There’s a reason why premium fast food has spread so much.
By the time you’ve paid your business rent, your staff and your own rent, you can’t keep prices cheap and still make money.
And at a price point that covers your expenses, people won’t buy your “cheap and simple” food.
So you make your food “premium” cause a hipster burger doesn’t take more time or skill to prepare than a normal one, the cost of better ingredients doesn’t make a difference compared to your other expenses, and all you need for people to be satisfied with the experience is a couple thousand extra initially for interior design and marketing.
I agree, there are still ways to sell your food cheap though. A good example is a vegan/vegetarian burger place near me. Demand for that kind of food is high because it’s a liberal college town, but that restaurant is the only one of its kind here, so it’s always full. Also they sell more fancy, more expensive dinner options in the evening which I’m sure subsidizes the cheap burgers. And if you mainly go there for their burgers you might return for dinner sometime to try out those options. They’ve existed for around 10 years now and their cheapest burger has stayed at 4,50€ that whole time.
Granted it’s hard to know what kind of demand there is in your town without trying some stuff and maybe failing.
There’s a reason why premium fast food has spread so much.
By the time you’ve paid your business rent, your staff and your own rent, you can’t keep prices cheap and still make money.
And at a price point that covers your expenses, people won’t buy your “cheap and simple” food.
So you make your food “premium” cause a hipster burger doesn’t take more time or skill to prepare than a normal one, the cost of better ingredients doesn’t make a difference compared to your other expenses, and all you need for people to be satisfied with the experience is a couple thousand extra initially for interior design and marketing.
Damn, nailed it, perfect synopsis!
Exactly this, gotten into it recently and seen first hand the costs balloon up fast
I agree, there are still ways to sell your food cheap though. A good example is a vegan/vegetarian burger place near me. Demand for that kind of food is high because it’s a liberal college town, but that restaurant is the only one of its kind here, so it’s always full. Also they sell more fancy, more expensive dinner options in the evening which I’m sure subsidizes the cheap burgers. And if you mainly go there for their burgers you might return for dinner sometime to try out those options. They’ve existed for around 10 years now and their cheapest burger has stayed at 4,50€ that whole time.
Granted it’s hard to know what kind of demand there is in your town without trying some stuff and maybe failing.