My Food Cost Sucks and I Don't Know Why! - Packrats and Streamliners

There are two extremes of people when it comes to quality vs. quantity.
The Pack-rat (gatherers)- They have an embellished FEAR of running out, so they pad the numbers. This is a person who is quick to over produce. They Don’t fear waste.
• They don’t feel comfortable unless they are assured to have more than enough. They give into their compulsion.
• This person is generally ahead on prep but struggles with having to choose between poor quality or poor food cost.
• This person may rationalize tossing food as “It’s just the cost of doing business”.
• They are willing to compromise profitability for their own comfort. Or they may not worry themselves about quality as long as they don’t have to waste it.
Getting ahead:
• The Build-to number (Target) should reflect the most accurate level of product we can reasonably produce that puts our target right in the middle of under producing and over producing.
• Accurate production requires that we make a specific build-to number of units, not a minimum or “at least” number.
- Over producer will do more than what is on the list in order to “get ahead”.
- This is wrong thinking because doing more than the projection is not just planning to not run out, but also planning to throw food away.
• Don’t try to “get ahead” to easy your fear of running out.
• The goal becomes about having “plenty”, rather than having enough but not too much.
The Streamliner
The Streamliner - This is a person who desperately FEARS waste, so they are slow to over produce and quick to make more as needed. Sometimes a streamliner is someone who just doesn’t want to do more than the minimum. The DON’T fear as much about running out.
• This person generally has fresh product, doesn’t waste much.
• This person is generally a poor planner but conscious of cost.
• They are always playing catch-up, producing on the fly.
• They often leave the next person in a bind.
• They frequently run out or falls behind on prep leading to poor customer service times due to lack of readiness.
• Being a streamliner can be very stressful and costly to the business.
The Time Trap
• For some people it comes natural to compromise and complete less than what is ideal. They rationalize it by thinking “that should be close enough”, “we will probably be slow anyway”, or “they leave me extra things to do all the time, it won’t hurt them if I leave it for them”.
• This is usually a symptom of a person that is more concerned with the amount of work they personally must do rather than the wellbeing of the store and the people coming after them.
• Sometimes people struggle with production or a sense of urgency. They just can’t get their job completed in the allotted time, so they compromise rather than follow through.
• Some people are more concerned with what time they get off work than the wellbeing of the store.
• shortcuts are taken to ensure they can leave on time.
• They work without a finish line.
• They are ‘time’ oriented rather than ‘task’ oriented as well as being ‘me’ oriented rather than ‘team’ oriented.
It all adds up!
Scenario: You are running a store that sells approximately 950 pizza’s a week. Each pizza (Fam, Lg and Med & DL) averages 11 oz of cheese (base + top). If your store struggles with weighing and measuring and adds just one extra ounce of cheese for every pizza, it will add up to around 65 extra pounds of cheese and an extra $130 per week food cost.
$100 per week
$430 per month
$5160 per year.
If this were the case, we would have to pay everyone in the store $.55 per hour less to compensate for this. This doesn’t even take into account portioning of sauce, meats and vegetables. Add that to cheese and the potential to blow food cost is greatly multiplied.
It all catches up!
Conversely, every store that we have had with under portioning problems eventually began to experience sales erosion. The customers get a different amount of product each time they visit often seemingly a skimpy amount and decide to go elsewhere.
Bottom line is that people who weigh and measure are worth much more to our bottom line than those who don’t. They produce a product with a specific amount of toppings at a specific cost leading to specific results.