Why Not Brown Bag It?

A new study from The NPD Group, "How Brown Bagging Is Affecting Food Service Lunch” has delivered even more bad news to the restaurant and food service industry.

More and more people are bagging their lunch and bringing it from home. Usually it’s the female in the household that’s actually making the lunches; but more men than women actually eat them.

A surprising statistic coming out of this newest study shows that among consumers who typically brown-bag, almost fifty percent said they are doing so more often. The vast majority of consumers who are brown-bagging more stated that saving money was the main reason for doing so (93%).

Moreover, next to saving money, “health and nutrition” reasons was the second most popular reason for bring a brown bag to work.

But here is where it gets even scarier for an independent restaurateur who serves upscale or expense account-type diners. White-collar professionals with mid- to high-incomes seem to want to bring their brown bag lunch to work more than others. These same males are one of the independent restaurateur’s primary target groups.

What can you do about this? Naturally, it depends on your location. If you can attract a lot of walk-in traffic (no driving, parking or other hassles), you should attempt to create one or two super duper menu specials for each day of the week, at least Monday to Friday.

Work on the food costs so that you can make lots of them and keep your costs in line, but you have to make them extreme value for money.

Look at your operation and see if you can speed up the production and service times so they can get in and out for lunch relatively fast if they are pressed for time.

Why not offer one or two different items on your menu called: ‘brown bag specials’ (If you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em).

By this I mean either serve the main dish, enclosed in a brown bag that the waiter removes at the table; or for those who really want a brown bagger, produce two different complete (upscale) lunches and sell them in a unique brown paper bag so you can concentrate on the speed factor as well as the cost of the meal aspect. You’d be surprised at how many of those you sell every lunch period.

You could get really edgy here and refer to your outlet as the home of the ‘upscale brown bag lunch’, or how about ‘the home of the gourmet brown bag lunch’.  (Remember, a lunch doesn’t have to be a peanut butter and jelly Sammy with an orange, apple, or veggies.)

If they have to drive and park to gain entry to your facility, current gasoline prices dictate that you have to really make it worth their while…without discounting your menu or image in their mind.

Do things that might motivate them to come back with friends or colleagues after work or at night.