How Restaurants Are Handling Food Shortages

If restaurants and the hospitality sector haven’t copped it enough in recent years, navigating supply chain shortages is proving to be another battle entirely.

From lockdowns, density caps, critical labour shortages and even inflation, it’s fair to say that the bars, restaurants and just about all hospitality based businesses have taken hit after hit since early 2020. While international borders have reopened and most of us are trying to navigate the ‘new normal’, business owners now have a new beast to contend with: supply chain shortages.

Once upon a time, it would seem unimaginable to see an iceberg lettuce advertised as high as $12 per head. Today, the price of food items and access to them are proving to be quite the hurdle for restaurants to navigate. While some outlets have been left with no choice but to pass the extra costs onto consumers, others have opted to overhaul their menu to reflect seasonal produce – but how did we get here?

Why The Food Supply Chain Is On Its Knees

Unless you’ve been living off the grid in a cabin in the woods, almost everything has gone up. From interest rates, petrol, house prices and yes – even lettuce – inflation is packing a punch right around the world, and Australia is far from immune.

For the hospitality industry, restaurants face an impossible choice. Do they lift their prices to reflect the rising price of food and other goods and risk losing their loyal customer base, or do they absorb the increased operating costs and hope for more customer retention while running on lower margins?

Given how integral food and beverage products are to the hospitality industry, rising food inflation is an essential factor to keep an eye on for operators who want to keep their doors open. Unfortunately, food and beverages are just one small fraction of the type of goods affected by the global supply chain shortage.

In simple terms, global supply chains are the networks between companies and their suppliers needed to turn materials into the products they sell. Massive supply chain shortages emerged in the wake of pandemic lockdowns that shut businesses on a global scale, and kept workers at home.

While most parts of the world are slowly getting back to normal, there have been many other factors that have continued to disrupt the flow of goods and services. Although the catastrophic war on Ukraine has wreaked havoc on global wheat production, electricity prices and even shipping channels, on the domestic front, Australia’s wild weather and flooding has wiped out large swathes of crops that would have otherwise ended up on dinner plates

Although skyrocketing costs, the inability to accurately forecast, shortage of supply and rising demand have created serious challenges for suppliers, food distributors, operators, and consumers alike, restaurants are certainly thinking outside of the box when it comes to securing short term solutions.

While some hospitality outlets have opted to reconfigure their trading hours, others have instead overhauled their menu to reflect meals that use seasonal fruits or vegetables that are available to them. Although controversial, the most prominent example would easily be KFC’s use of cabbage instead of lettuce on their burgers and wraps. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but the temporary amendment has no doubt helped to keep the fast food giant open.

Despite these challenges and the ever increasing cost of living, many consumers will still continue to go out for dinner at their favourite restaurant – even if it’s once a month instead of the previous once a week.

However, as anyone who’s ever worked in the hospitality industry knows, it’s not easy to keep the show on the road when things start to break – particularly when it’s a machine or piece of technology that they’re not all that familiar with. Thankfully, partnering with the team at Innovators Direct offers a solution.

Meet The Tech Gurus That Speak Your Language

With the complex technical side of the industry and no one in the middle to eliminate issues and find solutions, Innovators Direct is comprised of a team of ex-hospo gurus who take pride in not just offering the tools for the job, but training teams on how to use them and being there to provide technical support when things go south.

For the average business owner who already has relatively small margins to work with, even a saving of 1% can make a big difference. Fully aware that no two enterprises are the same, Innovators Direct offers a tailor made approach to each and every client.

Whether it’s introducing a new POS, rostering system, or simply purchasing receipt rolls, imagine what your brand could achieve with a partner in technology that actually speaks your language. For end to end business solutions, get in touch with us at Innovators Direct today.