Nice People 13: Nice Save

Generali

michaels wrote: »

These sound nice and normal to me but most UK suppliers would probably be more 'themed' French or whatever and would probably have poncier sounding names for the same stuff - perhaps that sort of pretentiousness is not needed in Aus?

Quite the opposite to the UK here. Beouf bourgignon needs to be beef bourgignon or even beef in red wine IME.

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

When I've seen the Hotel Inspector and Gordon Ramsay, looking at failing hotels and failing restaurants, they've usually picked up on menus being too extensive.

Best to, say, work on a set of "similar things" that gives you the least number of core ingredients yet the widest range. Issue hotels/restaurants have is low volumes = waste.

I don't know what half your stuff is
But then I'm not of the "right class of person with the right disposable income" to be in your target market.

I hope that by the food being frozen I can get around the problem of an extensive range.

Actually I'd hope that PaddocksNew would buy my food occasionally as a treat. Perhaps buy one at a trip to the local market as a similar price to a cheap takeaway but better quality. Would you pay a fiver for a curry with rice if you knew it would be nice?

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

I really have an exceedingly STRONG hatred of this word being used.

It's abused.

e.g. really, really, really fat bird tucking into a fat pie that's filled with vegetables and cheese sauce, enough to feed three will declare it's "healthy" as it's got the word 'vegetables' in it. And "I eat healthily, I don't know why I can't lose weight; I cook everything from scratch. Maybe I am not eating enough".... without any thought for the fat/calories in the over-sized portion she's just chomped through. I watch secret eaters and they all spout "healthy .... cook from scratch" .... as if lobbing a few veggies into something you cook from scratch is a magic potion when their portion sizes are "serves 4" and they're using high fat sauces and pastries.

Healthy is a word that people misunderstand, then misuse to fit their own desires.



IYSWIM.

Fair enough but in Aus (and the UK I suspect) there is an assumption about things that are 'healthy': veggies, exercise. And 'unhealthy': fat, sugar and salt.

If I can label a meal as having x serves of veggies, having fewer than y calories and less than zg of fat then my target market is likely to buy more.

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

I don't even buy the £3.50 supermarket curries for a treat when they're on YS at £2.... because I can get an 80p meal in the next chiller

Local market... I've never seen a local market sell that sort of food; indeed, hardly any local markets. I think they're mostly a London thing really. Other areas' local markets are of a different style entirely.

I'd buy a curry for £5 if I knew it'd taste EXACTLY the same as an authentic/good indian from a takeaway and I'd get the same volume .... but they don't. However, I'd not know it tasted the same until I'd taken the £5 gamble, so it wouldn't happen. I'd never know they tasted just like the takeaway

And that's why I want to sell at markets because that way I can get people to taste first.

I want to have a really high quality product and that makes it ripe for the crack cocaine school of marketing: try it you'll like it.

I really want to get out there and meet customers to understand exactly what it is that they want.

silvercar

Yorkie1 wrote: »

I'd never realised that hot water circulated without going through radiators before. Thanks for that explanation GDB :beer:

That was what was wrong with our system. For some of the downstairs radiators, there was no second pipe that took the water on its travels without going through the radiator. So those radiators were always on. That wasn't a major problem, but having the water go in and out of some large radiators meant the pump was struggling to keep the water moving and it took over 2 hours for the warm water to complete the circuit. Add a few scaled up sharp bends in the pipework and some of the radiators never got hot.

vivatifosi wrote: »

We have Malm here Pastures. They are really well made for the money. I think there are other NPs with them too. They're bl**dy heavy.

We have a malm bed and bedside cabinets in the flat abroad.

GDB2222

Gen, my vague feeling is that you should charge more for an up-market product. Why should you be comparing yourself with lower grade stuff in the local supermarket?

I can't see the need for the dishes all to be the same price, but if it really works out that way it's a nice gimmick.

You may want to look at these people for ideas.
http://www.cookfood.net/info/About-cook/

lostinrates

GDB2222 wrote: »

Gen, my vague feeling is that you should charge more for an up-market product. Why should you be comparing yourself with lower grade stuff in the local supermarket?

I can't see the need for the dishes all to be the same price, but if it really works out that way it's a nice gimmick.

You may want to look at these people for ideas.
http://www.cookfood.net/info/About-cook/

I agree with your pricing point I think.

Personally if I were going to buy a convenience meal I'd be buying vegetarian or vegan more often ( unless animal sources were labelled as friendly). Otoh RP, who likes convenience food, would pay more for meat.

Generali

GDB2222 wrote: »

Gen, my vague feeling is that you should charge more for an up-market product. Why should you be comparing yourself with lower grade stuff in the local supermarket?

I can't see the need for the dishes all to be the same price, but if it really works out that way it's a nice gimmick.

You may want to look at these people for ideas.
http://www.cookfood.net/info/About-cook/

The idea really is to compete against take away food for price. Take away is generally higher quality and more varied in Aus than in the UK so it's quite normal for people to have it 2-3 nights a week plus maybe the same number or more lunches.

You can get take away for about $10/head so that's the price point really. Make it tastier and 'healthier' and I should get decent sales.

At $9/meal I'm probably pricing myself a little way above supermarket ready meals. Given that at the outset packaging is going to be a bit rough I think that's ok. As the product gets slicker I should be able to charge a little more, especially for multi-person dinners.

I know Cook very well. I used to go into one of their branches regularly.

silvercar

Interesting menu Gen, why no fish other than shellfish?

I can see the attraction of having all at one price. Problem may be that all the more expensive dishes become popular eating in to your profit margin.

Generali

silvercar wrote: »

Interesting menu Gen, why no fish other than shellfish?

Because its a list I chucked together on the bus this morning to make a talking point. I'm being a little unfair, some more consideration has gone in than that.

You're right, there should be more fish in there.

silvercar wrote: »

I can see the attraction of having all at one price. Problem may be that all the more expensive dishes become popular eating in to your profit margin.

If I say 'pick 10 individual dishes from the list of 15' or something then if there are one or 2 that are pricey it's no biggie as the average price is what matters really.