Takeaway concept - your opinion appreciated

MrsE_2

flea72 wrote: »

as with everything your main problem is going to be pricing. CookFood, is only found in areas, where people have more money, than [STRIKE]sense[/STRIKE] time to cook. Judging by the customers in all the ones i have looked around, its affluent, single, older people - who want a nice meal for one, but can no longer cope with the prep side of things, and think 'meals on wheels' isnt for them. But charging £3.50 for a single portion of Lasagne, that you then have to cook yourself, is a very niche/limited market

Unless you can undercut M&S foodtogo, or set up in places they dont already have a stranglehold, then i think you will find it hard

Flea

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mother doesn't have more money than sense, she has had massive health problems which mean she cannot prepare a simple meal anymore.
"meals on Wheels" deliver about 11.30 in her area & after eating her main meal of the day in the evening she could not in her late years get used to eating it at midday or before (& NO meals on wheels CANNOT be re-heated).
She eats like a bird & has a tiny appetite, she doesn't want "value bulk" just a half portion of a "cook!" meal suits her perfectly, if that wasn't available she would happily eat nothing & that was causing her to faint & be ill.
So please get down off your high horse.

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

It's a great idea that I would personally buy. However, it might be an idea that is very easy to copy by an existing business. In my area a few restaurants will also plate up meals to be taken home. I know some elderly people use them as do some young families if they have had a bad night with the baby etc.

avantra

paulwf wrote: »

Several of the Cook stores look like they are in commuter belt locations that have train stations but not a supermarket nearby, I bet getting the location right is the most important thing.

I remember a company that had outlets at London train stations called Leaping Salmon that sold meal kits i.e. all the ingredients were prepared and you just had to cook them, it was a good idea but they never made a profit: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/thresher-snaps-up-leapingsalmon-to-sell-gourmet-meal-kits-in-500-offlicences-585971.html

There was a home cooking style takeaway where I used to live and it never did much. I also remember an old episode of Dragons Den where someone had the idea of a British takeaway and the Dragons ridiculed it.

What I'm trying to say is it could be a huge gap in the market...but do a lot of trials and market research first as it might be the gap is there for a reason. You should be able to do a trial run from your kitchen or from a catering van before taking the plunge with a full scale business.

Even if you go for the takeaway route incorporating the Cook concept sounds like a good idea. I have heard negative comments about meals on wheels style companies (Wiltshire Farm Foods etc), if you can offer something similar but far superior quality and not too expensive you could have a good daytime sideline to the business.

Also I would urge keeping the pricing simple or at least do market research into what customers prefer. The M&S 3 for £5 meal deal offer is hugely popular as it gets people through half of the working week, could you do something similar? A Monday to Friday meal plan with more complex options at the weekend similar to the dine in for £10 meal deal (sorry for all the M&S references!) might work.

To keep rents down could you have the main kitchen off site in a very cheap unit then you'd only need a small shop in the prime location?

I don't delude myself that the concept of taking hot food back home is nothing new and been tried before. However I can't see the concept I mentioned as targeting the sort of people that goes to Cook, neither it's targeting the cheap fried anything inhabitants of our isle. I am aiming somewhere in the middle : average income, average house + offsprings, people who never had the chance of just stopping on the way home for no more than 10 minutes and getting reasonably nutritional (stop putting fat in everything!) tasty hot food without defrosting and certainly not as much packaging.
Price wise it is somewhere between Indian and Pub food, I would say more expensive than Supermarket ready made.

My research brought to groups of busy mom's/dads , OAP's , single dudes and TBH just Joe Blog and on large most were asked one simple old question : do you think that what you cook at home fresh taste as good as Readymeal/frozenmeal etc'

To my surprise in large most pips reported that readymeals never taste as good. I personally thought that the average taste buds will lead most down the fat/salt/sugar channel but exactly to counteract and to watch their health, people are cooking at home. Actually some numbers by Mintel tell a rather good story: the majority of people cooked at home from ingredients before the recession. More are do it now due to the recession.

I am due to travel to Portugal and Israel where this concept is working for years and have good sniff around. In the above countries (use to be more eating at home tradition than here ) the void left by the lack of good quality and resonably priced takeaway wasn't filled totally by Chinese/Indian/Pizza/Box meals.
Takeaway food in the above places don't necessary lead to an epidemic of obesity.

The idea of having a kitchen away from the shop negate the point of freshness and size as it's got to run along the Chinese takeaway model, you can't imagine what people produce from tiny kitchens in places like South Africa for example, and good quality and consistency is achievable even there.

About LeapingSalmon, well the moment in 2002 I heard the word 'gourmet' it all fell apart for me.
I kinda think that too much of the food we consume is sold to us by marketing people instead of cooks. I would dare to say this but IMOO there is a large silent croud out there that don't think food is such A BIG DEAL, make it simple, tasty and without MSG/Flavour enhancers/preservatives such as salt, and don't charge me the earth. Sorry but when it's come to food I rather not involve the words sophisticated and gourmet.

avantra

Wee_Bargain_Hunter wrote: »

It's a great idea that I would personally buy. However, it might be an idea that is very easy to copy by an existing business. In my area a few restaurants will also plate up meals to be taken home. I know some elderly people use them as do some young families if they have had a bad night with the baby etc.

I wish that everyone will copy this, (the bigger the volume the better) it's about choices, and I believe for different reasons that the tide in cr**p takeaway is starting to turn. If we can have even one in every town it will be a good start. Give people simple good hot food that don't harm them from the first bite. Give people the choice of not sitting down in a pub to eat (you would be surprised how many people don't like doing this).

I would go even one step further if the big multiple can do it (and they can) it will be even better as most people in these isles still buy their body fuel from the Supermarkets. It might put down the small shops but than history showed us that in every revolution there are some victims.:D

Errata

The idea of having a kitchen away from the shop negate the point of freshness and size as it's got to run along the Chinese takeaway model

You're not going to cook everything 'to order' for every customer because they won't hang around for 30-40 minutes whilst you do.

flea72

MrsE wrote: »

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mother doesn't have more money than sense, she has had massive health problems which mean she cannot prepare a simple meal anymore.
"meals on Wheels" deliver about 11.30 in her area & after eating her main meal of the day in the evening she could not in her late years get used to eating it at midday or before (& NO meals on wheels CANNOT be re-heated).
She eats like a bird & has a tiny appetite, she doesn't want "value bulk" just a half portion of a "cook!" meal suits her perfectly, if that wasn't available she would happily eat nothing & that was causing her to faint & be ill.
So please get down off your high horse.

did i not say, its for people who can no longer prepare meals for themselves?

Meals on wheels food can be kept warm in the oven - However, most WRVS also provide their meals in a chilled or frozen version, for people to reheat, when they want. meals on wheels are just erring on the side of caution with regards to re-heating food, as their main customers are people who are more susceptible to food poisoning, and bugs. Im sure if the food was cooled correctly, your mother could re-heat at a time more suitable to her eating habits

Flea
(now riding side saddle!)

flea72

PasturesNew wrote: »

What sort of things? Give 3-5 examples and prices to get us going.

has there been a definitive reply to this Q yet?

So the plan is to sell ready-cooked hot food, not meals that you take home and re-heat?

so im assuming, lasagne, chicken in sauce, steak, chops, lamb shanks, that sort of thing? which im not sure keep hot easily, and retain the quality for any great period of time. Also as mentioned before, they take quite a while to cook fresh, or would they have to be pre-cooked ready to serve?

we have a local takeaway that sells roast dinners and specials like shepherds pie, hotpot, etc. - business is poor, because these meals cant be produced in quality at a cheap price, and as these are common meals most people cook, they tend to know the costings associated, and bulk at the prices charged - ie roast dinner for a family of 4 is £25, im taking that this is similar to what you would be charging, ie portions £6 a head?

Another similar example in my local town, we had a takeaway open selling Fajitas, as the owner decided after visiting mexico, that you needed something quick, easy and healthy to eat on your way home from the pubs/clubs (rather than burgers/kebabs), think he lasted 6m before he threw in the towel, as obviously few people agreed with him, and didnt frequent his premises (and he'd obvisouly thought this through, as his premises were next to the main taxi ranks, so prime customers)

Yes in other countries like South Africa you get lots of small kitchens, making amazing food, but the hygiene rules in this country tend to prohibit similar ventures

If asked i think anyone would say home-cooked food tasted better than processed. Even if asked whether this is something i might use, then my answer would be yes, i might use it, but a customer who comes in once in a blue moon isnt what a business needs, its regular repeat custom

However, im still having trouble working out who this type of meal would appeal to and how you could cook the food fast enough?

Flea

MrsE_2

flea72 wrote: »

did i not say, its for people who can no longer prepare meals for themselves?

Meals on wheels food can be kept warm in the oven - However, most WRVS also provide their meals in a chilled or frozen version, for people to reheat, when they want. meals on wheels are just erring on the side of caution with regards to re-heating food, as their main customers are people who are more susceptible to food poisoning, and bugs. Im sure if the food was cooled correctly, your mother could re-heat at a time more suitable to her eating habits

Flea
(now riding side saddle!)

She tries it for a while, it has DO NOT REHEAT wrote on the containers & they fixed a note to her microwave, saying DO NOT REHEAT meals on wheels.

Regardless of whether you think its "ok", social services would not be prepared to reheat & serve food that says DON'T:rolleyes:

My mother didn't like them much anyway. She eats like a bird & would rather a tiny portion of something gourmet.

I know you said "for people who can no longer prepare meals for themselves" but you struck though "where people have more money, than [STRIKE]sense[/STRIKE]", .........Implying sarcasm:rolleyes:

avantra

flea72 wrote: »

However, im still having trouble working out who this type of meal would appeal to and how you could cook the food fast enough?

Yes Flea this is the crunch, that's why I take it very slowly and I am heading first to places where I can see with my own eyes what's on offer and how they operate.

I take my time, as I am not claiming JSA and have years of savings to fall on. I see it as a good time to develop the idea.

flea72

MrsE wrote: »

I know you said "for people who can no longer prepare meals for themselves" but you struck though "where people have more money, than [STRIKE]sense[/STRIKE]", .........Implying sarcasm:rolleyes:

but the sarcasm, was only implied if the person had more money than time. It wasnt an all-encompassing comment

Flea