Food Halls are Making a Comeback: Here’s Why
Are you craving a slice of pizza, but your spouse wants a hoagie and the kids want burgers? Satisfying everyone at once can be a challenge, especially if you’re looking for a nice meal out. One trend that’s recently taken over the restaurant industry has made satisfying everyone’s cravings easier than ever: a food hall.
Food halls are a collection of multiple franchised food brands all under one roof that offer a wide variety of high-quality options that can meet a fast-paced consumer lifestyle. These halls are located in large cities and attract large crowds around lunchtime and act as areas for people to gather for a bite to eat.
As the restaurant industry continues to develop, so too does the food hall trend. Here are three key factors that are driving this trend in 2020 and beyond:
Rising Costs
It’s no secret that running a restaurant is a costly business. However, restaurant operations can combat some of these rising costs by operating out of a food hall instead. On average, this costs about a quarter as much as opening a traditional 50-75 seat restaurant location.
This also helps to combat some of the financial risk restaurant owners face. For restaurant startups, the food hall model will allow you to get started without the financial commitment that traditional restaurant venues require.
Increased Demands
It’s no secret, customer demand is increasing. Food halls offer restaurateurs the unique opportunity to meet customer demand within an engaging environment, providing a great customer experience.
The unique environment paired with reduced financial commitment make food halls the ideal place for restaurateurs to experiment with restaurant concepts and ideas before making a larger investment in their own full location. Restaurateurs can craft their niche, while fine tuning inventory management and defining what their customer experience will look like.
Cooperative Mindset
There is no doubt that restaurants and food vendors are competing with one another for a share of customer’s dining dollars. However, within food halls vendors understand that everyone is working together to bring in foot traffic, which means everyone works together to earn sales.
The more people that venture into a food hall, the more likely people are to discover new brands. Each operation feels the benefit of this just as much as the next, creating a sense of community among restaurateurs.
One of the biggest driving factors for the food hall revival, however, is the ability to level the playing field for a wide variety of restaurateurs. Innovative ideas flow more freely, allowing many restaurateurs to push the envelope with what their restaurant concept is able to do.
The next generation of food halls:
As we look towards the future, food halls will continue to increase in popularity. Because they naturally remove many of the obstacles standing in the way of success, small business owners focused on creating unique experiences and delicious dishes, or an enterprise testing out a new concept, will thrive in these environments. Food halls are a catalyst for innovative restaurateurs to flex their creative muscles and think outside of the box. .
To fully leverage this opportunity, restaurateurs must have software that can adapt to a non-traditional restaurant atmosphere and scale to meet their needs as they grow. NCC offers the point of sale software and technology solutions food hall restaurateurs need to succeed. Contact us today to learn more.
