The Beverage Standards Association brings you Peter’s Monday 15th February 2021 Weekly Briefing every Tuesday morning.
The Future of the Restaurant
Carbon comes in many forms. Under a microscope graphite can be seen as sheets that easily slide over each other but are held tenuously together. The future of the restaurant sector is a bit like that. There are sheets that describe the past. There are others that represent how the past will continue into the future. And there is yet a third type of sheet that represents a whole set of new characteristics.
But all these sheets are linked together
The challenge for suppliers, as well as investors and operators, is which of those sheets are relevant for them, and how do they link to their past and the future –and how do they interact with each other? For instance, which past trends will fall by the wayside –over capacity perhaps, or insufficient workers? Which past trends will continue –customers’ desire for eating out, or customer promiscuity and lack of loyalty? And which new trends will have to be faced –working from home? Or the growth of technology? Or new community rules about what levels of social distancing are acceptable?
Seperating the future trends
Clearly it is difficult to separate these trends into precise collections, but the future restaurant will nevertheless be defined by these trends. The implication of this is that the future will not be all new, and defined by changes that covid has wrought, nor will it be a continuation of the past. The crucial issue is going to be -for each supplier, investor, operator –which factors will be significant for its own future. For some, covid will have opened up a world that didn’t exist before – one in which delivery and technology, for example, create opportunities in former restaurant deserts.
Thank you for reading part of the Monday 15th February 2021 Weekly Briefing and full edition can be found at Weekly Briefing Report.
