Archived Cafe/Food Avenue Failure

[starmaster1000]

I was having a conversation with an ETL and they told me our Cafe was making less money than it paid out in payroll every day, and its hours have been slashed to lunch hour only.

Has this happened to your store? Maybe it got replaced with a liquor store/wine area?

Why do you think it failed? I personally love the pizzas, but maybe everything else sucks?

 

[CabbageKnight]

Most Food Ave's tended be Money sinks as they constantly needed people staffing them, Pizza's always being made that may get thrown away and so on, Its why Spot has been experimenting with a variety of solutions for them. Some of them are simply getting boarded up and having an expanded Starbucks with more Food options.

 

[Fix It]

I was having a conversation with an ETL and they told me our Cafe was making less money than it paid out in payroll every day, and its hours have been slashed to lunch hour only.

Has this happened to your store? Maybe it got replaced with a liquor store/wine area?

Why do you think it failed? I personally love the pizzas, but maybe everything else sucks?

Shot answer: yes.

Long answer: I spent more keeping food Ave open in two months than it will make this year (and probably next year too). Like @Xantilin said they just gobble up money, but they still bring guests in so it’s here to stay

 

[buliSBI]

Yup. My local TGT FA was converted to GS/SPU.

My old contacts said my old FA was converted into a SB. There is a Joe Muggs on the end of the complex in BaM. There is a standalone SB just quarter mile up the road. Another one in the mall across the street. And a Barnes and Nobles SB a 2miles away.

 

[can't touch this]

Our Sbux draws 10000% more guests than FA does, and yes they throw away a fuck ton of pizzas

 

[Times Up]

but they still bring guests in so it’s here to stay

Who is coming for popcorn and Pizza Hut????

 

[Kartman]

The pizza part is stupid. I never put pizzas in that holder - they only took 3 or 4 minutes to cook and they only tasted good when they were fresh. Of course, I'm in a ULV store - in a busier one, I may have used it. The rules said I was supposed to have one in there during lunch, but I didn't even do it then. They only taste fresh for 5 minutes in that holder - I don't care what corporate "says."

 

[RedcardReba]

Our cafe is rarely busy. Waste of good floor space. I understand the plan is to reconfigurr into wine area.

 

[IWishIKnew]

Our store got rid of the cafe. Definitely a money pit. We get a lot of senior citizens who were not happy they lost their space to hang out for hours on end (not buying anything), but otherwise its presence is not missed.

 

[redeye58]

Our cafe does booming business during holidays, weekends & lunch peaks.
We have retirees coming in for popcorn combos, employees from neighboring shops come for pastas & pizzas, after-schoolers come for Icees & pretzels, etc.
All in all we have a pretty steady clientele; that said we're up for remodel next year but haven't heard if cafe will be impacted.

 

[can't touch this]

Our Starbucks has one POS but could easily use 3. Cafe has 2 but only ever uses 1 at a time 🤔🤔

 

[SpilledTea]

We got rid of FA and replaced it with Sbux last q4, thankfully. I was FATL for about 2 years and we never made it into the black lol. The only folks that miss it are seniors and parents who can no longer park their kids there or use icees to bribe their little snowflakes into behaving.

 

[Kartman]

It's good those types don't ever come in the store anymore, eh!

 

[Coqui]

Food Ave needs to go lol

 

[redeye58]

Ours is next to our Starbucks & makes for a good balance: lattes for the yoga moms & Icees for the kids.

 

[Tessa120]

Who is coming for popcorn and Pizza Hut????

From the amount of popcorn that ends up on the carpet in RTW clearance just about half the moms of small children that want a few minutes peace while browsing the racks.

 

[itsajob]

Ours is closed more often than not. If someone dose not come to work they keep it closed. It is always closed when the team member goes on break. I was told they might turn it into a Starbucks next year with the big remodel. I am not sure what will happen when they don't follow the rules of their contract with Starbucks and are not open when they need to be per the terms of said contract.

itsajob

 

[REDcardJJ]

Ours is closed more often than not. If someone dose not come to work they keep it closed. It is always closed when the team member goes on break. I was told they might turn it into a Starbucks next year with the big remodel. I am not sure what will happen when they don't follow the rules of their contract with Starbucks and are not open when they need to be per the terms of said contract.

itsajob

Starbucks gets more hours to operate than Food Ave, and there's also a District Manager from Starbucks corporate assigned to make sure that the store is complying with the terms of the licensed store agreement. Issues with Starbucks can be escalated from the ETL-Food/STL to the DTL by the Starbucks DM if nothing is changing at the store level. It's actually a very big deal for the store to close Starbucks early, with the exception of literal natural disasters/food safety regulations. Also your leaders probably won't want to close Starbucks as often as Food Ave anyway, because Starbucks is a lot more profitable.

 

[Shani]

They wanted to replace ours with Starbucks, but I guess a rep from Starbucks declined it being added to our store. We weren't told a reason (save for maybe STL who hasn't shared it) and we're all pissed about it. So are some guests who thought we might be getting one with the remodel. They really should just make the swap. Never mind the guests, they'd make bank just from the TMs alone at our store.

 

[Kartman]

Fear not - it'll be a SB eventually.

 

[can't touch this]

I'm bummed out that I didn't get to visit @Kartman 's store while he was running FA and ask for a pizza with extra "spinach" ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

[Kartman]

No spinach, but that pizza would be so fresh you'd have to slap it. Plus, I don't cut the pepperonis in half.

 

[oath2order]

Target can't run a fucking pharmacy right but by god they'll drag the bloated corpse of Food Ave along into the future with them.

 

[can't touch this]

Imagine being Gregg "ROFL" Steinhafel and having a shitload of pharmacies that are literally a license to print money, and your first move is to sell them off to a competitor. Could homeboy even walk and chew gum at the same time?

 

[REDcardJJ]

tbf pharmacies aren’t really cash cows. the only reason we had them in the first place is to drive guest traffic. selling off the pharmacies was about the only smart move Gregg made; Target gets the increased guest traffic while CVS assumes all the risk for the pharmacy business, and we are guaranteed to make a profit from CVS in rent and other fees paid.