By Dr. Christopher Muller What happens to the restaurant industry when the Pandemic ends, which history tells us, it will? The New Reality In the worst-case scenario, tens of thousands of newly opened foodie comets, or aging and struggling veterans, or flashy places with aspirational rent that was just a bit too high, or those busy […]
By Christopher Muller The restaurant industry is undergoing a tectonic shift as 2020 begins. Traditional segmentation is evolving from the supply side of Full Service vs. Quick Service providers to the demand side of Experience Seeking vs. Convenience Seeking consumers. Restaurant executives and the companies they lead will need to pick one path or the […]
By Christopher Muller In Part 1 of this analysis of the restaurant delivery system we looked at the owner/operator models which still offer some measure of control over price and quality. This is fast becoming an issue with the rise of the Ghost Kitchen where the ODP is an integral part of the equation. Here […]
By Christopher Muller The entire restaurant industry, from the simplest quick service joint to the most complex fine dining jewel, is caught in a veritable frenzy of delivery. It may be, unfortunately, a very risky path to travel for the uninitiated restaurant operation, but delivery is driving the investment community to a fever pitch. [1] […]
By Christopher Muller When is a Group a Chain, and a Chain a Brand? The subtle change in Boston’s “independent” restaurant market. Over the past four decades, in a slow but inexorable manner, a growing corporate imperative has replaced the independent restaurant in most markets. In greater Boston, possibly more than in many similar […]
By Christopher Muller and Michael Oshins Hospitality management education requires many different perspectives to be considered, given the broad array of pedagogies used throughout a four-year curriculum. With some planning—and, sometimes, with a bit of serendipity—simple ideas may resonate with students well beyond the time they spend in a classroom. In previous Boston Hospitality Review […]
By Christopher Muller What is a restaurant? In today’s omni-channel foodservice system what exactly does it mean to say something is a restaurant meal? Does it mean a full formal dining experience with a chef-prepared customized meal, presented by a waiter to a guest at a table with a white tablecloth or can it be […]
By Christopher Muller On the first day of my HF 100 Introduction to Hospitality Management class I present a lecture that raises the question, “How Do You Teach Hospitality?” It’s my first Power Point slide and is then repeated as my last slide for the day. I suspect (maybe hope) that this question is […]
By: Christopher Muller, Ph.D. A century of commercial competitive conflict between the grocery (food at home or “FAH”) and restaurant (food away from home or “FAFH”) distribution channels is now being fought on an unexpected but previously contested battlefield: who will own the “convenience” of delivery in the consumer’s mind. Just one hundred years ago […]
By Christopher Muller A conversation between Mr. Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, and Dr. Christopher Muller during the September 2011 12th annual European Food Service Summit in Zurich, Switzerland (edited 2014). [Muller]: So we get to just have a conversation. Can we talk about Starbucks and social responsibility, the leadership of how you drive not […]