The Concept of the All You Can Eat Buffet - Essay Example

 All you can Eat The concept of the all you can eat buffet has been, for decades, a promising market for growth and profitability. All you can eat methodology, in most restaurants, consists of a one-time price that includes beverage, a variety of assorted and diverse entrees, and an abundance of greens with supplementary dessert options. What makes this attractive to most diners is that having such consolidation makes for predictable expenditures within the restaurant experience and allows the heartier eater to significantly indulge their consumption desires. However, there have recently been multiple situations in which buffet owners have begun to limit the portions allowed, attempting to reduce their food cost expenditures that continue to rise. President Obama’s mass production of currency has radically increased the costs of transportation for food products, raised prices for animal feed, and increased utility costs in many locations nationwide. All of these prices impact the supply chain strategy and capacity of the all you can eat buffet purchasing system, leaving customers to bear the burden of thrifty, independent and corporate buffet owners attempting to save their revenues. Let’s face it: Virtually everyone loves to indulge themselves with a vast assortment of well-prepared foods in which there are no consumption limitations. Most buffets carry prime meats that are significantly more expensive than less-tender and less-marbled cuts of meat, a differentiation strategy to lure customers from limited menu competitors. Many people take their own families and extended families to the buffet experience as it maintains appeal to many different demographics and psychological profiles. President Obama did not take into consideration the impact on the national food supply chain when developing his monetary policies, attempting to, first, satisfy the interests of multi-billion dollar profit organizations. Short-run thinking, which is very typical of less-effective financial leaders, now has created more than just national inflation, these decisions have doubled the price of prime foods. Buffet owners, not equipped with the knowledge and education of the international financial system, see only lost revenues occurring as their monthly invoices continue to grow higher. Angry, but unsure where to direct these appropriate hostilities, it leaves them in a position where they must begin scrutinizing plate volumes taken by paying customers. What a horrible disappointment for the high-paying family and their extended kin, to discover that a prime piece of meat has suddenly been pulled from the carving table to satisfy historical profit expectations. Sorry, Grandma, but you just paid $15 for a double heaping of cheap, bagged salads while the owner, unwittingly bamboozled by poor governmental thinking, snickers at his or her new role as ration management. Well, it should be recognized that word-of-mouth advertising is extremely crucial in establishing a brand reputation and continued patron loyalty at the buffet. Poor Aunt Jane! What complex and negative emotions occur as she shuffles across the marble floor en route with her plate for a heaping helping of prime rib or succulent turkey only to watch the beast disappear from the table right before her very eyes! Most definitely Uncle Roger will be returning to the table, in his usual exuberant and vocal mannerisms, complaining for the rest of the meal about the poor diversity of the buffet and its ongoing, perceived rip off. What will Aunt Jane do to overcompensate? In most families where passive aggressiveness is commonplace, Aunt Jane will surely load up plate after plate (after plate) and simply pick at the contents in an effort to, proverbially, stick it to the ownership. In an effort to save just a few coins per serving, the buffet owner has now lost three times the original price of the prime products while plate after plate of less expensive food is tossed directly into the garbage can. However, Aunt Jane and Uncle Roger, do not understood that their passive aggressive tactics are a direct product of awful fiscal policy and shortsightedness that has now turned honest and lawful buffet owners into blatant crooks. In any event, the damage is now done and surely this large family will find another café in the future where they get exactly what they have been promised: a multi-course meal that includes premium food products at a promised price. Now, in this situation, the new ration management team is sitting in the kitchen, staring at a piece of medium rare and expensive prime meat that will be strategically replaced when the more expensive late-evening diners arrive. Meanwhile, believing that they have pulled a proverbial fast one on now disgruntled diners, they are managing to anger likely fifty percent of their entire buffet dining clientele who are quickly becoming wise to these deceptive tactics. Spread the word over there that the yanks are coming! Horrific fiscal policy and planning that does not take into consideration the emotional needs of the consuming public is now ruining not only profitability, but the brand reputation of the buffet that relies on loyalty to remain liquid and viable as a business model. If better long-run thinking had been accomplished by the current governmental administration, the buffet owner and Aunt Jane would not have to be overt and regular criminals simply to gain what they believe is an entitlement in all you can eat buffet dining. How much more terrible could this become for the buffet industry? Well, it gets even worse. It is the cooks that understand tenderness, juiciness and the appropriate holding times for these quality meats, not the management team. However, centralized hierarchies of control dictate that senior leadership at the buffet gets the final call on operational standards and practices. The cook will understand that pre-carved meats are only sustainable for an hour or two before the juices evaporate and the meat becomes more like jerky than prime cuts of succulent meat product. By the time the hoarded roast is returned to the table, approximately three to four hour later, the quality of product served to customers continues to build hostilities. Can the cook even object?! Absolutely not or they could lose their job security and potential bonuses provided for illustrating effective compliance and team work. What a de-motivator! Now, because of poor governmental planning and execution in fiscal responsibility, this situation has impacted quality assurance operationally and continues to anger customers with a great deal of price sensitivity and historical experiences at buffets where food was superior. President Richard Nixon openly declared that he was not a crook, but the nation put him into the can and sealed it up tight. The current leadership administration has accomplished the same thing, only in reverse, and has placed buffet profitability right into the can and flushed it while wearing rose-colored glasses. There is, however, a solution to satisfy the ownership and Uncle Roger at the same time. Buffet ownership can raise prices on premium buffets, moderate increases in order to re-establish quality control methodology. Because the damage has already been done by inefficient planning mechanisms at the Executive level, now all you can eat proprietors are left with their own solution planning that can no longer rely on financial system resolution. Buffet owners need to be more creative in establishing a more diversified and cooperative supply chain for premium products, creating agreements that include price reductions for volume ordering and limit transportation time and refrigeration costs through consolidation. Aunt Jane and Grandma will not notice that additional dollar added to the bill and buffet owners will no longer have to curse their customers, thus depleting brand reputation, due to dreadful financial management. Though this is a terrible shame, it is absolutely necessary to make buffet dining viable, profitable and quality-minded again. The buffet diner and ownership can no longer sustain unethical behaviors due to government failure. Read More