The Covid-19 pandemic roared through the restaurant industry. It has forced several businesses to shut down. However, that doesn’t mean quitting. There are several strategies you can adopt and still thrive. For instance, you can turn your focus into ghost kitchens and keep your restaurant dream alive. Here are ways through which kitchens are shaping the restaurant industry.
Introduction
So, what is a ghost kitchen? Ghost kitchens offer you a special way to improve your revenues. Driven by technology, ghost kitchens don’t come with tables, chairs, or bars. However, they are guided by health standards. These ghost kitchens hire cooks and rely on delivery couriers. Ghost kitchens are all about making food deliveries quickly. In a nutshell, ghost kitchens are ideal during this pandemic and post-pandemic era.
Ghost kitchens – also known as dark kitchens—are food facilities that prepare and deliver meals to customers. They operate like typical restaurants. The only difference is that they don’t have spaces where customers can take food. They have physical spaces. Their major purpose is to prepare and deliver meals to clients. Customers can order meals from these facilities. In most cases, courier service companies are used to deliver meals to customers. Here are the top benefits of ghost restaurants.
Space Utilization
Unlike typical restaurants, ghost kitchens require less space. These facilities maximize spaces. Thus, restaurant owners can deliver more menus from limited spaces. These spaces don’t require dining spaces. Thus, restaurants can leverage ghost kitchens to scale their output and realize more sales.
Meet Increased Demand
According to stats, the demand for meals during the Covid-19 era shot up. To be precise, more than $5 billion orders were made during 2018. It is projected that the food delivery market will hit $365 billion by 2030. With ghost kitchens, you have facilities that can help your business meet the increasing food delivery demand. You can use these facilities to prepare several menus from a limited space. Still more, your employees will be focused on food preparations rather than serving guests at the dining table.
Parking
A typical restaurant requires more parking space for customers. Still more, your business should be located in a busy city or street. On the other hand, a ghost kitchen doesn’t have to be located in a busy street. It can be located in a remote setting. Thus, parking space won’t be an issue. Remember, parking spaces in urban centers cost money. Thus, it’s time to invest in a ghost kitchen.
No Food Wastage
Unlike conventional restaurants, ghost kitchens are highly economical. They minimize food wastage and reduce inventory costs. If you operate multiple brands, for instance, you can have all your restaurants in the same ghost kitchen. And this allows you to strategically craft unique menus and share or reuse ingredients.
Even more, you can train your staff to prepare dishes according to your preferred dining style.
Cost Savings
Ghost restaurants typically operate in a smaller space. Plus, they don’t require too many staff members. Fewer staff members mean lower operating costs while a smaller space implies lower rent costs. The goal of every business is to minimize costs and increase profits. And that’s exactly what a POS system does. It reduces your expenses and improves your sales.
Increased Location Options
When it comes to ghost restaurants, people have more ownership over the location of their businesses. They can operate their shops whenever they want. Plus, they have the opportunity to explore local neighborhoods with lower commercial rents.
Easy To Introduce New Concepts
Since ghost restaurant menus are solely available online, changing and adapting to new food trends is much convenient. You don’t need to redesign or reprint any menus so as to adjust what’s available online to reflect your new offerings.
With a ghost restaurant, you can easily introduce food trends such as Hawaiian poke bowls, and sushi burritos when customer preferences change.
Ghost Kitchens: The Challenges
Of course, ghost kitchens are good. They can help you run a successful restaurant. However, these restaurant options come with a few challenges. Here are some of the challenges of ghost kitchens.
Delivery Errors
Ghost kitchens also experience challenges when offering delivery. From poor takeout food packaging and order errors to long wait times, there’s quite a lot of the experience. These Are challenges experienced by most delivery-reliant restaurants. However, they can be amplified when delivery is the main source of revenue.
Food Standards
When there are too many cooks in the kitchen dealing with different brands, inconsistencies could easily occur. Even if there’s ingredient standardization, errors can still be made. As opposed to a single restaurant, you’ll have to train your cooks on making many more dishes. And this can be extremely tedious and cumbersome.
A lack of consistency can negatively impact your ability to secure repeat business. This is something you’ll always want to avoid, right? So, be sure to rethink your plans before undertaking huge investments.
Not Ideal for New Restaurants
Ghost kitchens aren’t an ideal option for start-up restaurants. Rather, they’re more useful for restaurants seeking to expand their delivery operations and widen their customer base.
For new business owners who don’t have existing customers to sell to, this could prove to be a challenge. Remember, the main aim of setting up a ghost kitchen is to increase your sales. It’s all about expanding an existing operation. So, the model might not make sense for a small start-up. If you’re new to the food industry, it’s always better to consider starting with a physical restaurant. And once you have gained extensive experience, you can then go ahead and incorporate a ghost kitchen into your marketing strategy.
It Is All About Sales
Ghost kitchens are becoming popular. However, that doesn’t mean that conventional restaurants are dead. Ghost kitchens are only offering restaurant owners new ways to increase revenue. However, if you still have a restaurant, you can optimize it. In particular, you can get creative and incorporate modern interior design themes for restaurant establishments. This will attract more customers.
The Bottom-Line
Of course, the past two years have been tough; thanks to Covid 19. Several businesses have closed down. However, that shouldn’t scare you. You can still run a successful restaurant establishment. With ghost kitchens, you have a better and economical way to run your restaurant. The above are the top ways ghost kitchens are shaping the restaurant industry.
