Square for Restaurants - What is the state of the Industry?

[Tom]

Hi Seller Community!

We're working with Square for Restaurants to help them learn more about the current state of the Industry. We want to build the best possible product to be a partner to your restaurant for years to come. In order to do that we need to know about how you and your business are doing.

There are two actions we’d like you to take on this post:

1. Where are you located, what is your restaurant called, and what is the state of your business and the industry around you?
2. Reply to other posts you see here to ask questions amongst your peers.

Feel free to share pictures, stories, questions ideas or anything you like.

Please use the reply button below to respond to items 1 and/or 2!

[Helen]

Adding a few  members who are active in our Square for Restaurants Community 👋 @SweetB @Stanley @JackieCardin1 @thaitastekitche @cbenson @Dave64 @katiecooks - If you have a restaurant (or cafe/food business) let us know where you've located, the name of your business and how you and the businesses around you are managing. 

[MyrtleTreeCafe]

Pretty bad out here just east of Pasadena, CA. We are called the Myrtle Tree Cowork Cafe and reopened June 9th but will likely have to close again at the end of July. We pivoted from a breakfast, brunch, event space cafe to a focus on coworking thinking that folks would be cooped up at home and want to come hang out in a welcoming, tech friendly space but that hasn't quite happened. The nearby local cafe is still take out only, the Coffee Bean shut down completely and our little downtown corridor (town is called Monrovia) is drawing fewer and fewer people due to covid.  

That said, Square has still been solid and we have improved our website with the new weebly tools (myrtletreecafe.com) but it doesn't look like it will be enough.  A few things that could help:

1. Add a members per month benefit option in either Loyalty or Discounts where if somebody pays $50/month, it is easier to grant them free coffee items, percentage discounts on food items, etc but have it all captured under the customer profile so we know how much of each benefit the member has used
2. Let sellers expose the positive feedback we get via square receipts on square online stores (perhaps in testimonial section)
3. Add simple to use integration with instagram into Square app to allow staff during slow periods to comment as business on local/industry profiles and hashtags to get restaurant name out there more.  This is currently done on a separate tablet but if it could be done on the square stand tablet within the square app, it would look better.
4. Add simple integration with spotify into square app so table can connect to speakers through bluetooth and staff could skip song, increase volume, etc from square stand (instead of separate tablet) 
5. Improve the membership option on square online store to customize the Join/Renew button and make it so when people buy this item, their card is charged recurrently. 
6. Fix the auto transfer from square to bank after signing up with Square card.  It was automatically working and transferring for years but when I got the card, I have to no manually transfer to bank
7. Native square kiosk mode would be great so customers in the groups and comfy sections pictured below can just grab a sanitized tablet and order quickly
8. When ordering online, allow a bit more flexibility on how big to show the Add tip link, make it obvious which fields are required (the phone number field trips up so many people) and allow the customer note to be entered in the first step as well as the last step

Comfy areaCoworking

Thanks for asking how things are, hopefully we'll be around to see how things develop!

-Aaron, Myrtle Tree Cafe

[Helen]

Thank you very much Aaron @MyrtleTreeCafe. I'm glad to were able to reopen recently and I hope you can stay open for longer - looks like a great spot! - but I know times are constantly changing. 

I really appreciate you taking the time to share all of this detailed feedback and I have a couple of follow up questions for you:

5. Improve the membership option on square online store to customize the Join/Renew button and make it so when people buy this item, their card is charged recurrently.  

We just released subscriptions with Square Online Checkout but I'm not sure if it's exactly what you need for your coworking cafe but I hope you can use this feature - perhaps you could try it with your regular customers to see how it works? 

6. Fix the auto transfer from square to bank after signing up with Square card.  It was automatically working and transferring for years but when I got the card, I have to no manually transfer to bank.

When you activate your Square Card your Transfer settings are changed from automatic to manual so that you can spend your balance with your Square Card. We'd love to know a bit more about why you'd like to have your balance transferred automatically - can you let me know a bit more about this if you have time?

Also, if you haven't already, you might like to join our Beta Community - where we have a few upcoming Beta Programs (where you gain early access to new features) that I think you'll be interested in. 

[DiscCrazy]

Yeah, but your governor's restaurant is alive and well, so if you are the governor, your restaurant is fine in CA.  odd, really......

[Jdscoffeeshop]

I Absolutely agree with all of this. I would add to be able to adjust online items from the website as well from the Register.  For example, If you only have a "Sandwich" on Thursdays. The supervisors code would allow them to hide/unhide  that item.

[PigWizard]

PigWizard in Monterey, CA

We are still managing to pay our bills on time as well as kept all of the staff working, but it's a near thing. Sandwiches are recession-resistant, but nothing is recession-proof. Shippable product has always been a goal for us, and we are working on it in any spare time we have to get to that in place and growing.

Tourism is returning to the Monterey Peninsula, but it's a mixed bag that brings revenue and germs. The people who seem most eager to get out also seem to be the ones least concerned about being infected. Many restaurants only recently reopened for dine-in service only to close down again, either because of infection of a staff member, the cost of additional cleaning requirements on top of reduced seating, etc. 

As many predicted early on, permanent closures of restaurants are growing. The longer it goes on, the tougher it is to stay above water. Yelp reported 53% of it's restaurant listings as permanently closed. 

For a short while, we were only taking online orders. It was great for productivity, but many customers didn't/don't like it. We have since reopened our doors for in person and phone orders, but having only taken online orders for a while, it made me realize the extreme cost of service...Talk is expensive. 

That being the case, I have asked repeatedly, and will do so again, I would really love a way to apply automatic discounts to our online orders rather than having to put in a coupon code as a way to encourage people to order online. The suggestions for workarounds, like having a duplicate menu in the dashboard with different prices for in person vs online is WAAAAAAAY too much work. 

[Helen]

Thank you for letting us know how things are in Monterey @PigWizard. It sounds like a delicate balance trying to stay open and serve your customers in the way they'd like to be served. Was there anything in particular customers didn't like about ordering online? 

Thanks also for letting us know you need a more efficient way of offering discounts to customers. How often do you need to apply a new discount to an item? Or is it that your menu is already live, with a lot of items, so applying a 'sale' price to an individual item takes too long? 

Again, I really appreciate your feedback.

(PS Pigwizard is a great username and a catchy business name too! I found your Online Store right away - those Lamb Merguez sausage looks amazing. 😊)

[oregon_coffee]

We are located in Salem, Oregon. Our business name is Tripp Dog Coffee, the home of the Less Bark, More Coffee movement.

As a drive-thru only, we have only seen a slight decrease in sales with Covid-19 guidelines, that included stay-at-home orders for non-essential purposes. We stayed open the entire year, so far and did not cut staff or hours. Our suppliers were amazing, our roaster, The Governor's Cup Coffee Roasters, continued to roast coffee beans for us, even though they closed their dine-in location. Our bakery, Cascade Baking Company, continued to bake for us, even though some weeks we were the only ones ordering. We had some issues with getting supplies here and there, but all customers were understanding and knew we were doing the best we could to stay open. 

So many of our friends in the industry had to close their doors for weeks and it was incredibly difficult to see their sorrow, not being able to do what they love. It has been a joy to see them begin to reopen this month and see what wonderful things they discovered in the weeks they were closed. 

We feel very lucky to have already been in the to-go, curbside pickup industry and not have to modify our approach too much. Coffee is still essential and always has been essential and we are honored to daily serve community helpers, first-responders and other essential workers.

[CrystalRaby]

Springfield Missouri

Healthy Bishes (meal prep services)

We have survived the recent shut down as a delivery and pick up business only.  We were never a brick and mortar.  The businesses around us are struggling immensely, weve seen many long standing food businesses close, mostly dine in only locations. 

[lilliefuel]

HI

We are essentially a meal prep service also. Wondering what you are using for managing production reports (ingredient amounts needed ) and labeling?   

[Tom]

Hey @lilliefuel, thanks for checking in here—hope you are safe and well. Can you provide a bit more information on what your needs are with regard to ingredient amounts and labeling?

I'll be happy to share your post with our Restaurants team, but if anyone else here has insight to offer, don't hesitate to weigh in!

In addition, I'd also suggest checking out what our partner applications may have to offer: App Marketplace > Categories. 

[blakeadesigns]

We operate The Ashford Dairy Bar & Grill in CT.   We are a seasonal New England ice cream, burgers, hot sandwiches, fried food etc and have been in business for over 50 years.

Opened late - May 15th for take out and pickup only.   

Business has been been busy.   

We have reduced hours and now allow outdoor seating at random spaced picnic tables.

Second year with S for Rest and product works but could use some updates.

1.  Simple notification for orders that are ready via text message.
even the ability to notify a customer more than one time.... 
2. Better tools for online store integration.  Right now its a totally different system.

All else is OK for now.

[Helen]

Thank you for your feedback about Square for Restaurants @blakeadesigns! I definitely see how using text messages would help. How are you currently notifying customers that an order is ready? Do they collect the food at a counter? 

Congratulations on being in business for over 50 years!! 🎉

[Jdscoffeeshop]

Our Business is JD's Coffee Shop in Seward, Nebraska.  Our business is climbing back slowly.  I am working on utilizing the square for restaurant going forward. I  am hoping to use it as a training tool as well for my staff and if I have to go to Online ordering again. It will be much faster to transition.  

[Helen]

Thank you for you posts @Jdscoffeeshop. How has your first week working with Square for Restaurants? 

[ChefDC]

I am expanding my catering and Personal Chef business to include a mobile kitchen concept, JAZZEDY Chefs' Rhythm Kitchen, serving upscale-casual street food.  Here in Arizona, all types of indoor dining options are struggling due to Covid-19, but the food truck industry and Personal Chef work is booming! I'll  be looking to launch in October when the weather cools down from triple digits and since the virus will probably still be here, business will EXPLODE as a result of cabin-fever, which will be great for my Square account!

[Helen]

Sounds like you have a busy Fall ahead of you! ☀️ Hope you're keeping well in Arizona in the meantime.

[TheNest]

Worcester, MA, The Vegan Nest Cafe, We are doing ok, but at least one restaurant is closing every week its brutal.

[Tom]

Hey, thanks for taking the time to check in here, @TheNest. I'm glad that you're doing okay, though sorry to hear that others are having to face tough decisions about closing. I'll make sure our Restaurants team sees your reply. 

Stay strong and keep us posted. 🙏