nickshanagher

Recently there has been a lot of analysis of what makes some casual dining outlets successful while others fail. Convenience store operators - especially those with food-to-go - should pay attention. While these secrets may look simple, operationally simple things often turn out to be difficult to deliver. So don't scoff. Secret 1: Put plenty of cheese on a takeaway pizza as it retains heat well. Secret 2: Chinese and Indian meals take time to prepare and are not well designed for takeaway. Secret 3: Pizzas and burgers have ingredients that can be bulk bought and the average school leaver can be trained to make them. Secret 4: You need to reinvent the value of meals in the minds of consumers if you want to be successful. Secret 5: Sometimes you are not in the food business. For example, coffee shops may sell expensive coffee but they rent cheap meeting space.

A friend who worked for a large UK homewares retailer was saying that the company regularly kept a line of sofas on display priced at £1,000 for two months a year solely so they could sell the sofa at a sale price of £500 for the other 10 months. The twist to her story was describing what happened when a company-employed mystery shopper came in and enquired about the sofa when it was at the higher price point and was told by a member of staff that if they waited two weeks they may find that it was in the sale. Afterwards, the company criticised its team at the store for their behaviour, saying they should not have drawn the lower price available two weeks away to the "customer's" attention. On Tuesday, the banks in England agreed to stop charging holidaymakers who pay for foreign currency with their debit cards a 2.5 per cent fee for essentially using their own cash. Foreign currency providers also agreed to better market "0 per cent" deals that are n...