The Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast brought to you by Custom Business Solutions
The Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast brought to you by Custom Business Solutions
Navigating the Future of the Restaurant Industry with Danny Klein
In this episode of the Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast, Jeremy Julian talks with Danny Klein, freshly promoted to VP Editorial Director at WTWH Media's FRH properties. They delve deep into the state of the restaurant industry, discussing everything from the surge of bankruptcies and the challenges of rising costs, to evolving consumer preferences and the impact of technology. Danny shares insights on value perceptions, brand adaptations like those of Chili’s and Texas Roadhouse, and the future roles of QSR, casual dining, and even C-stores. The conversation also explores the intricate balance between maintaining quality service and embracing new tech to optimize operations and enhance customer experiences.
00:00 Danny Klein
00:43 Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:58 Danny Klein's Role and Responsibilities
01:58 Current Challenges in the Restaurant Industry
03:50 Value Perception in Dining
06:07 Opportunities in the Restaurant Sector
19:08 Technology's Impact on the Restaurant Experience
28:57 Convergence of Restaurants and C-Stores
34:24 Conclusion and How to Follow Danny Klein
This is the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast. Helping you run your restaurant better.
Jeremy:In today's episode of the show we're joined by Danny Klein. Who's the editor of FSR magazine amongst other titles. He talks a little bit about it because the week that we did the interview, he had just been a. Just been promoted. Um, he and I talk a ton about the state of the industry what's working. What's not working. The state of bankruptcies in the world today. And quite frankly, just a huge range of different concepts and what he sees from the data. If you don't know me, my name is Jeremy Julian. I'm the chief revenue officer of custom business solutions. We sell the north star point of sell product. I've spent over 30 years in the restaurant industry, specifically in the restaurant tech industry. And so I've got lots of different areas of expertise to share, and I'd love to have you join us for the whole episode. Welcome back to the restaurant technology guys podcast. I think everyone out there for joining us. for those that are on video You'll probably recognize the face and I promise you'll you know Remember the name danny Why don't you introduce yourself to our audience tell everybody a little bit about what you get to do for a living and then? We can jump into the
Danny Klein:Sure. So my name is Danny Klein. I just got a title change to see if I can get this correct. I am now the VP editorial director at WTWH media's FRH properties. Okay. I know that was hard to, I'm still trying to figure out how to write it, but essentially it means I'm still in charge or Leading the content on QSR and FSR Magazine, which I imagine is where anyone who's listening to this has seen me before. But now I also have some content oversight of our other food publications, which are C Store Decisions. Club and resort and PMQ pizza magazine. So got a lot of things going on these days that just happened a week and a half ago. So still trying to figure out what, what is going on, but that is a, that is the story.
Jeremy:And, like I said, I, I, I get the privilege or, or maybe, maybe a privilege. I don't know. I do read a lot of what you write. And so it's always fun to kind of, kind of get into the, to the weeds. And so now that I get to sit and ask questions, I don't get to just post comments on, on LinkedIn when you post those articles, talk to me, Danny, a little bit, just kind of macro trends that you're hearing when you're hearing out in the industry. I know you get a chance to talk to some of the biggest brands in the country. You You get to dine at some of the smaller brands, local to home. Talk to me about some of the biggest challenges that you're hearing and seeing them face today. So we can start to dig into the, dig into how they're trying to
Danny Klein:Yeah, it's funny. I'm sure you know this, anyone who lives within the restaurant industry covers it, works in it. There is always some situation of crisis. So we're in what I would say. It's a very unforgiving landscape, also very rewarding. There's a lot of opportunity to be had, but at the same time, as you see in the last couple of weeks and months, in particular the last month, there's been a, just a rash of bankruptcies. I think we're up to 21, maybe 22 on the year. I, and I don't think that number is going to get smaller, obviously, as we get toward the end of the year. Because there is this sense right now of the costs, of what everything costs to do business has just gone up, the labor. Nothing new there. some of the technology I think of, how you're trying to piece these things together. You would say individually, some of those pieces have gotten more affordable, but, you're trying to unify a lot of different solutions at this stage of the tech stack journey, And then of course things like, real estate and sites and costs and the timelines are all longer than they were. And so there's just a lot of situations on the traffic side. That some brands look down that pipe and, the access to capital and what it costs to get capital. Now, those two things have put up a roadblock that not everyone can get over. And so I think the main thing that we talk about now, or at least in the interviews that I have and the stories that I write, everything is about value. but the value topic is such a nuanced one that. You really have to figure out exactly what that means to the people who come to eat there. I was writing a story this morning about value perceptions and, interestingly, the Cheesecake Factory, in terms of reasons that people weren't going to dine there, being too expensive was number one for them. Yet from value perception, they were third overall in the entire list. while there were people who say, or saying things along the lines of, I can't go there as much as I did last year because of the price. They also thought it was a good value. And you think about, and you think about, okay, what does that mean? And I think that's the story of the restaurant industry right now, because what it means is that people are going to the Cheesecake Factory less often. Especially those people who are not frequent customers, and you hear this all across restaurants, especially in casual dining and full service, is that they're not doing as well with that infrequent guest. But, when they do come, they're still spending the same amount of money, and they're viewing what the Cheesecake Factory does to be a good value. So for a brand like them, you hear this at first watch as well, just hold the fort on what happens and get to that, part on the other side where people are a little bit more open with their spending, versus reacting really quickly right now. But trying to figure out what it means to be a good value? It's so far beyond the price. However, there are some brands, Papa John's comes to mind that realized that they did have to actually play more in the value side of their price on the compelling value side. And so you see that too. So that, that I think is where we're at.
Jeremy:Yeah, no. And it's, it's tough. I mean, the, the, I've been doing this for close to 30 years, and I don't know that I've seen any time in my career that there's been this many bankruptcies. And, you know, as you said, both the inflationary stuff, the cost of capital going up, I was at, we happened to do business with cheesecake. And it's funny that you bring that, that brand up because they, they've always had that. They've always had that, you know, big portion sizes. It's, it's. Just a step more expensive than kind of your standard casual dining. They, you know, call it upscale casual dining. It's not quite defined dining. And I think your frequent guests, it's fine, but the ones that are infrequent, it's, it's trying to figure out, you talked about opportunities. You said that there's, there is opportunities that it also is creating. Talk to me a little bit about some, you know, I guess some stories that you might have of, of opportunities. Where are people doing well? Where are things growing? Is it on that value side? Is it on the experiential side? Talk to me a little bit more about what you guys are seeing. And, and in the stories that you're
Danny Klein:so here's one of the upsides of what we might call like a zero sum environment, which is how I would characterize we're at now. There's no middle currently. There is an experiential or experiential. Yeah, I pronounce that. And yeah, and there's a value transactional, so it actually, so the opportunity lies in figuring out how to define that best. So I think casual dining, you see the, we're talking bankruptcies all over the place in that sector at the moment, but, again, to the cheesecake factories point, and others and Chili's is a interesting case here with what they've been able to do recently with their marketing. But you have a pretty unique chance right now to really hone into that experience because you can very much clarify how you're different than somebody else in quick service or whatever, brand you want to go measure to. Again, it's because the one thing that is not that different is the price. the price gaps between Fast Casual and QSR right now are almost non existent. if you go to, Kava, I did this recently, you get, double meat. It's like 14, okay, which is not obviously a small amount, you add a drink, but That's not that much different than like a combo meal on the regular side of McDonald's, it's probably, that's probably about 10. And naturally they have the 5 because they're trying to, court back that customer that's pulled their, their visits. But that point being, your opportunity is pretty clear. If you can go be that version of yourself in a very compelling way and do a good job of telling the story, we talk about chilies again here. they really went right at McDonald's, with the, burger, the big smasher, which is essentially very similar and talking about how the price point at 10 99 on the three for me, you get, here's how much you get, plus you get a server, plus you get the experience of Chili's, so on and so forth. And they're doing great right now. And they went right to tick tock and they. Went on social and so they had an opportunity to have that infrequent guests that we're talking about come in there and go, wow, this is actually a better value than I thought it was considering how I felt when I left, X brand the other day. And that's where that gap that closed within the price tiers has allowed. I think both sides of that equation to be successful if, you don't get stuck in the middle. and that's the heart, as, Scott Murphy said the other day at our conference from inspire brands, the restaurant industry is very simple, but simple is very hard.
Jeremy:Yeah. I've, I've heard that saying before and, former, BJ CEO used to talk about barbell strategy. I don't know if you, you know, if you, I've, I've seen a couple of articles that have been out on the, in the press recently about the barbell strategy, where you've got some items on the low end of the, of the price scale. For casual dining, you've got some high end items. And again, even for myself, it, the, the, the three for me, you know, Chili's was not in my frequency with a family of six, like it, you know, going out to eat with a family of six is expensive, regardless of where you go, whether I'm going to McDonald's and it's spending 5 or I'm going to. You know, cheesecake factory and spend a 20 a person. It doesn't matter. It's expensive. Quite frankly, we have now re frequented Chili's more often, partially because the service has been good. They, they implemented some technology to help make the service better than it was, you know, seven, eight years ago, number one, and number two, there is value if you're looking to get in. I can get into there for Chipotle as crazy as that sounds. I can spend less money at Chili's than I can at Chipotle, you know, save maybe the tip.
Danny Klein:Exactly.
Jeremy:well, and it's so crazy to me because that's never been the case in my career. So far, I've never had a, had such a price parity. So what, what are people doing to differentiate themselves to be able to, to get that guest in? Because every single casual dining brand I work with talks about traffic being their biggest opportunity to increase that guest, you know, coming in the door. And so how are people solving for that? Because it's not an easy fix.
Danny Klein:Yeah. so a lot of different layers. I think of course, different the barbell strategy to your point, this has been around forever in QSR in particular, Wendy's has been a master of this for so long where you have this entry point, on the four, four for four or whatever it might be. But then when they get in there, you've got this ability to say, okay, the 5 biggie bag, here's what you get that's more, or you want, the real recent LTO. Here's something that's really interesting. It's 8 and work their way up the ladder to get them to come back more often, but then also have that entry point to satisfy that, quote unquote value seeker. And, this is something that Applebee's does very well. I think in casual dine, you see a lot of these, all you can eat abundance type meals recently. Buffalo Wild Wings had a lot of success with theirs at the 20 price point. And it wasn't so based in a couponing or discounting strategy, but more in the look at this experience of how much you could get versus, what you're able to go get in counter service. So I think you're seeing that now you're seeing a lot of. Deals through the app. McDonald's app is basically it's dollar menu at this point. And that's become a, very common, just way. But what I will say to the broader point though, so Chick fil A is a great example of this, and I think they're a great example of most things on the success spectrum, they've gotten more expensive on the last three or four years. No question about that. To your kind of family point, when I go to eat there now with my family, it's probably You know, 30 to 40 ish, which, but are people really pushing back on it? No. and then I think the reason for that is just that I don't, I think their overall experience, the service, the ambiance, the, Consistency and the quality leaves you feeling as though it was worth what you paid for and that is the repeat strategy solution in my opinion at this point that execution and that operational excellence I don't think is I don't think you can get away with just having cheap food now. just doesn't
Jeremy:Well, you certainly need to deliver an experience even if it's not, you know, I mean, and I say it's, you've got to deliver an experience and you've got to, you said it earlier, Danny, I loved your, your, there are people that go for experiences and there are people that go for satiation and each end of that is different. You know, I need to eat. I'm driving home from soccer practice. I need to get it. Food into my kids because they need to get a bath, or they need to get a shower before they get to bed. And those are part of the the strategy that you gotta figure out how to deal with. And then you've got the other side of it where you're going out on a Friday night, you need drinks, you need, you know, you're wanting to create that experience. So it's funny that you bring that up'cause I've talked about that a lot is, is depending upon how your guests are and how they want to interact with your brand, you've gotta be able to meet them in all of those different places. If you wanna
Danny Klein:Yeah, I think the food as fuel mantra of QSR, which was very much the case when I started here roughly a decade ago, way less the case now. I think you still, to a degree, need to have that option if you're a Taco Bell. But most people now, younger consumers in particular, don't look at going to the drive thru for that reason. there's a beyond the margin part of why dollar menus don't work anymore. It's just also not the type of strategy that appeals to the way that the consumer has changed their habits of purchasing. the drive thru is a great example of everything that happens in QSR. We just finished our annual report on this, and the trend is basically that once upon a time, and this has been a four year cycle that I've seen this begin to show, speed was the only thing that anyone cared about. it was like, okay, you get faster, you get more transactions. The customer has this almost handshake idea with the restaurant that they're going to give you a small amount of food so they can go quickly for a slow amount of price. And whatever happens after that, it's just is what it is. but what's changed in the last four years is that accuracy has become the unlock of what speed perception actually is. And so what we see now is that the more accurate brands are actually perceived faster. than the faster brands by time of, clock from in and out. And the reason for that, I think, is not complicated. I, I think if you look at, like, all of us and how we buy things and we go to Amazon and we order something and you get the email confirmation a second later, and then you're just used to waiting a little bit. And I think that's how food has become now. It's I want to see it on the screen. I want to order, and I want to scream into a scratchy box and no one can understand me. I want my order taken really quickly, and then I might chill on my phone in the drive thru line for 7 8 minutes. But if the food is in the bag, it's accurate, it's good, and it was delivered with customer experience, I'm gonna drive away thinking that was fast. We see it every single year. Chick fil A is always the last brand by total time in our study. For two reasons, that being one of them and the other being the fact that they're just really busy. But then we do the survey part and their perception is they're always the fastest. And the reason is that A, they give you accuracy, they're at the top. They're at the top of the customer experience. And then they're also fastest at individual cars, how fast they move those. So that's what people want right now is like that immediate gratification of accuracy. And then the experience follows,
Jeremy:Well, and I had a guest on before and it's like when you know what to expect, it's fine. You talked about the Amazon, you know, when you, when you go to a theme park, you know, when we see the line moving, regardless of how long it takes you in line, if you're moving, you feel like you're doing something. But when you're standing in line and you haven't moved in 10 minutes, it starts to get you, you know, there's something about the human psyche where Where you're like, well, what's going on? How do I go fix this? and I think, I think Chick fil A does such a magical job of keeping things moving in and out. It's another example. That's just fantastic
Danny Klein:Another example to what we've been talking about is you look at who's being successful now without doing something crazy. Texas roadhouse and every single call that I've sat on there is through the pandemic, labor crisis is a great recession. they're always doing better and they don't really change, several things about themselves, one being they don't take a lot of price. They price to cover the inflation. They keep giving people the same amount of food. And they're very manager focused and how their dining room was designed, which was a, one of the very early Kent Taylor things was just to have the manager and the site lines be a part of how the store is run by an operator and partner who, takes in the profits. But point being that. Good food, really good service, line dancing, fun. You get a, abundance on the plate doesn't cost a ton of money. They don't really worry about, things like how they're going to change their staffing model. They just keep staffing to the full extent. And you, then you wonder why they keep having positive traffic. And so is it, it's one of those things that again, like I said earlier, hard to execute that, but their playbook just does not change. They don't react to the. To the macro things and you know there I think if you're looking at an example of someone in that sit down space who You might want to model after I would begin with them.
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Danny Klein:Yeah. I think you said it at the end. I The most pressing example on the restaurant planet right now is Starbucks I was in a panel room recently listening to a panel on loyalty and metrics and Everyone kept referencing Starbucks in terms of things that they are doing at their brands, or they saw this when they were a customer. And so I ended up asking the question, it's you all keep shouting out Starbucks, and yet, this is also the same thing that everyone is now saying is broken. So where, what went wrong there? Because clearly they were the emphasis and the trailblazer for so much of what the industry does. And yet now, what has happened because obviously you're all copying them, that's not a, no one's wrong about copying in this industry. That's just what everybody does. And so for them, it's a very interesting case study and looking at what was your technology promise. To me, their promise at the beginning was, Giving you this VIP level experience of being a rewards member who can do the one thing we all wanted to do in the world, which was skip the line at Starbucks. And then it all went wrong because skipping the line at Starbucks meant actually you were waiting longer because we were going to skip the line and stand in, no one knew where to stand. We were all in this chaotic corner on the side of the restaurant. The orders weren't there on time. the. It's, and so that very elemental part of their technology just broke, and then the other part of it too, getting into the more deeper changes is the redemption to what they were offering. That got a little cloudy. It took too long. the, I think the sight lines to saying okay, this is what I get eventually because you now had so many versions of that, you go skip the line anywhere you can go skip it at caribou. You could go. Yeah. Skip it at Dutch Brothers, whatever you wanted it. actually, they're not the best example since they just added this. But point being, there are a lot of different apps and mobile ordering and rewards programs versus the days when they really trailblazed that path. So you saw in real time what happened when the value proposition of that trade off of the data stopped working.
Jeremy:Mm hmm. Well, an order accuracy is probably the other thing that Starbucks and everybody else has struggled with is, is, is because you give them, you know, a POS in their hand or in their pocket or on a kiosk, they can modify these things like crazy. When I'm standing in front of somebody, we have a two way, you know, we have a dialogue. It's like, Hey, Danny, you want this and this and this. Hey, can I get clarity on exactly what you're looking for? Whereas what it's in an app and I got 40 tickets in front of me or 40 items on the screen, you don't have time to stop and ask. You just make it the way you think they want it. They walk out the door and they're on their way to work. They get on the highway and now they're pissed because they got, you know, regular milk instead of almond milk or
Danny Klein:and same thing with what you saw on Tik Tok with Chipotle recently where people, who are ordering ahead or, weren't feeling as though they, and they opened that bag when they got home, that there was as much food in there as if peer pressured the person on the line to, while filming them and, that was probably an extreme thing. And I, they addressed it. And said it was a very small amount of stores. And I believe them. I think that was just a social thing, but it does speak to a larger point where it's if you go and order and pick up off the shelf, which is an amazing experience, I, that was one of my favorite things to come out of the pandemic. the fact that I could do that pretty much everywhere now, but if you do get home and it's not. What you thought it was, or it's disappointing in some sense, like how it was built or the amount of portion size, or again, they just got the order wrong. it is harder to make up for that. And delivery, of course, it's a whole different topic.
Jeremy:we could spend a whole nother topic on
Danny Klein:And, but it's a similar thing. that's scary at times where it's, a lot of that control gets handed over and the restaurants, I think agree at this point, there isn't a lot of choice there, but. Yeah, if the price or the experience of the driver doesn't align, a lot of the consumers, they blame the restaurant rightfully or wrongfully. and I think the same is true with some of the new technologies, the order at the table, the kiosks, I'm a personal big fan of using a kiosk. I think restaurants have gotten a lot better at understanding. I just saw an article about this that people kept sending me, which is basically this idea that the kiosk did not show up to take the restaurant job, which within the industry, we've all known that for years because I have been, I tell this story once in a while, if you've ever been to a restaurant that uses a kiosk incorrectly. It is the worst thing on earth because what ends up happening, and this is my anecdote of this at times, is that there was a place near my house that was very popular, like cult favorite type of thing. Like it would be on Yelp and people would say, you got to wait in line, that's the only negative. But it was not a negative to a degree from a branding standpoint. Cause you'd be walking by and you'd see, oh man, it's 30 people in line at this spot. one day I go in there, there's no line, and they've got a kiosk down one lane, and then, you could order at the cashier at the other, say, okay, cool, technology, what they didn't do, though, was actually allocate that labor anywhere, they just threw a kiosk in there, so what ended up happening is that you went from waiting in line Out the door to waiting for them to give you your order. It flipped upside down. So it went from okay, I gotta wait, 30 minutes to get my order taken, then they give it to me in two minutes. Now you're standing there by the drink machine, waiting for them to yell, your name and it's, awkward. It didn't work. It was uncomfortable and they streamlined the menu, because it was harder obviously to adjust on the fly in their case, But it didn't work because they didn't actually take that person and add them into the back. So restaurants that do this correctly now, it did not save labor. it just moved the labor. and it's a good thing because it allows you to take more volume and to fulfill more orders, which is much better than just having a cashier work over time. Plus the fact That's not really anybody's favorite job. And so now you see those people who kind of roam and help with the kiosk. And so I think it, I think that's the story of technology, in a nutshell is okay. You have all these tools, but are they gonna make you better or you yeah,
Jeremy:experience better? And I, I, I don't know if it was the same article. I got the privilege to listen to the CTO of yum. Talk about putting in kiosks, at a recent conference. And he was talking exactly about that is we're not, you know, the, the, the technology is not there to replace these people. They don't want to do that job anyway. So find something else for them to do within the store to keep your labor numbers, right. And the guests will get retrained to, to get what they're looking for. And it was, it was huge from
Danny Klein:yeah, and I think that yeah forget I know what you're talking about. I forget his name Joe, right?
Jeremy:Joe, Joe
Danny Klein:that's exactly how I think it's happening now is because the job itself you if you're gonna pay All this money, by hour that the industry is being forced to pay regardless of a market year and it's going up, then you might as well have that person doing something very useful.
Jeremy:Yeah. Have the, have them doing something that's going to deliver a higher value to your, to your guests and to them really, and give them life skills rather than sitting there and touching
Danny Klein:correct. So I think that's how you should look at technology is how does it help you get to that point? so much of that AI and stuff that we Hear about it's really happening on a very unsexy level, it's like labor scheduling and things that are taking tasks off a manager's plate so that they can, go actually manage things like that. And that's what's turning the interior of a labor model into a place that people are more likely to actually want to come work, improve the QSR labor experience versus trying to say, I'm just going to get rid of people.
Jeremy:Yeah, no, I love that. I'm going to, take a quick left turn, Danny, as we're starting to wrap up and, and, we continue to see in our business, a convergence with, traditional restaurants, whether that be QSR or casual dining and C stores and grocery stores. I know you're kind of new to the C store space, you know, from a writing perspective, but I'd love your opinion. I know you live in Carolina. I was just, I stopped at a sheet specifically to, to experience made to order. I, I grew up going to New Jersey. So Wawa has always been in my, my repertoire when I was in Jersey. So I'm familiar with some of the, the pioneers of that, but we're continuing to see restaurants showing up inside of grocery stores, whether that be ethnic grocery, grocery stores, independent grocery stores, or even, you know, Some of the biggest chains in the country where they're making food prepared to order and definitely see stores with the advent of electric cars. Again, at Sheetz, there was a half a dozen cars, you know, plugged in behind the, behind the, the store. And people were in ordering a sandwich or ordering, you know, food. How do you think that's going to impact both the, you know, the, this already trend that we talked about earlier in the show of bankruptcies and the struggle for restaurants. Cause now the amount of wallet share is going to get split again, another way. Okay.
Danny Klein:Yeah, it's a very interesting question. I don't know too much about that sector at this point, but I will say in the years that I've been doing this, I've written multiple our C Store, stealing share from QSR articles. So this is not a new topic. I think that the place that the C Stores have always struggled to compete is the drive thru. There are some C Store builds that have that up there, but by and large, that's. Where they get, washed over in terms of convenience. Now the grocery store in the made to order thing is really interesting. I saw something on that recently as well of some of that is fresher or more affordable, walking in a Wawa, from, My perspective is, I think what I learned about see saw industry in the last week and a half that I was unaware of was how many Independents were in this industry. I you know,
Jeremy:they all have the same brand name outside, but they're they're owned by you know One guy owns three and one
Danny Klein:Yeah, I didn't I did not really know that I didn't really think about it And so for me, it's just like the Bucky's experience. There's some of these really cool spots for every one of those. There's also the one I don't want to go into.
Jeremy:yeah.
Danny Klein:where they lose to the QSR. Cause yeah, if I don't have to get out of my car and I can get my food. And so there's an element there, I think of. How much share can they take in the made to order, even restaurants, this was a big thing during the COVID time of they were doing things like that. some full service brands were becoming butcher shops and having these unique setups, but once it settled back out, it was as though customers just fell into the occasions that they wanted to. And this goes back to. Our very first experience or conversation point here around experience of, made to order food is great for a very specific thing. it's not, going to compete with Texas Roadhouse and it's not going to compete with Shake Shack in terms of. if you are deciding you're going to go make that kind of indulgent, lunchtime visits. so I, to my take from a, like a purely, and we'll see what happens, but from a purely writer's perspective, I always write that story. And the answer is always no. so let's say,
Jeremy:brothers hunt brothers sells as much pizza as Papa
Danny Klein:Yeah, exactly. They, do. and they always mention that. But to me, it's a, they're almost a different pizza occasion. It's like you're spontaneous,
Jeremy:or Casey's Casey's General Store says they're what number three I think in pizza demand in the country, which is crazy to me, but but also, you know, I mean, but to your point I don't think people experience it the same way You That they might, even when they're, they're doing takeout, you know, or they're doing delivery of Pizza Hut or Domino's or,
Danny Klein:Yeah, and that's where these loyalty programs and these other things become so vital. when you become a parody brand and you're just another pizza delivery option for someone typing in pizza delivery. that's a hard customer to stick because that customer is going to be a coupon chasing, pizza in particular is a really interesting sector because it's like an e commerce site, like the, it's not, there's no menu boards. So they changed the price, they changed the deals, they, you're browsing what's available based on your phone or your computer. And so they live in a whole different world than most of the QSR. But again, like once they lose like that loyal core user, it's very tough to get that incremental constant pizza coupon person.
Jeremy:Yeah. Well, and discounts always end up, I mean, oftentimes kill
Danny Klein:and they're all going to play that game too, it's just that they have to be able to hold the people that they do get who are actually frequent. That's where the battle right now is being fought, and on that level, I'm not, I don't think that they worry too much about the different channels of the sector, it's just Yeah, if you do start to cede, share of stomach, so to speak, to a supermarket based on something other than price, that's tough.
Jeremy:Well, and it, again, we're, we work in the grocery on space or what we call grocery on space a little bit. And we continue to see deli ordering on a kiosk, you know, with some of the same traditional things they're trying to get into the door dash game. They're trying to get into the grub hub Uber eats game as well, which is, you know, again, I think it's interesting that it'll, it'll be interesting over the next few years to see how that pans out. Well, Danny, how can people follow you? How, how can people stay connected? Cause again, I think. I would say I read almost everything you post because I love, I love your style and I love what, what you continue because there are a lot of times that I read an article and I'm like, Oh, I hadn't even thought about it that way. And I've lived in the space for my entire adult life. So how can people learn more about what you do get connected and such?
Danny Klein:first of all, I appreciate that. so yeah, the best, best way to follow us, or me personally, is Two places our website, of course qsrmagazine. com. We also have fsrmagazine. com If you're looking for full service news and then just social media wise on linkedin. I'm not I'm not on any other platform. Really? I do have a twitter account, but I haven't tweeted in five years for a lot of reasons. So yeah, just connect with me on linkedin. I'm very active there
Jeremy:Yeah. I wouldn't say you're a great follow on LinkedIn. Cause, while I subscribe to the newsletters, there's a lot of times that I, that I miss the articles. I mean, I get the, I get the emails every day, but then I'm like, Oh crap. And then you'll post something like, Oh, there's a bunch of comments on this. I need to go make sure I read this. Cause it's, it oftentimes is
Danny Klein:Yes, e letters too. Can't, can't not shout those out. They're both free if you sign up for them on our website. Our magazine is also free if you still like the print edition. You just have to be a qualified operator, but anybody could get the email. send those nine times a week. Personally, I'm sending them. So
Jeremy:Yeah, you should figure out some automation in that. There's probably some, there's probably a
Danny Klein:yeah, that, would be nice.
Jeremy:Well, Danny, thank you for jumping on so quickly, but it was awesome. I know I reached out to you and you were like, Oh, let's get on. This is cool. So, you know, our listeners love, love what you put out. And, I personally do as well. So it was an honor to have you on the show to our listeners, guys. I know you guys got lots of choices, so thank you guys for spending time with us and make it a great day.
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