells you how much it actually costs to make the food and beverage sales you sell. Monitoring your COGS helps you spot food waste, theft, over-ordering, or supplier price hikes before they eat into your gross profit margin.

Operations 195

Operations Email Marketing Point of Sale Online Ordering 195

ChowNow

MARCH 7, 2025

Every online order, email sign up, and reward program interaction generates valuable insightsbut if that data just sits there, youre missing a major opportunity. Think about it: What if you could automatically send a special offer to a customer who hasnt ordered in a while? Or adjust your staffing schedule based on peak ordering times?

Loyalty Program 195

Loyalty Program Email Marketing Online Ordering Point of Sale 195

Modern Restaurant Management

FEBRUARY 22, 2021

Most customers would phone-in carryout orders. If online ordering was available, it was done through third party apps. Restaurants began shifting away from call-in orders and enabled online ordering directly from their site. Before anyone orders from your restaurant, your potential customers have to find you.

Online Ordering 568

Online Ordering Point of Sale POS SEO 568

Modern Restaurant Management

JULY 12, 2022

Restaurants continue to face labor and supply chain issues, plus rising food costs. This can be done by calculating your restaurant’s food cost percentage and cost of each dish using reports and data that an integrated point-of-sale can provide. Offer Easy Online Ordering.

Loyalty Program 558

Loyalty Program Online Ordering Point of Sale Customer Experience 558

Modern Restaurant Management

OCTOBER 21, 2022

Restaurant point-of-sale (POS) terminals are steadily replacing the now obsolete cash registers used in restaurants. Businesses in the food service industry are primarily adopting these advanced POS systems to streamline the communication between waitstaff and kitchen staff, inventory tracking, and improving team management.

POS 448

POS Marketing Point of Sale Cash Management 448

Modern Restaurant Management

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

Nearly every restaurant in the United States relies on a Point of Sale (POS) system for the majority of its front-of-house operations. That system needs access to the internet in order to keep functioning. Your delivery management and online ordering will also be impacted. The result is lost revenue and unhappy guests.

POS 520

POS Front of House Cash Management Online Ordering 520

Modern Restaurant Management

JANUARY 12, 2022

Early in the pandemic, 72 percent of operators invested in delivery and mobile/online ordering to boost revenue during mandated stay-at-home orders according to TD's 2020 survey, and it appears the popularity of these offerings is here to stay. Investment in delivery and mobile ordering pays off.

2022 539

2022 Mobile Ordering Guest Recovery Point of Sale 539

Modern Restaurant Management

DECEMBER 1, 2021

Henry is ready to order some dinner. He visits your restaurant’s app and orders his favorite dish on the menu. He visits your restaurant’s app and orders his favorite dish on the menu. He receives an estimated wait time for his order of 45 minutes. Front-of-House. Contactless Technology.

Technology 508

Technology Front of House Back of House Point of Sale 508

7 Shifts

OCTOBER 28, 2024

A bar is a profitable business option if you’re looking to enter the food industry. One key area to focus on is drink sales, with cocktail sales accounting for about 23% of a bar's revenue. Start by tracking all the income your bar generates, including sales from drinks, food, and any additional services.

Merchandise 195

Merchandise Point of Sale Seasonal Menu Bar 195

Modern Restaurant Management

JUNE 9, 2022

But independently owned, more agile operations can out-maneuver big brands by leaning on their point of sale (POS) platforms to increase sales and expand their client bases. Another way to slice and dice data is to comb through food costs. Start small by focusing on key data points to help you move forward.

Front of House 490

Front of House Point of Sale POS Online Ordering 490

Modern Restaurant Management

JUNE 14, 2022

One study found that internal employee theft is responsible for 75 percent of inventory shortages and about 4 percent of restaurant sales. There are all kinds of different types of restaurant theft, ranging from food and inventory, theft at the register and checkout counter, external grease theft, time theft and employee product theft.

Point of Sale 508

Point of Sale Kitchen Safety Back of House Inventory 508

Modern Restaurant Management

JUNE 16, 2022

As a result, the use of self-ordering kiosks and QR codes during the pandemic went up by 750 percent, with 77 percent of survey respondents saying they would prefer contactless ordering and payment once the pandemic ends. consumers being new to ordering meal delivery services (up from 47 percent in March 2021).

Online Ordering 472

Online Ordering Management Management Point of Sale 472

Modern Restaurant Management

DECEMBER 20, 2021

Creating a contactless ordering experience for guests at your restaurant is important in order for your business to stay competitive and profitable. Creating a contactless ordering experience for guests at your restaurant is important in order for your business to stay competitive and profitable.

Mobile Ordering 568

Mobile Ordering Online Ordering Consumer Goods Customer Experience 568

Modern Restaurant Management

DECEMBER 1, 2021

It’s an unsavory fact: food is getting more expensive. In October, the USDA reported year-to-date averages, noting that food-at-home (grocery store) prices have increased 2.5 percent and food-away-from-home (restaurant) prices have increased 3.6 If current projections from the U.S. Rewards for Loyalty.

Loyalty Program 531

Loyalty Program Pricing Menu Mobile Ordering 531

Modern Restaurant Management

APRIL 29, 2021

While staffing has always topped the list of restaurant owner/manager pain points, it now seems to be at crisis proportions. March restaurant sale surged 36 percent year-over-year and nearly reached 2019 levels. And the situation isn’t likely to improve soon as more competition in the battle for talent is anticipated.

Fast Casual 553

Fast Casual Hiring Online Ordering Front of House 553

ChowNow

FEBRUARY 28, 2025

Online ordering has transformed the restaurant industry, turning what was once a convenience into an absolute necessity. In 2025, the US online food delivery market is expected to reach $424.9 Customers expect to browse menus, place orders, and pay for their meals with just a few taps of their phones. billion in revenue.

Online Ordering 195

Online Ordering Ordering Email Marketing Mobile Ordering 195

Modern Restaurant Management

DECEMBER 31, 2024

Those priorities include increased marketing and sales efforts alongside new benefits and programs to attract and retain staff. For food, 53 percent reported a 1 percent to 5 percent jump, 37 percent saw a 6 percent to 14 percent increase, and 10 percent saw a more than 15 percent rise.

Franchise 221

Franchise Franchising 2024 Mobile Ordering 221

ChowNow

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

Diners want the convenience of ordering, booking, and engaging with their favorite restaurants straight from their phones. For operators, restaurant apps mean higher sales, greater customer retention, and smoother day-to-day operations.

2025 195

2025 Loyalty Program Mobile Ordering Online Ordering 195

EATER

NOVEMBER 1, 2024

The chain has seen declining sales , and foot traffic is down 10 percent over the last year. At this point though, it’s hard to think that Starbucks could ever rise to the prominence that it had in the early 2000s, when there was no symbol more status-y for a teenage girl than a Starbucks cup — and Starbucks really only has itself to blame.

Customer Experience 326

Customer Experience 2003 Point of Sale 2006 326

Modern Restaurant Management

JANUARY 4, 2022

Typically, customer data is collected by the point of sale platform and website, along with other online properties, apps, and third-party platforms. Those who adopt a guest-centric approach to food will continue to excel, combining traditional customer service with the personalization afforded by their data.

Point of Sale 539

Point of Sale Customer Service Email Marketing Website Management 539

Modern Restaurant Management

JUNE 25, 2020

Consumers have had to alter their lifestyles and the way they think, down to their most basic habits – including thinking twice before daring to order food. In order to survive in the restaurant landscape, having a seamless practice for contactless carryout will be very important. This starts in the kitchen.

Customer Experience 539

Customer Experience Food Order Point of Sale Customer Service 539