[Duke]

The other day I got it in my head that sushi was a prime candidate for fast food, based mainly on the high turnover rate in fast food with the need for freshness in sushi.

On its surface it seems like a crappy idea, because sushi buffets are unilaterally terrible (stale rice, rotting fish, cheap seaweed), but I was thinking that it didn't have to be that way. They have to serve junk because they're one store with little buying power. To sell it cheaply, they have to go with inferior products. But if I had 10,000 locations, I could get good stuff, compete on price, and blow them away as far as order prep time went.

I thought Wal-Mart. They can sell things in the grocery store for cheaper than anywhere else because of their buying power. Sure, they operate the grocery store at a loss on some items to attract customers to buy things in other departments, but the buying power to price correlation is still valid.

So, I figured that if I were buying entire boats full of fish and distributing them nationwide, I could get the fish cheaper. While I'd pay more than I would for crappy fish, I could get great fish at a good price. The same would go for rice, seaweed, and whatever else I determine as being necessary in the line-up.

Of course, I wouldn't be selling the exotic rolls based on presentation that are virtually impossible to eat while driving, but hand rolls, or uncut normal rolls would be akin to burritos. Give packets of soy sauce with the wasabi mixed in already (in various levels, like Taco Bell sauce), and present a fairly limited menu that I could teach morons how to prepare. But have it be good quality, with good taste.

If something like this were attempted in one location, the primary principle for the combination wouldn't be taken advantage of. One store wouldn't have enough turnover to command better supply prices, so the menu items would have to cost more, and then who'd want to pay as much for "fast" sushi as they could for normal sushi. Whether or not it could be successful wouldn't ever be answered, as failure due to higher prices could prevent that advantage from ever being realized.

Now - am I just being stupid here with the idea that certain models can only work on a very large scale (while others can only work on a small scale), or am I missing something? I'm not an MBA.