While football viewing might be down the rest of the season, the Super Bowl hasn’t lost its luster. A record 179.1 million Americans are expected to watch the game Sunday, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation. While there’s no data on whether viewers pay more attention to the commercials than the game, there’s plenty of evidence that nearly everyone watching the game will be eating and drinking, Marketing Daily reports. Three-quarters of respondents to NRF’s survey plan to spend money on food and drink; about 60 million people will watch the game at a party; and 10.1 million will view it from a restaurant or bar.
Super Bowl Sunday is the second-biggest food holiday of the year, after Thanksgiving, according to a USDA fact sheet, which also says 23% of viewers will chow down on chicken wings. Higher prices and a slightly smaller supply will lead to a 1% decline in consumption, the National Chicken Council told CNBC, but Americans will still eat 1.23 billion wings as they celebrate the big game. (read more…)
SmartBrief is assembling the best social media content from Sirha 2013, the World Hospitality & Food Service Event in Lyon, France, which runs through Wednesday. Here’s a taste of the show as displayed through Storify.
Want more? Check out SmartBrief’s coverage of trends from this year’s show, the Sirha World Cuisine Summit, the World Pastry Cup and the Bocuse d’Or. Subscribe to Restaurant SmartBrief and ProChef SmartBrief for a daily dose of restaurant and culinary news.
Take a picture. It’ll last longer — way longer than the restaurant meal you ordered. Still, just because you want to take a picture of your plate doesn’t mean you should. More eateries are asking patrons not to snap away as each course arrives, in consideration of fellow guests.
The New York Times reported this week on chefs who have discouraged or downright outlawed photo snapping at their restaurants, thwarting the legions of foodies addicted to documenting their every meal and sharing via e-mail, Instagram, blog or Pinterest.
“It’s reached epic proportions,” said Steven Hall, a restaurant spokesman who has worked in the business for 16 years. “Everybody wants to get their shot. They don’t care how it affects people around them.”
Chefs vary in how strictly they enforce photo prohibition, with white-tablecloth eateries including Per Se, Le Bernardin and The Fat Duck discouraging flash photos — to little avail — and others, such as David Chang’s Momofuku, enforcing a strict ban on photography without fear of embarrassing guests who break the rule, according to the Times. (read more…)
Wendy’s is streamlining its corporate IT systems by integrating Esri Business Analyst into its reporting at new locations. The geographic information systems software will help the quick-service chain in conducting market analyses and selecting new sites. “The company’s decision to integrate GIS as a scalable technology within its existing systems means that any staff member, from marketing to design, can gain the benefits of mapping intelligence without any training and at any time,” said Simon Thompson, Esri’s director of commercial business.
The software utilizes customized analytics, Esri demographics data and server GIS applications to create a mapping interface that allows staff to have easy access to sales records, demographics and other reports from any of the more than 6,500 existing chain locations. The new system also gives the company the ability to create predictive models and analyze potential restaurant cannibalization at new and existing restaurants, which span across America, the U.S. (read more…)
During the recession, many belt-tightening restaurant patrons kept the check down by ordering water instead of pricier beverages. Today, efforts such as New York City’s ban on big soda have sought to raise awareness about high-calorie beverages and their role in obesity and to persuade people to cut back on sugary beverages.
But there’s evidence the ban might not be as necessary to fulfill that mission as Mayor Mike Bloomberg thought when he proposed it. The Wall Street Journal reports that soda sales decreased in the second half of last year, including the holidays, when soda sales typically peak. Demand for soda has declined 16% in the past decade, but until recent months, soft drink companies were able to raise prices enough to keep up revenue.
Companies including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Dr Pepper Snapple Group increased prices significantly to shore up sales amid higher commodity prices in 2011, according to the Journal. (read more…)
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