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Writing in the World Projects |
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Tracking Sales, Profits, and Customers: A Report on a Promotional Campaign |
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Interview with Len Bruster, Manager
"The promo has gone pretty smoothly, all things considered. The profit margin is razor-thin for us, though. We lost a lot of ground the first month and we've only gradually made it back up. So we're still not realizing any big gains from this. Our customer base is just not going to spend extra cash unless they have to—they are mostly students who don't have a lot of money. I will say though, that our traffic has increased and that is unusual for us in the summer months, because enrollment drops a lot on campus. So I'm hopeful that we could see some overall benefit profit-wise. But I have to say that even something like putting five wings per basket instead of six would help us out a lot at this location. We have major storage issues that this promo exacerbates; our freezer is only about half the size it ought to be and we really have to pack the boxes of wings in there."
Interview with Sally Brown, Waitress
"I can see how this promo would be real good for some restaurants but for us it has been more of a headache. Some of the girls will come in at lunch and order the wings and just a salad. Sometimes they want to only order the wings and we have to explain the offer is only good when combined with an entree or salad. We try to push extras but with college students there just isn't much wiggle room in their budgets, I guess. So my tickets sales have hardly budged—in fact in July they went down because of the promo, which is no fun when you make most of your salary off tips. Plus at lunch we always get overwhelmed in the kitchen and that means we have to prep our own wings, and that is a real pain, let me tell you, if you have ten or twelve tables depending on you and you have to hover over that fryer to make sure the wings don't burn. "
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