Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1
Parts 1+2: Opportunity: Restaurants in the United States are overstocked with food items purchased wholesale that are good to use, but will not be used due to the shortage of customers caused by COVID-19.
Who: Restaurants in the U.S.
What: Overstocked with food items purchased wholesale that are good to use, but will not be used.
Why: The shortage of customers caused by COVID-19.
Part 3: Hypothesis: Regular Americans are in need of food. In many supermarkets across the country, there have been shortages such as the meat shortage caused by a decreasing workforce in the meat industry. In the meantime, restaurants have ordered wholesale food products that they could not feasibly use with the downturn of restaurant-goers. These two needs are mutually beneficial as consumers are looking for alternative sources for their groceries and restaurants are stocked with inventory they are looking to let go or sell.
Testing the "who": Beyond restaurants and other places that serve food such as bars, there aren't many other specific places or people needing to let go or sell mass amounts of overstocked food items. However, if speaking about overstocked inventory in general (not just food items), there are many industries currently facing this problem. One example are car rental agencies who have more used cars that were recently purchased than are going to be used, and are attempting to resell those vehicles on their website.
Testing the "what": Smaller restaurants or bars may not face this need due to ordering less inventory. The boundaries of this need are limited to larger restaurants or bars that pre-ordered more than they can use. Some restaurants that are chains (such as olive garden, outback, etc.) may have an inventory management system that can deal with this issue, therefore falling outside of the boundary for this need.
Testing the "why": Not all restaurant owners believe COVID-19 was directly responsible for the customer shortage. Some restaurant owners that I spoke to believe it was the result of poor and strict regulation that deterred customers from coming, regardless of the pandemic. Another one believed that the "why" was not necessarily caused by COVID-19, but rather by the failure of restaurants to plan around COVID-19 when ordering inventory for the month.
Part 4: Interviews: For this part, I had interviews with three restaurant owners (friends of my father) and two restaurant employees. None of the people I interviewed worked for / owned the same restaurant. Both the restaurant owners and employees agreed that to an extent, COVID-19 was responsible for the customer shortage that led to overstocked inventory. However, what I found interesting was the variation in the "why" based on being an employer / employee. Two of the employers I interviewed specifically listed increased and, in their opinion, overly-complicated regulations that lead to the shortage in customers. One of these owners believed that without the regulations, customers would not have been scared away from coming to their restaurant. On the other hand, both employees also cited their employer's lack of planning for coronavirus. As one employee explained it, "hindsight is 20/20, but it was obvious we were going to get less people coming in to eat at [restaurant name], so I don't get why [owner's name] ordered almost the same amount as last month, I guess he was optimistic but I don't think it was great planning." However, besides the differences in their interpretations of the "why," restaurant owners and employees agreed with the "who" and the "what"; that there was an issue with restaurants being overstocked with food items they had purchased wholesale. When asked to rate the problem from 1-10 on a level of severity, restaurant employers and employees did not have very different rankings. The highest ranking was a 9 from a restaurant owner, and the lowest was a 6 from an employee. All other rankings fell within that range.
Part 5: What I Learned: From my interviews, I learned that stating a "who, what, and why" for an opportunity is much easier to do on paper and in theory than in practice. From the variation I got just from 5 different restaurant workers (owners and employees), there is clearly evidence that my opportunity is not as clear cut as before. What I know now about my opportunity that I didn't know before is that while it may still exists, there is disagreement as to why it has come about, which will certainly lead to disagreements on how to correct the issue.
Who: Restaurants in the U.S.
What: Overstocked with food items purchased wholesale that are good to use, but will not be used.
Why: The shortage of customers caused by COVID-19.
Part 3: Hypothesis: Regular Americans are in need of food. In many supermarkets across the country, there have been shortages such as the meat shortage caused by a decreasing workforce in the meat industry. In the meantime, restaurants have ordered wholesale food products that they could not feasibly use with the downturn of restaurant-goers. These two needs are mutually beneficial as consumers are looking for alternative sources for their groceries and restaurants are stocked with inventory they are looking to let go or sell.
Testing the "who": Beyond restaurants and other places that serve food such as bars, there aren't many other specific places or people needing to let go or sell mass amounts of overstocked food items. However, if speaking about overstocked inventory in general (not just food items), there are many industries currently facing this problem. One example are car rental agencies who have more used cars that were recently purchased than are going to be used, and are attempting to resell those vehicles on their website.
Testing the "what": Smaller restaurants or bars may not face this need due to ordering less inventory. The boundaries of this need are limited to larger restaurants or bars that pre-ordered more than they can use. Some restaurants that are chains (such as olive garden, outback, etc.) may have an inventory management system that can deal with this issue, therefore falling outside of the boundary for this need.
Testing the "why": Not all restaurant owners believe COVID-19 was directly responsible for the customer shortage. Some restaurant owners that I spoke to believe it was the result of poor and strict regulation that deterred customers from coming, regardless of the pandemic. Another one believed that the "why" was not necessarily caused by COVID-19, but rather by the failure of restaurants to plan around COVID-19 when ordering inventory for the month.
Part 4: Interviews: For this part, I had interviews with three restaurant owners (friends of my father) and two restaurant employees. None of the people I interviewed worked for / owned the same restaurant. Both the restaurant owners and employees agreed that to an extent, COVID-19 was responsible for the customer shortage that led to overstocked inventory. However, what I found interesting was the variation in the "why" based on being an employer / employee. Two of the employers I interviewed specifically listed increased and, in their opinion, overly-complicated regulations that lead to the shortage in customers. One of these owners believed that without the regulations, customers would not have been scared away from coming to their restaurant. On the other hand, both employees also cited their employer's lack of planning for coronavirus. As one employee explained it, "hindsight is 20/20, but it was obvious we were going to get less people coming in to eat at [restaurant name], so I don't get why [owner's name] ordered almost the same amount as last month, I guess he was optimistic but I don't think it was great planning." However, besides the differences in their interpretations of the "why," restaurant owners and employees agreed with the "who" and the "what"; that there was an issue with restaurants being overstocked with food items they had purchased wholesale. When asked to rate the problem from 1-10 on a level of severity, restaurant employers and employees did not have very different rankings. The highest ranking was a 9 from a restaurant owner, and the lowest was a 6 from an employee. All other rankings fell within that range.
Part 5: What I Learned: From my interviews, I learned that stating a "who, what, and why" for an opportunity is much easier to do on paper and in theory than in practice. From the variation I got just from 5 different restaurant workers (owners and employees), there is clearly evidence that my opportunity is not as clear cut as before. What I know now about my opportunity that I didn't know before is that while it may still exists, there is disagreement as to why it has come about, which will certainly lead to disagreements on how to correct the issue.
I think this is genius. I also agree that there is so much food that goes to waste or is overbought and not used efficiently. I think the key is knowing your target demographic, who you want to sell to. I think the targets you picked are very valid and I also really respect you for who you interviewed. I think it is very important to pick the right people to give you the best feedback and that's what you did. I think they offered great advice and you made awesome choices. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteHey Jean,
ReplyDeleteI believe this is an excellent idea! Your idea has a huge market that could benefit from the implementation of what you are bringing up. It is also very inspiring to see how much of a change could be brought to the restaurant industry through the implementation of such an idea. Your interviews also seemed well done and well thought out.
Hi Jean,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea, and I admire you for choosing to go after this opportunity. I had two things I thought about while reading your post. Firstly, you may want to make sure that this opportunity is not just going to go away once COVID is over and people start going back to restaurants. Secondly, regulations on food safety may be an issue in the future. Just some thoughts, and I'm sure you've thought of them too and already have a plan to get over them. Looking forward to seeing how you progress with this idea!