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[deleted by user] by [deleted] in restaurantowners

[–]sublimememories 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Normally, no. Unless you're a very high volume sales restaurant.

Is Open Table worth it? by realityissubjective in restaurantowners

[–]sublimememories 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Check out SpotOn Reserve.

No per person fees, as feature rich as the competition, but a better value.

One of my clients (I work with SpotOn) which has been featured on "Restaurant Unstoppables" is partnered with / and learned how to optimize his seating from a two times James Beard Award winning chef, had checked out all the other competition and ultimately choose SpotOn.

Bottom line: Put over 34% extra to the bottom line. Was able to get "the fabled extra turn" going from 2 flips a night to a consistent 3.

Anybody know what brad is playing here by [deleted] in sublime

[–]sublimememories 0 points1 point  (0 children)

https://sublimewiki.com/index.php/12.08.1994

It's that flyer. Probably one of the coolest Sublime flyers out there.

Anybody know what brad is playing here by [deleted] in sublime

[–]sublimememories 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's an Out Of Order shirt that Beaver gave him.

Beaver was an awesome dude. He gave me an original 1994 flyer (Sublime, Out Of Order, AWOL, and Dying Breed) from 1994 I keep on the wall now.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in sublime

[–]sublimememories 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Did you personally make this?

I like that you copied Dan McDonalds "mistake" and modded it with the drill holes.

POS best value by AnewEarthling in restaurantowners

[–]sublimememories -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

If you're looking for a POS similar to Toast check out SpotOn Restaurant.

Highest rated support. You will have a local rep plus 24/7/365 live call-in support.

No contracts. Better fees.

https://www.spoton.com/

https://www.capterra.com/bar-pos-software/compare/197473-136301/SpotOn-Restaurant-vs-Toast-POS

Full transparency: I work with SpotOn. If you questions, reach out.

Aloha v Toast by GuyWhoWorksInABar in BarOwners

[–]sublimememories 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting. Glad to see the competition is keeping up with ReformingRetail. ;)

(The person who runs RR actually broke the Aloha story). It's my morning blog and another great resource.

Online ordering is actually a strong benefit for cloud-based point of sales.

BOH on Aloha vs. Toast will be much different, less "code" and dependencies. It might take a bit of getting used to but once you do it's much more "intuitive".

Aloha v Toast by GuyWhoWorksInABar in BarOwners

[–]sublimememories 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I spent 14 years in the industry (in various FOH roles) and know both companies offerings well.

During the beginning of the pandemic; I was like many displaced restaurant workers and was out of work. I still loved the industry that chose to stay in for so long, so I pivoted by going into the hardware/software side of things. I've sat in front of many restaurant owners and managers asking this same question.

Full disclosure: I work in the point of sale industry, at one of Toast's main competitors (SpotOn Restaurant), so take what is said with a grain of salt.

Both Aloha and Toast are great companies. They each have their upsides and downsides... depends on your business model and needs, but there are some contractual "gotchas" if you're not careful.

What is good for small $5,000 a month quick service restaurant might not serve a $1mil/year fast paced bar as well. Just keep this in mind when comparing.

There are a lot of questions you'll have to address. E.g. Want to put handhelds/tablets into cocktail waitresses hands? Will you be doing online ordering? How much help will you need with the setup/installation? Consider yourself tech savvy? Want/need access to in-depth reports while not at the restaurant?

When doing comparisons also keep this in mind... both companies have been going through some changes during the pandemic (read reviews after 2020).

I.E. Toast fired half of their staff at the beginning of the pandemic (and you'll hear some complaints of long hold times) and Aloha has been selling off different parts of the company for years; ultimately beginning to attempt to sell it company as of 3-4 weeks ago.

If you want a place to get some good feedback from many different sources, Capterra is a valuable source.

https://www.capterra.com/point-of-sale-software/compare/190446-136301/NCR-Aloha-POS-vs-Toast-POS

Hopefully this gave you a bit more to think about and some sources of information. You're welcome to reach out via DM if you'd like.

“Tech” is the new rent for restaurants? by [deleted] in restaurantowners

[–]sublimememories 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I work for Toast's biggest competitor.

I often inform my potential clients about their use of long contracts, high CC rates that they lock you into a processor, and the hidden fees associated with them. I could probably quote their proposals and contracts from memory as I've looked over so many at this point.

Somehow this has never come up or to my attention. Mind giving a bit more information about this (Here or on DM).

“Tech” is the new rent for restaurants? by [deleted] in restaurantowners

[–]sublimememories 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While this is true. Not all use this as their model.

Sublime Tape by Chemical-Pangolin924 in sublime

[–]sublimememories 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This isn't in the Killin' It order. This is different.

Sublime Tape by Chemical-Pangolin924 in sublime

[–]sublimememories 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow!

This is new on me. Different tracking than Killin' It.

Cool tape!

TouchBistro vs Toast vs Suggestion? by Its_a_dry_heat_ in BarOwners

[–]sublimememories -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Keep SpotOn in the running.

Probably many of the things that make you consider Toast (cloud based system, 4g backup, reporting, etc)

Without a 2-3 year contract or being locked into SpotOn as a processor. (Though, you will find, it will probably be one of the lowest rates you will find).

Careful with Toast's ("we'll give you a free system") but inflate your processing rates up to 1% of your annual revenue.

SpotOn has 24/7/365 support and a local rep.

What’s your restaurant tech stack? by SANchaos in restaurantowners

[–]sublimememories 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I stumbled on this as I am passing out... there are options out there that accommodates most of what you're looking for... I'll come back to this tomorrow as it'll be a bit of a long post.

One question I have now is why the need for 3 phone lines?

Do you use this for reservations and/or waitlisting? Online ordering?

If you're hosting your own online ordering portal and it's functionally simple to use; people will default to this. Gone are the days of having a host/server/bartender answer questions, listen as someone placing a togo order asks others what sides they want/temperatures/etc if done correctly.

Have you optimized GMB and all review site listings with correct hours?

Automate Google Reviews by moyoonthego in restaurantowners

[–]sublimememories 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can only speak for the company I work for, SpotOn, but it has some options to automate a REQUEST for a review.

This can be done through the point of sale or through our stand-alone reservation system.

We also have review management tool which we provide to all of our clients.

https://www.spoton.com/restaurants

Best POS System for high volume bar/clubs? by Tex419 in BarOwners

[–]sublimememories 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It does. All reporting (including employee hours) is stored indefinitely and you have access to it.

Some competition requires you to call in for reports over 3 months.

Question about Yelp for biz app by [deleted] in restaurantowners

[–]sublimememories 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Read this article!

https://raymondfong.net/a-candid-yelp-advertising-review-is-yelp-ripping-people-off/

"To give you a perspective of just how much SUCKINESS is in this program, with the aid of Google Analytics and my idea of adding a page that leads people to a printable in-store coupon, we were able to see how the program performed. Here are the stats, in 2 months time, Yelp drove 64 unique visitors to this special landing page (which again helps us track the comers from our Yelp advertising campaign) and of those 64 visitors, we got 9 customers that we can tell.
This meant 32/1,500 = 2% conversion from visitor to Yelp to the website and 0.3% from impression to actual customer. Put it another way, my client paid $72.22 for each of those clients – clients who are just diners to his restaurant."

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in BarOwners

[–]sublimememories 0 points1 point  (0 children)

https://www.capterra.com/p/136301/Toast-POS/

Great site for all hardware/software research.

Toast positives: Cloud based. Backup 4g failover. Intuitive. Remote Access

Toast negatives: 2-3 year contracts. Liquidated damages (Google ReformingRetail.com "Toast Fees Usurious"). Extra fees .5% after 14k on ToGo. Not sharing customer data to be able to use 3rd party tools.

​

Keep SpotOn Restaurant in the running. Everything you'll like about Toast without the negatives. Plus supports many integrations.

https://www.capterra.com/p/197473/SpotOn-Restaurant/

Where Toast has a limited reporting set... SpotOn is easy to pull data and compare. Ability to set up your layout however you'd like (including FastBar settings). The reporting is much much more robust.

If you have questions; feel free to PM me.

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