Hi Kristin,
The Franchise Pundit asked you to leave out the PR puff, and it doesn't seem you did, so I'll respond to your numbered list.
1. There isn't a store out there that can't say the exact same thing. Everyone has customers that rave about them. Owner relationships with communities are the core foundation of the original meal assembly business. In fact all small businesses must make themselves a part of the community; it?s the best way to promote your business without spending a fortune in advertising costs. Small business 101? Better customer service is a factor of who you hire and how you train them, it has nothing to do with the franchise itself.
2. Better entrees? Our customers love our entrees too. As do the customers of our competitors. We have customers that won't go back to the competitor. And I'm sure they have customers that won't come back to us. Its business, the customers will have a preference. That doesn't differentiate you from anyone else. As for US Foods versus SYSCO versus etc, it doesn't matter which distributor you choose, it's the quality of food you purchase. I know the distributor that we use also sells to several of our competitors. I have seen which products they have on their shelves and know it's the lower price version of any given product. The customers don't know the difference, we know we purchase the better product and hope the customers will enjoy the meal. ?entees are packed with flavor?.? I thought we were leaving the marketing fluff out.
3. I wouldn't exactly call it creating, although imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I'm sure the companies that preceded yours are flattered. Changing a wall color, rotating the stations and putting in a reception desk is hardly "creating". At least you didn?t go with the same colors everyone else did? nevermind.
All the stores are getting bigger, not exactly a groundbreaking innovation in my humble opinion. As for your statement about waiting to make an entr?e in a line, how exactly does having a bigger physical space make it any faster for the customer? More roomy yes, but faster? You still have 6 true(brand) prep stations (real original) Don?t 99.9 percent of all meal assembly locations have 6 prep stations? (I say 99.9 because I never seen one with a different amount but there could be one out there) If you have more than 6 stations my apologies, but that?s all I could make out from your web page and other pictures posted on the web of your facilities.
I did notice that you only offer 12 meals where most of the industry offers 14, so at least that is a bit different. You also offer sides, desserts and breakfasts. Also a bit different, are these assembled by the customer or your staff or are they just purchased from the distributor and resold?
I guess the question posed to you was, how have you differentiated yourself in the industry? Each have 6 stations, offer 12 meals, online ordering, and private parties, choose 6, into offers, split meals, walk in hours, pre-assembled, grab n go. It?s all the same. Some of it doesn?t make good business sense, but everyone is doing it.
To quote you. ?Yes, I am with yet ANOTHER meal prep companies. (Will the madness ever end??!)?
Let?s be clear, a copy is a copy is a copy. Every one of these businesses is a copy of the original, and even if the original call themselves the grandmother of the industry, they got the idea from someone else.
Again, what makes PYP any different that the thousands of other meal assembly stores?
I look forward to your continued debate.
The Meal Blogger
www.mealassemblywatch.commealblogger at gmail dot com
