Tiny Changes: Marie Kondo Your Restaurant

If there's anything I've learned from moving into NYC after decades in suburbia, it's how much "stuff" I can live without. While I could go into how many days I counted without having worn clothing with buttons as a man who worked from home, I am proud to say that buttons have made a comeback. I'm more fascinated by what hasn't.

We live in a cluttered world. Our mobile phones wake us up every morning, often with a song selected from a cloud of millions. Alerts call attention to the news of the day, while Facebook, TikTok and Instagram provide an endless scroll -- all before our feet even hit the floor. Yes, we live in a noisome world that’s pulling our attention in a hundred directions at any given moment. It’s this reality that’s brought Marie Kondo to fame with a best-seller and a Netflix series dedicated to decluttering one’s life. As we define what our guests want in hospitality in a discordant time, what should we KonMari (yes, the lifestyle maven is both a brand and a verb) from the restaurant experience since now is the time to simplify our lives? What if we took the concept of sparking joy and applied it to a space where people go to socialize, explore flavor, and break free from the stresses of their every day?

The key is to simplify the guest experience so that only what truly matters remains - the best servers, the best menu items and the right environment. Once we declutter, we can thrive by focusing on what remains and doing it exceptionally well.

Think about the menu itself. The average chain menu boasted around 132 items in 2023 which is close to flat over the last five years. If a menu counts more than two pages, the consumer's interest will wane and suddenly a supposedly social experience is inflicting yet another pressure on their already burdened day. Too many businesses hold onto the old idea that variety maximizes potential and worry that deletions generate complaints in a market that’s fighting for every guest. Why should a restaurant limit their menu? While there are multiple benefits (focus to training, less inventory to manage, reduced menu costs, simplified transactions), the answer is to simply the guest experience so that only quality menu items remain.

Full-service restaurants have fewer consumers today. Fewer menu items means that product is rotated less frequently, which impacts freshness. It means that items are executed less frequently, which impacts consistency and accuracy. A menu item that averages 10 sales per day translates into 2-3 on a Monday to balance the 18-20 on a Friday, so the Monday AM cook may go weeks without receiving an order. Infrequent sales also negatively impact FOH knowledge, comfort and confidence.

We now hit the collective point: Simplifying what we offer our guests will serve not only their needs but also the needs of our business. Quality will increase, margins will follow, and happier guests will promote our brands.

The idea here isn’t to hold guacamole to your chest and decide its future by asking yourself if it sparks joy. The idea is to have your guests taste the guacamole and let you know if it’s great or if it needs more paprika (I love a smoky guacamole). Insights must drive the decision on what to keep, what to evolve, and what to lose. Yes, insights for every item on the menu - so you can stick to what you’re great at and focus on serving your guests exactly what they want. It’s critical to understand consumer’s happiness with every product so that simplification doesn’t follow a financial motivation. Sales aren’t everything because a Caesar salad is so often a default order which won’t necessarily move a business. When using consumer sentiment as the barometer for simplification, profits will follow. Simplifying the menu will focus operations on doing fewer things more often to elevate the quality and consistency of the experience. Simplifying the menu means there will be fewer things for the business to manage, translating into tighter inventory control, and reduced waste.

Simplifying without alienating guests is possible if you use guest feedback to inform your decisions and win your team over with the changes. The enterprise needs to be informed by what your guests want, framed as a quality initiative and not a savings effort. The financials will follow in the form of reduced waste, increased sales, and decreased menu costs but margins aren’t the objective. Improved quality delivering increased visitation is the point. The industry’s future depends on reversing the negative traffic trends. It’s time to simplify the consumer proposition and give them something worth coming back for.

Marie Kondo has said “there are two reasons we can’t let go: an attachment to the past or a fear for the future.” Our industry has been operating on old ideas for way too long and thinking that tech will save the day. Dated kitchens, lack of insights, and the belief that gut check leadership can create a future that looks a lot like the 1990s. This leads to another great observation by Ms. Kondo: “We can only transform our lives if we sincerely want to. Small changes transform our lives.”

To turn that sentiment into a lyric from Scott Hutchison from Frightened Rabbit (a true great): "While I'm alive, I'll make tiny changes."

Now is the time. What tiny changes will we make today?