The Scale of Business (longish)

[mother_brain]

Duke any opinions on whether you still need a large chain to be successful w/ some fast food sushi?

Diablo is ofcourse correct. But I dont think his scenerio of high fixed costs are generally used for restuarants, even more so fast food restuarants. It seems more to me like a production/manufacturing scenerio.

I think a single fast food restuarant company would rarely have fixed management ect. expenses that aren't easily recovered from the stores sales.

Interesting is that your origanal idea came from WalMart. However, when WalMart was first created it had no benefits what soever from economies of scale and in fact was behind its competition in this regard (this is right?).

[Duke]

I think you're right about Wal-Mart, in that they built to a certain size, and then were able to take advantage of scale to kill prices and competition.

The only reason it came from Wal-Mart is the buying power aspect that I see in their operations today. That, and the idea that the fast food business model could be altered.

~D

[Zeno]

There are other obstacles to overcome more on a marketing and psychological scale. Specifically (in my opinion anyway):

1. Sushi is traditionally a slow food item. You would have to change entrenched habits and culture associated with the eating of sushi and that is something not only difficult, it would take time and time is money.

2. To change entrenched habits you need a large advertising and marketing research budget, that is, more start-up capital and probably a slower ramp up (curve) to your profit margin. (I assume you would count on losses for a certain period of start up time)

3. Location, where would you start? Seattle area, San Francisco area, LA area? The population in these areas would be more familiar with Sushi and perhaps more readily amiable to change old habits and will chomp on a quickly made sushi salmon roll and accept the wasabi sauce from a packet, however sacrilegious that may seem at first.

4. What a place looks and feels like is extremely important when selling food, any kind of food. I would even surmise that the success or failure of your nascent adventure could very well hinge on this seemingly small issue.

5. Details will kill you. You have to identify as many up front as you can. It is not just about moving a product.

6. Having a start up strategy is not as important as having an exit strategy. It you do not know what that means, don't start a business. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Le Misanthrope

[El Diablo]

Duke,

Having read your post now, this model actually seems to work pretty well in places like airports where people are willing to pay some pretty high premiums for stuff like some OK packaged California rolls. I have no idea how profitable they are, but these fast-food sushi places I see seem to do a pretty brisk business and aren't cheap.