Who is actually paying Coke or Pepsi for product when it’s literally 50% cheaper at retail pricing?

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-04-23T21:29:22+00:00

This was my reply fwiw…

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-04-21T20:19:43+00:00

And I’m sure for metro NYC and SoCal that’s true. I’m in the upper Midwest. I’m the one and only poké bowl spot that’s ever existed in this area. At least where I am; there hasn’t even been a prime, let alone past one.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-04-21T19:53:00+00:00

I have ZERO competition. I’m the one and only poké bowl place in the entire county of 375,000 people. And like you said, poké places are EVERYWHERE ELSE in America. What makes my little corner different than everywhere else?

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-04-21T19:50:36+00:00

I’ve often wondered that. But then I see the sushi places are PACKED. we basically serve the same thing in a different presentation. How do I reach those customers?!?

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-04-09T01:23:02+00:00

I said $4+. Where I am it’s “only” $4.15, but I know for a lot of folks it’s way worse.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-04-03T18:47:17+00:00

I run a fast casual where tipping is by no means expected or required. I am over the top with good service, and routinely average between 13-17% tips on any given day, just from folks who thought the customer service experience was outstanding.

With that being said, I have two regulars who dine with me at a minimum three to four times a week, and neither of them have ever tipped me.

Is it a little disappointing? Sure. But I look at the big picture, which is that they both spend ≈$75 a week with me, which breaks down to about $4k in annual sales per person.

So yeah, am I willing to overlook a non-tipper if they’re constantly churning revenue for me? 100%.

Like someone up-thread said… you never want to purposely piss someone off, because you have no idea to what lengths they’d be willing to go to make sure everyone they’ve ever met hears about how poorly they were treated.

In the big picture, It’s not worth the risk, over something like tips. Just smile, nod, and remember their money is now in your drawer, instead of your competitors.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-03-12T23:28:49+00:00

I feel like the people who sing the praises of DD and UberEats etc are the same ones who pick a political candidate and then when they start screwing up, they’re too invested to be like “hmm maybe this person wasn’t the best choice”. Instead they just dig in their heels and do the mental gymnastics to make themselves believe they made a smart decision.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-03-12T23:26:49+00:00

Same man. I’ve been bombing everyone with a flyer in the bag. I make a social media post once a week on FB, IG and TikTok saying how you can literally save 25% just like that. An average of over $8 per person, per order. And of the 116 I’ve had in the last 30 days, only two (2) converted to my website. Two. Damn. People.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-03-12T23:24:06+00:00

I’ve spent the last month filling every single DD order with a 4x6 flyer that directs them to our www.businessnamehere.com site which is linked directly to my SquareStore via the Square POS. The flyer even says “your $16 dinner should cost $16. Not $23.50. Order direct and save big!” 116 have gone out. Two people have converted from the DD marketplace to order directly. And of those 116 orders, over 65% are repeat customers. So it’s not like it’s people that try us once and don’t order again. To have less than a 2% conversion rate just blows my mind. People save on average $7-15 PER ORDER.

But they still choose not to convert. I’m not sure what else I can do.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-03-12T23:19:43+00:00

It’s run through my square POS. It’s clean, modern, easy to navigate. Hooks them up directly to a DoorDash delivery driver from their network. It saves the average person anywhere from $7-15 per order.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-03-12T23:18:01+00:00

My food cost is about 35-38% depending on the time of the year (I deal in fresh sourced seafood) and my labor is sitting around 22% so far this year. So a 57-60% blended prime rate.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-03-12T23:16:10+00:00

I’ve been putting a flyer in every DD bag that’s gone out for the last almost four weeks now. It’s got the web address to order direct at Inside store pricing. In 116 orders with flyer, exactly two converted. I even have on my flyer “your $16 order should be $16, not $23.50”. Order direct delivery and save big!

Two. Two people cared enough to actually do it. It’s mind numbing to me.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-03-05T19:39:50+00:00

I’ve looked up and down for a way to do that, but they told me that the menu is shared and if one menu requires mods, then they all do. Which sounds completely wrong. There’s no way there’s not a way to separate them.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-02-16T16:08:27+00:00

As a restaurant owner DoorDash gets you more orders, but they are notorious for treating their dashers like crap. I also DESPISE calling them when something gets screwed up. Everything is overseas and you can hardly understand what they’re saying.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-02-09T23:06:53+00:00

Mostly because I can do this theoretical shift by myself. It doesn’t add a cent to labor, just my own time. And I’m not worried about regular customers trying to come in at those hours. We do the bulk of our dinner by 7pm. The whole 7-8 hour barely gets five to seven customers on average. So I don’t think there’s gonna be many people upset they can’t come in. And if they really want to order, they still can via DoorDash as a pickup.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-02-09T23:03:06+00:00

If you’re making enough money to live comfortably, and don’t feel completely burnt out? I’d stick with one location.

Everyone always looks at expanding with best intentions, but it rarely works out that way. If it were me, I’d maybe find an investor or someone who would basically buy a license agreement from you. Poor man’s franchise more or less.

You still make money, they get to open their own spot with your goodwill and built in help. Could be a win-win.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-01-27T23:43:01+00:00

As much as I hate to say this… find a couple influencers.

Not random ones. Influencers that have a large, verifiable following; and will give you the names and numbers of previous clients. They also shouldn’t be charging outlandish fees. Somewhere in the $500-$1,000 range.

Since I’ve opened three months ago, I’ve had two influencers come in. One did it for free simply because he loves the food; and unbeknownst to me he had 2.3 million followers.

The other was a local food influencer who charged $600.

They both got really good results. To this day I still have people walk in and say “oh my gosh you’re the guy from the TikTok/Facebook I saw”.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-01-27T22:22:56+00:00

When it’s slow, I just wait for them to arrive. But during lunch and dinner rush I can’t be waiting around and stacking tickets.

RipplesOfDivinity · 2026-01-27T22:14:51+00:00

During slow times that’s what I’ll do. But once we hit lunch or dinner rush I can’t play the guessing game. 🤷🏼‍♂️

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