Mirus Reporter

Restaurants generate an extraordinary amount of data from a number of systems. While some data stays in the system it is produced in, other pieces of data are transformed and sent to various other systems. With the growing emphasis on data-driven decision-making, restaurant companies are seeking reliable solutions to consolidate and provide access to data so everyone is on the same page. This is where a robust System of Record (SoR) comes into play. Learn the advantages of using a Data Warehouse as a Restaurant System of Record. 

When a restaurant company originally adopts a restaurant analytics platform like Mirus, the decision usually hinges on one key issue within the company, whether that be:

• Consolidated reporting above store (Operations)
• General Ledger feed (Finance)
• Analysis of promotions or LTOs (Marketing)
• Payroll feed (HR)
• Visibility into franchise stores (C-Level)

Each of these key issues usually impacts a specific department, which can lead to the impression that the platform is only a _{FILL IN THE BLANK} tool; only a Finance tool if you are using it to export to your GL system, or only an Operations tool if you are using it for consolidated above store reporting. However, you are losing out on the inherent value and flexibility of your restaurant analytics platform if you’ve got it siloed away into one area of your company. 

Let’s review each of the key restaurant departments and see how a restaurant analytics platform can be tailored to meet each department's needs.

If you are only examining your traditional same-store sales metrics today, you are not getting an accurate picture of the market realities or your restaurant's real performance. During an inflationary period, sales increases can look good but can also be misleading, or worse, lull you into a false sense of security. To see performance clearly during times like these, you need to recalculate your sales growth to eliminate the beneficial effects of inflation.

Mirus CEO, Dave Bennett, will be presenting his thoughts on managing restaurants during a high inflationary period at the Restaurant Finance and Development Conference. Learn how to calculate real revenue growth rates for restaurants and download Dave's expanded presentation slides and our free Real Restaurant Revenue Growth Calculation Methods PDF. 

You may know how much each ingredient in your restaurant costs you. But do you know how much each menu item costs? Calculating Plate Cost can help you set your menu prices, calculate inflation impact and evaluate promotion profitability. Learn how to calculate Plate Cost and download our free Plate Cost Calculator Worksheet with bonus Plate Cost Percentage calculator. 

For those following our irregular updates on the impact of Covid on restaurants, the world turned upside down for many in the past week. The picture below shows the last 7 days of Mirus Index. What do you think is going on?

Heading back to School!

I hope you continue to be safe and avoid the virus. Data shows us the virus will find the soft spots in our country to flourish, and that the areas affected move around a lot. Currently, many mid-western states are seeing cases and hospitalizations going up, while they are going down in other areas.

A big, new wild card in the equation is students going back to school. While that may be of concern as it relates to potential increases in cases, the past month has introduced other events that have weathered well. For example, the NBA, MLB, PGA, MLS and other sports have resumed their seasons. While there have been some games postponed due to infections, my impression is that those leagues are doing better than some had expected. I hope the same will be true for the schools.

A coincidental event to the return to school each year is Labor Day. And, after a summer of slow but steady improvement in restaurant sales and traffic, the holiday created a bit of optimism with the volume of business that restaurants experienced. Before we get into the most recent holiday, let's review where we've been.

Covid Impact Recap

Mirus Index, which is a same-store comparison to the same day last year, is stuck around -20%. This means that, on average, a Mirus client location that is open today is generating about 80% of the sales it had last year. It is important to keep in mind that this is the average, and averages can be misleading in both directions. For example, more than half of our clients are experiencing sales that are better than -6%. But for others, the impact of Covid has been far more dramatic, with sales hovering around -50%, or worse in a few cases.

Dog days of summer

First off, I hope you continue to be safe and avoid the virus. As this pandemic continues, the rate of spread is increasing in many cities around the US. However, the percentage of the US population that has come into contact with the virus was estimated to be no more than 7-8% by the CDC this past week. So, there are a whole lot of us that are unprotected from the virus.

And now for the bad news....

Happy 4th of July!

Since my last post, we have had Father's Day and the 4th of July, and a whole lot of mis-direction by Governors. Sales and traffic continue to improve week to week, but there is now regular volatility in the numbers. I believe this is an indication we have gotten back the low hanging fruit, and getting higher levels of sales may take a lot longer.

Father's Day had been the best sales day since the pandemic started. Mirus Index shows sales down less than -18% from the same day last year; by far the best to date.

Memorial Day Hangover?

Memorial Day in 2020 fell on the earliest date it can be according to the calendar. And, given the softening of restrictions on restaurants in the two weeks leading up to the holiday weekend, it is no surprise that Memorial Day was a big hit! Sales jumped over 16% over the previous Monday, but was still down -45% from last year.

You hear how numbers can be lead you to the wrong conclusion if not understood. An example of this is illustrated in the chart above on the day after Memorial Day. The chart shows sales were down -3.42% from the previous Tuesday, but what it doesn't show is that May 26 was the best day for sales compared to last year since the pandemic began. The sales this year were only down -41%, meaning the industry had almost 60% of the sales it had last year. That is good news.

May 11

Thanks Mom!

Every mother loves Mother's Day; a day for them to be recognized and if they are lucky, pampered.

In this Covid-19 world, it also gave a boost to restaurant sales. Traditionally, Mother's day treats restaurants well, and for some it is one of the busiest days of the year. This year, sales at restaurants increased over 44% from the previous Sunday (May 3). And, it's not like May 3 was a soft day; the sales for that day were almost 10% higher than the previous Sunday.

Total sales volume (not SSS) on Mother's Day was also more than 50% of last year's Mother's Day, a milestone celebrated by many. As an industry we have come a long way from a few weeks ago when aggregate sales were down over 70%. It may take some time for sales to fully recover, but the evidence over the past six weeks shows a steady week by week improvement.