ArrowStream Foodservice Blog

A Limited Time Offer, or LTO, is an excellent way to boost business. Celebrating special occasions with temporary menu items, discounts, and promotions is a tried-and-true way to increase revenue and raise brand awareness. LTOs are popular for a reason: they work. Research conducted by Datassential in 2021 showed that 50% of surveyed customers claimed to have ordered an LTO in the past two weeks from the date of the survey. 75% of those customers said they will tell their friends about it, and 65% of them said they would return to the restaurant again to order something else. According to restaurant industry consultant Ryan Gromfin, “LTOs are powerful because of the fear of missing out.” In other words, the limited duration of the promotion or menu item compels customers to visit a restaurant sooner rather than later when it might no longer be available.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket – the same goes for supply chain sourcing.

Sourcing commodities from a variety of locations and suppliers allows your company to mitigate the damage from disruptions and shortages since you have alternative means of procurement. It allows for a resilient flexibility against changing circumstances and the ability to ensure that your company can reliably get the supplies it needs to operate. In the words of the ancient Roman writer Publilius Syrus, “A plan that cannot be altered is a bad plan.”

This week’s employee spotlight features Krystle McClanahan - Data Integration Lead at ArrowStream. Krystle has over twelve years of experience working in electronic data and joined ArrowStream two years ago.

Today’s interview features Hanh Cao - Senior Quality Assurance Engineer at ArrowStream. Hanh has been with ArrowStream since 2017 and has over seven years of experience working in software development.

A vast majority, if not all, of the food you have consumed in your life has been processed. Everything that is sold at a grocery store has been canned, waxed, frozen, dried, bottled, wrapped, baked, packaged, or in some way altered. Food processing is the set of methods used to transform fresh food items into retail food products and how they are stored, packaged, and delivered. It encompasses the vast range of procedures involved in turning grapes to bottles of wine, wheat kernels to pre-sliced loaves of bread, and live animals to the cuts of meat available for purchase.

Recent geopolitical events have resulted in escalating commodity prices and supply chain instability. In response to the volatility of the global commodity market, ArrowStream’s Director of Commodities, Jerry Dalton, and Sr. Director of Product, Matt Heckroth, joined Ashley Berland, Vice President of Supply Chain at Restaurant Growth Services, and Adam Shrif, Vice President of Procurement at GA Goods, to discuss the context of the rising prices and difficulties with distribution, as well as forecasting solutions to the challenges.

This week we want to spotlight Tonya Burgess, ArrowStream's Senior Data Engineer. Tonya has over twenty years of experience working in data administration and joined the ArrowStream team last year.

Mother’s Day is the busiest day of the year for the restaurant industry. Even during the pandemic in 2020, consumer spending at restaurants was up 103% on Mother’s Day Sunday and 63% on the Saturday prior. Despite the widespread notion that brunch is the most popular meal choice for Mother’s Day, most families opt for dinner. With such a significant revenue-boosting opportunity, many restaurants implement Mother’s Day promotions to secure customers for the holiday. Here we’ve listed the top 5 Mother’s Day marketing trends for you to implement at your restaurant.

Today’s employee spotlight is on Marilyn Bottenbley - data integration specialist at ArrowStream. Marilyn has thirteen years of experience working in data management and joined the ArrowStream team in 2020.

The eradication of hunger is a major global societal problem. A recent study has estimated that total global food demand is expected to increase by 35% to 56% between 2010 and 2050.