Super Suppers, with 200 units in 40 states, began in Judy Bird’s Fort Worth, Texas, kitchen and grew into a chain where customers could come in to assemble pre-planned meals, and then take them home and bake and eat them. In July, the chain rolled out a curbside service program. The inspiration was the realization that consumers, especially the company’s core demographic, mothers with young children, want and need more convenient options.
“Curbside, literally, is ‘You stay in your car, we’ll bring the food to you,’” says Leslie Reed, vice president of marketing for the company. “Lots of moms like myself have young kids, and if I don’t have to unbuckle them then that’s a real service.”
The Super Supper service is limited, however. “At the moment we’re not offering hot meals. These are only prepared meals that the customers take home and put on their grills or stovetops or in the oven,” Reed says.
Still, with the introduction of a curbside option, the company is placed in direct competition with restaurants. Moms needing a quick dinner plan call ahead and choose from a menu that changes periodically but always offers a set number of “menu favorites.” For a small fee, Super Supper will then assemble the meal and deliver it to a customer’s car once it is ready for pick up.
“Our competition is not just meal-assembly companies, just like the competition for the local paper isn’t just other papers. It’s morning shows, the Internet, and magazines.”
It’s not just the new arrivals that are feeling the competition, either. Sixteen-year-old Pat & Oscars, a fast-casual chain with a robust takeout program, is also seeing increased competition in the market. Chairman and CEO John Wright says, “Particularly here in southern California, the grocery chains have tapped into the home meal replacement and it’s huge. We see that as more important than our classic direct competitors.”
TakeOut Takes Planning
FITCH’s Hasulak says that deciding to implement a takeout program within a concept requires a clean design that is clearly labeled and does not bottleneck waiting customers.
“Next to the price value, I’d say [ease of use] is the next most important, if not the most important,” Pat & Oscar’s Director of Marketing Brian Horne says, “Because our research showed us if it’s not easy, it’s not going to sell.”
To avoid customer frustration, restaurants should have a clearly marked and designed takeout process or a curb runner that keeps the takeout customers separate from those dining in. Without this, Hasulak explains that, “the experience gets frustrating real quick because you’re standing there in line and don’t know what to do.”
Hasulak suggests that owners who want to offer take-out options without redesigning their entire stores install easy-to-read graphics to make it clear what dine-in and carryout customers are supposed to do. He also advocates a separate waiting place for to-go customers. “It takes the experience away if they have to wait and be crammed in with other people, kind of in no man’s land,” he says.
Separate has become key for Pat & Oscar’s takeout operations. Throughout the chain there are distinct entrances and exits for to-go orders in addition to dedicated POS systems. The chain even goes so far as to use separate managers who “do nothing but work the take-out in a busy shift,” Horne says.