One specific trend has been popular among businesses that want to improve production and sales is soup and salad. Adding soup and salad to a menu can help operators increase their traffic by 30 to 40%.
According to Nation’s Restaurant News, a recent survey of consumers found that soups and salads are helping draw more traffic. If a restaurant has signature varieties of soup and salad, especially with premium ingredients, many customers will specifically go to that location.
Of those soup-loving diners, there are a few different considerations that can drive customer interest. Premium soups and salads, which can mean anything from including high-quality ingredients to unique recipes, can draw as much as 40% of the market to a new restaurant, increasing sales. Natural, local or preservative-free soup menus can each drive growth of up to 30%.
When it comes to specific ingredients, the top 250 restaurant chains in the United States report that chicken soup is far and away what drives shoppers to different locations. Chicken soups represent about 25% of the overall soup market, while chicken salads go farther, drawing more than 36% of all purchases.
Fast Casual added that many diners are interested in ethnically-derived or innovative soups. Asian-style ramen recipes and chilled soups are specifically primed for strong growth, especially when it comes to younger diners.
Meeting Diner Demands with Equipment
For operators looking to gain a foothold into these meals, there are a number of different purchases that can be made, many of which depend on how they plan to serve the meals. Sit-down restaurants that serve their customers can make a number of purchases. For those who want to stock more premium ingredients, enhancing refrigeration or freezing storage and power can help them reach a wider audience. New cooking equipment can help too, with plenty of different choices.
Pots, pans and kettles can make the cooking process much easier. For restaurants that want to pre-prepare a number of products head of time, blast-chillers and rethermalizers can pay off. These pieces of equipment have the capability to freeze and reheat soups without detracting from their quality.
Self-serve stations and salad bars can also benefit from rethermalizers, allowing customers to get as much or as little as they desire, possibly allowing them to charge more depending on their order. Operators can also create a popular soup and salad combination by investing in salad bars, which can be cooled with only a single power source and can allow for a number of users to get their food quickly.
Soups and salads aren’t just able to inspire sales increases, but they can draw more customers to a business as well