If I were to start my own fast food business, I would make my food cheap as fuck and deliberately target locations that have:
A sixth form or university campus nearby. Students are a big market.
Nearby pubs or nightclubs. Doesn’t have to be a city centre, could be a local high street. The main intent would be to target the late night crowd.
People care about speed, cost and not eating something that will give them food poisoning, not gourmet food. The luxury market is oversaturated and we have anything but the luxury to do that often.
Also, if it’s a sufficiently large eat-in location like a diner, maintaining toilet facilities that don’t look like they’ve been vandalized is important too.
There’s a reason why premium fast food has spread so much.
By the time you’ve paid your business rent, your staff and your own rent, you can’t keep prices cheap and still make money.
And at a price point that covers your expenses, people won’t buy your “cheap and simple” food.
So you make your food “premium” cause a hipster burger doesn’t take more time or skill to prepare than a normal one, the cost of better ingredients doesn’t make a difference compared to your other expenses, and all you need for people to be satisfied with the experience is a couple thousand extra initially for interior design and marketing.
I agree, there are still ways to sell your food cheap though. A good example is a vegan/vegetarian burger place near me. Demand for that kind of food is high because it’s a liberal college town, but that restaurant is the only one of its kind here, so it’s always full. Also they sell more fancy, more expensive dinner options in the evening which I’m sure subsidizes the cheap burgers. And if you mainly go there for their burgers you might return for dinner sometime to try out those options. They’ve existed for around 10 years now and their cheapest burger has stayed at 4,50€ that whole time.
Granted it’s hard to know what kind of demand there is in your town without trying some stuff and maybe failing.
They usually aren’t happy when I take a shit inside our local food trucks. They keep telling me it’s unsanitary but I always insist that a restaurant must allow its patrons fair use of their toilet facilities.
I hate how this society has turned something as deeply emotional as cooking and turned it into a factory farm where people think burgers and hot dogs just magically appear with fairy magic.
Check out how successful Dick’s is in Washington. They have so many locations now. Their first location was Wallingford, Seattle. It’s about a 1 mile walk from the U district, where a lot of the college kids hang out. Now, Dick’s has a location in most major districts of Seattle, mostly around bars, and even outside of Seattle. They are cheap ($2.50 for a cheeseburger) and super fast because they don’t do customizations with a limited menu. Mostly window only walk up pick up, no dine in (except for the one outside the hockey stadium, but it’s standing only).
If I were to start my own fast food business, I would make my food cheap as fuck and deliberately target locations that have:
People care about speed, cost and not eating something that will give them food poisoning, not gourmet food. The luxury market is oversaturated and we have anything but the luxury to do that often.
Also, if it’s a sufficiently large eat-in location like a diner, maintaining toilet facilities that don’t look like they’ve been vandalized is important too.
There’s a reason why premium fast food has spread so much.
By the time you’ve paid your business rent, your staff and your own rent, you can’t keep prices cheap and still make money.
And at a price point that covers your expenses, people won’t buy your “cheap and simple” food.
So you make your food “premium” cause a hipster burger doesn’t take more time or skill to prepare than a normal one, the cost of better ingredients doesn’t make a difference compared to your other expenses, and all you need for people to be satisfied with the experience is a couple thousand extra initially for interior design and marketing.
Damn, nailed it, perfect synopsis!
Exactly this, gotten into it recently and seen first hand the costs balloon up fast
I agree, there are still ways to sell your food cheap though. A good example is a vegan/vegetarian burger place near me. Demand for that kind of food is high because it’s a liberal college town, but that restaurant is the only one of its kind here, so it’s always full. Also they sell more fancy, more expensive dinner options in the evening which I’m sure subsidizes the cheap burgers. And if you mainly go there for their burgers you might return for dinner sometime to try out those options. They’ve existed for around 10 years now and their cheapest burger has stayed at 4,50€ that whole time.
Granted it’s hard to know what kind of demand there is in your town without trying some stuff and maybe failing.
The business model you are describing is perfect for a food truck.
They usually aren’t happy when I take a shit inside our local food trucks. They keep telling me it’s unsanitary but I always insist that a restaurant must allow its patrons fair use of their toilet facilities.
Fast food + college kids , good idea.
Fast food + drunk college kids, not so much.
As was suggested earlier, a food truck is the perfect solution. You’re not responsible for cleaning vomit.
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Throw in a fun clown mascot for the kids, and I think you’re on to something with this cheap fast food idea
I hate how this society has turned something as deeply emotional as cooking and turned it into a factory farm where people think burgers and hot dogs just magically appear with fairy magic.
Everything in life can be deeply emotional, just not for everybody.
That’s just like a food truck in my city with the BEST carne adovada nachos
Check out how successful Dick’s is in Washington. They have so many locations now. Their first location was Wallingford, Seattle. It’s about a 1 mile walk from the U district, where a lot of the college kids hang out. Now, Dick’s has a location in most major districts of Seattle, mostly around bars, and even outside of Seattle. They are cheap ($2.50 for a cheeseburger) and super fast because they don’t do customizations with a limited menu. Mostly window only walk up pick up, no dine in (except for the one outside the hockey stadium, but it’s standing only).
You’ve got the right idea.