Shake Shack Kiosks 2023 Strategy
From Yahoo Finance Jan 2023
Tagline – Shake Shack’s outlook for 2023: more locations, more sales—and drive-thrus
Looking for a $10 burger? Most chains cannot stop themselves from uttering the phrase “AI” or “robotics” for that matter. Interesting areas here are the relentless focus on drive-thru, kiosks improving margins (albeit cashless) and using kiosks to backfill in the kitchen. Not sure what that is.
Technically the “kiosks” are customer-facing order tablets (iPads) fixed on a counter. A lot like Panera (see below for some posts on Panera)
Excerpt
Click for full size – ipad kiosk shake shack
At the ICR conference, a three-day event run by ICR partners, the company announced plans to open 65 to 70 domestic and international locations in 2023, 40 of which will be company operated and nearly 30 owned by franchisers. One key development in the works: more drive thru locations, which tend to boost sales
Currently the company operates 11 drive-thru locations, 9 of which opened last year. Each location should generate, the company said, more than $4 million in annual sales. That’s compared to $3.8 million at traditional company-owned stores. Operating profit margins should be on par or better than the company average.
A drive-thru in Orlando, Florida, opened last year and produced an average weekly sales of $86,000. It is on track to earn $4.5 million and “headed towards $5 million,” said Garutti. Operating profits were 20%, higher than the approximately 19% for stores in preliminary Q4 results.
Shake Shack uses tablet ordering terminals (pictured in the Yahoo Finance article.
Other Coverage
- NRN article Feb 16th – trading down
- NRN Sales and Margins — In terms of technology, most locations now have ordering kiosks, which improve margins and help reduce labor costs. He said most of the remaining 60 or so restaurants without kiosks will have them by the end of the year.
- MSN — nice thing about kiosks is the automatic tipping push. Customers though are beginning to tire of the automatic add-on cost.
- Yahoo and CEO talk—Now, if we take a closer look at some key areas of focus, CEO Randy Garutti outlined four in the earnings call. Labor is one of them, as the fast-food burger chain looks to focus on recruitment, retention, and training efforts. They’re also considering adding kiosks to help utilize labor in different ways, perhaps backfilling in the kitchen. However, they admitted that they have not been immune to staffing challenges.
Related Shake Shack Kiosk Posts
- Panera’s chief digital officer on the future of restaurant tech
- Panera Kiosks – Palm Beach Gardens gets “fast lane” kiosks
- Self Order Tablet Kiosks – Panera 2.0 surges on Digital order
- Shake Shack Kiosks – iPad Kiosks Coming To All
- Shake Shack Not Going Cashless After All
Video