Scrap Book Notes
The global statistics on the prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases including diabetes are shocking. A report from diabetes.org shows that more than 29.1 million Americans, (about 9.3%) of the country’s population suffer from diabetes. Further, upwards of 86 million Americans have been diagnosed with obesity and/or pre-diabetes. There are even more diseases resulting from unhealthy lifestyles.
Other than physical activities, food remains one of the most important contributing factors to the lifestyle diseases epidemic. The main reason for this is the culture among Americans dominated by the likes of McDonalds, Chic-Fil-A and KFC.
Many people, especially young people are forced into the fast foods culture because there are no ready and affordable alternatives. People (including students) don’t have time to cook for themselves or simply suck at cooking, and so they resort to fast foods outlet since they can barely afford healthy offerings from high-end restaurants. –These reasons are important for the success of my business, but its long-term survival is dependent on the growing awareness of lifestyle diseases.
There is a real need for healthy eating outlets in the world today, to allow people to have healthy foods easily and at an affordable price. Organic and fresh healthy foods are growing popular, but in restaurants that I have been in, such options are very expensive. In addition, the vast majority of restaurants offering fresh, healthy and/or organic foods are very expensive. Many people that eat in these restaurants do so on special occasionsmay be on a monthly day out for dinner or lunch.
I believe an organic and healthy foods restaurant can be success for a number of reasons. To begin with, multiple big organizations in the United States and elsewhere in the world have been very successful for offering healthy, fresh and organic foods. I am particularly thinking of Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods Market is a supermarket with a huge network of subsidiaries that offers a broad range of organic and gourmet shoppers. The company has reported massive growth over that last few years, despite rising competition. According to a news article yesterday, the organic foods market may have grown by up to 12 per cent in the year 2013.
Whole Foods Market growth has nothing to do with the healthy restaurant business, but the fact that the market is growing shows that people are interested in healthy-eating. As more and more people become aware of the associated problems of fast foods, they will be drawn to the healthy foods industry.
Costs and Pricing
The main problem with organic, fresh and other healthy foods is the ability to provide the foods at an affordable price to be accessible to the middle and lower classes, because they form the majority of the population. The main selling point for the restaurant is health-eating and lifestyle change. In addition, I should be able to appeal to the youthful market, to wean them off the fast foods. It is possible to signlong-term agreements with suppliers. This will also serve as a competitive advantage.
It is also important to remember why fast foods have been very success. They are convenient for many people and provide great-tasting food. My success with this restaurant will have to be based on providing great tasting food so that people affordably so that people can substitute. The success factors for this restaurant include the following:
Increasing awareness of the effects of unhealthy eating with the increasing awareness of diabetes, heart diseases and other such factors will help raise the demand for healthy eating and thus this restaurant. In addition, this hotel would be among the first movers in the industry providing affordable healthy foods.
Business Description
The restaurant industry in the world today is characterised by upmarket business that exact high prices and serve only a select few. On the other hand, many restaurants mainly fall in three major categories i.e. either serve the low end, middle end or high end of the market, The low and middle end markets thrive by optimising on scale production with quality and healthiness being a secondary concern in order to keep costs down. The proposed restaurant would seek to straddle all the three categories. It will offer fresh and organic foods cook-on-order basis at an affordable price. Prices that can compete favourably with fast foods outlets are important to ensure that the restaurant can tap into the vast majority of the population. With the rising awareness of the effects of fast foods on people’s health, the market for organic products should increase and hence the demand for healthy foods restaurants.
The proposed restaurant will provide a wide selection of fresh, prepared organic and gourmet offerings (including fresh and organic seafood, poultry and meat, and beverages) to customers at an affordable price.The restaurant would position itself as an everyday eating-place offering fast food-equivalent price for very healthy and tasty foods. The challenge and competitive advantage for the proposed restaurant lies in its ability to offer acceptably low prices by ensuring that the fresh organic inputs are available at acceptable costs. In part, this would be attained by signing long-term contracts with suppliers, investing in an enterprise resource system, and locating in affordable areas in towns.
