CPAs' PSA: Avoid restaurants

If the restaurant industry was irate over Suze Orman’s recommendation that consumers avoid dining out for a month, it may have to be searched for weapons after it hears about the public service campaign being waged by a national accountants’ group. The program, FeedThePig.org, is intended to help the public save money through easy, simple actions. Like foregoing trips to restaurants, or bringing your lunch to work instead of buying it.

The message is being delivered not only through the website, but also in a series of ads produced by The Advertising Council, a trade group, in collaboration with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. All attempt to help consumers improve their financial situation by cutting expenditures and putting the savings in safe interest-bearing investments.

One of the program’s more intriguing elements is showing consumers how much they can make by changing their spendthrift ways. For instance, a calculator featured on the website allows visitors to compute what they spend on restaurants in a typical month. Using that figure, it then calculates what the money would earn if it was banked. The example cited shows a restaurant patron having squirreled away $22,000 over five years just from skipping restaurant visits.

One of the criticisms leveled at Orman, the popular personal-finance guru, was her singling out of restaurants as the luxury that should be skipped. FeedThePig.org (the name is a reference to feeding a piggybank) is not nearly so selective. It recommends a reconsideration of everything from buying gadgets to splurging for makeup.

“Which spending habit are we gonna smash first?” asks Benjamin, the piggybank icon that narrates the web site.

But five of the broad advice categories squarely hit restaurants: Dining Out (“Instead of going out, cook at home with friends.”), Lunch Buying, Latte-a-Day, Takeout (“Buy instant meals at the grocery store, they are cheaper and efficient.”) and Bottled Beverages (“Get a counter-top carbonator and make your own, healthy soft drinks.”)

The website is aimed at adults, but links to a site for “tweens,” where a game teaches children how to save. The AICPA and the Ad Council have also set up a password-protected site as a resource for teachers.

The knee-jerk reaction would be to turn Benjamin into bacon. But the sort of anger shown by the business over Orman’s recommendation needs to be put aside. FeedThePig.org is well intentioned, and helping consumers cut their expenses, including their outlays for restaurant food, is no more diabolical than restaurateurs trimming their light bills, labor expenses or supply charges. The industry has to bear in mind that everyone is struggling in this environment. The effort by the AICPA and the Ad Council is merely striving to help the public in that effort.

But, of course, restaurants are part of the public, too. Still, if the foodservice industry wants to counter efforts like FeedThePig.org, it has to focus on what marketers dub the value proposition—why it’s still worthwhile for consumers to dine out. Maybe restaurateurs need to remind hard-pressed patrons that restaurant meals are still a relatively inexpensive indulgence, all the more appreciable in these trying times. Or a great way to save time. Or an opportunity for the family to share quality time, instead of having Mom or Dad frantically slapping together a meal while everyone else snorks down their meal.

But finding a noose and a stout branch? Nah. That’s just not the way to go. The industry has to start fending off the dining-out naysayers with a counterargument, not an how-dare-you attack.

Colicchio, Orman, valet parking & other tidbits

News tidbits have been piling up in my Miscellaneous folder like coffee grounds at the bottom of a barista trainee’s espresso. Indulge me as I review a few restaurant-industry developments that might’ve slipped past you in recent days:

Chicago wants standards for restaurant valets: An ordinance passed Tuesday by the City Council would require valet companies serving restaurants to provide enough lot parking for 15% of a capacity crowd’s cars. The measure was pushed through, after being toned down from a 25%-of-capacity requirement, to combat what government officials have dubbed fly-by-night valets—concerns that go into business with nothing more than a few matching windbreakers for the attendants. They merely double-park cars on the street, creating a hazard. Other areas have taken aim at the same problem with proposals to mandate insurance as well as off-street facilities.

Suze Orman leaves restaurants steamed: The quirky personal-finance guru has tossed a hornet’s nest into restaurant management offices from coast to coast by urging consumers to forego dining out for at least a month. The advice is one of the core recommendations of her new book, “2009 Action Plan,” which aims to help readers weather the times. It also urges them not to spend anything for a day, and not to use their credit cards for a week.

Some members of the industry expressed dismay and disbelief that the popular TV figure would issue such advice when the restaurant industry is reeling (this week’s standout casualties in New York alone: The Plaza Hotel’s Palm Court, Ruby Foo’s and Fiamma). I’m sympathetic, but dining out is not a patriotic duty.

China gives U.S. brands the finger with new piracy mall: If you lament the homogenization of world culture, consider the retailing concept that’s reportedly about to open in the People’s Republic. Among the establishments shoppers can peruse: McDnoalds, Bucksstar Coffee, a fried-chicken place called KLG, and Pizza Huh. After having a meal, they could continue their hunt for the best price on Adidos or Dama sneakers.

Those aren’t typos. The place’s schtick is to offer knock-offs of copyrighted brands without the usual nod and a wink. And this is all out in the open, completely on the up-and-up, though U.S. restaurant brands may have a decidedly different opinion.

Tom Colicchio has another big idea: Regular readers will know I regard the New York chef’s recent brainstorm, Tom: Tuesday Dinner, as a more innovative idea than anything that’s come out of Detroit since the minivan. Now, according to the blog site Eater.com, he’s followed up that brilliant stroke of with a new marketing venture: Damon: Frugal Friday.

Damon is Damon Wise, the chef de cusine of Colicchio’s Craft restaurant. Every Friday beginning tomorrow, Wise will develop a one-day menu of items priced under $10. According to promotional information cited by Eater, the dishes will fall into eight categories, ranging from the familiar (salads, small pizzas, cheese plates) to the eyebrow-raising (“food in a jar,” “meat on a stick”). The materials cite such examples as crispy pig ear, deviled egg salad, and caper berries and piquillo marmalade.

Like Tom: Tuesday Dinner, the new special-night meal will be served in one of Craft’s private dining rooms. With the downturn in New York’s party business, it’s a smart way to put vacant space into money-generating use.

Chipotle is heading abroad: After poking a toe into a foreign market with the opening of a lone store in Toronto, the college students’ cult favorite is jumping across the pond. The company disclosed this week that it will develop a single restaurant in London as a possible beachhead to European expansion. Since the 800-unit chain doesn’t franchise here, it’s unlikely to license overseas. It’s a shame that the company isn’t still a half-sister to Pret a Manger, the all-natural grab-and-go chain that, like Chipotle, once counted McDonald’s as an owner. The two might be compatible partners, and Pret owns London.

Starbucks offers to caffeinate those who give back: The coffee giant continues to play to the socially minded with a new promotion keyed to Obama’s inauguration. The President-Elect has asked every American to volunteer their time for the public good next Monday. Agree to do your part, Starbucks announced yesterday, and there’ll be a free tall coffee waiting for you afterward.

Meanwhile, some media have reported that Starbucks is about to announce an arrangement with MSNBC whereby the cable channel’s live coverage of the inauguration will be simulcast within the coffee chain’s 650 U.S. stores.