buffets

daryn · #1 04-26-2007, 11:33 AM

how are they profitable? obviously they are, but wow.. is there some trick? do they just normally make an ABSOLUTE KILLING on their regular food? do they substitute cheaper quality food for the buffet (in other words if you ordered a side of xxxx separately would it be prepared differently)? some combination of both? specifically i'm talking about chinese food buffets but it could be extended to anything.

captZEEbo · #2 04-26-2007, 11:36 AM

at old country buffet the food quality is worse than most restaurants...it's similar to high school cafeteria food.

I think chinese food the food is made very cheaply.

chezlaw · #3 04-26-2007, 11:37 AM

[ QUOTE ]
how are they profitable? obviously they are, but wow.. is there some trick? do they just normally make an ABSOLUTE KILLING on their regular food? do they substitute cheaper quality food for the buffet (in other words if you ordered a side of xxxx separately would it be prepared differently)? some combination of both? specifically i'm talking about chinese food buffets but it could be extended to anything.

[/ QUOTE ]
drinks is a large part.

chez

miajag · #4 04-26-2007, 11:38 AM

This is why I like Indian buffets, it's the same quality food you'd get if you were paying $12 for an entree, but it's like $7.95 and you get a ton of different choices.

daryn · #5 04-26-2007, 11:39 AM

[ QUOTE ]
This is why I like Indian buffets, it's the same quality food you'd get if you were paying $12 for an entree, but it's like $7.95 and you get a ton of different choices.

[/ QUOTE ]

ok well, use this example then. funny, i'm just about to leave for an indian buffet lunch. so, how do they do it? i guess they just make incredible money off of the regular entrees? or do they just not make a huge profit off of the buffet and they just bank on drink revenue?

CappyAA · #6 04-26-2007, 11:39 AM

I'd be willing to bet a large margin is made on beverages too. They sell beers for $5 when they bought it for 50-75 cents per beer. The margin on soda is even more. After paying for the syrup, CO2, etc., each soda costs a restaurant about 3-4 cents when they charge up to $2 on it. Even if you have 5 refills, they are still making a huge profit.

MasterLJ · #7 04-26-2007, 11:41 AM

[ QUOTE ]
This is why I like Indian buffets, it's the same quality food you'd get if you were paying $12 for an entree, but it's like $7.95 and you get a ton of different choices.

[/ QUOTE ]

Amen to that.

So many delicious Indian food buffets.

There's an Asian food buffet I go to every once in a while that serves decent sushi/sashimi. I feel that I am gambling with my colon every time I go. $8 for raw fish can't ever be good, can it?

AceLuby · #8 04-26-2007, 11:42 AM

More Quantity + Less Quality = ROBUSTO. It's cheaper by the pound to make say 100 pounds of mashed potatoes than 1 pound of mashed potatoes. Cheaper, as in man hours necessary. Plus I'm sure they can use cheaper ingredients for buffets compared to regular dining in.

samjjones · #9 04-26-2007, 11:42 AM

Transforming yesterday's leftovers from sunk cost to revenue is good business sense, IMO.

mason55 · #10 04-26-2007, 11:44 AM

Also, the regular entrees probably have a decent markup. Figure that if they're charging $12 for an entree they might be paying $4 or $5 to make it (talking out of my ass here, but if you think about the ingredients it doesn't seem too far off here and might even be less). So, say they break even on the food, or maybe even make a little, then make $1.50+ on each drink, $2.50+ on each beer, the servers are cheap and survive on tips anyway, $1.5/hour is all that comes out of the bottom line for the servers.

As people said earlier, some places like Old Country Buffet also use really crappy food.