A propos of yesterday's post on kosher wine, a reader pointed me to this article on the Olive Garden's attempt to increase its wine profits:
The present purpose of the Olive Garden is to sell you their wine. That's it. The food and the commercials exist to get you there to sell you wine. The chairs are there so you have a place to sit while you buy their wine. The tables are there so the wine has a place to be. The air-conditioner is there so the wine doesn't go bad. (They don't want the wine to go bad, because they would sell less. If it still sold, they wouldn't care if it went bad. The point is to get you to buy it.)I don't know why a fairly inviting restaurant chain chose to transform itself to a hard-sell restricted-selection liquor store. Perhaps the "kindly grandpa" in the commercials owns a winery and is Connected. Or, more likely, this conversation took place:
CEO of DARDEN RESTAURANTS: Things are going well. Our "Red Lobster" restaurants are doing well. Our "Bahama Breeze" restaurants allow people to experience the delights of visiting the Caribbean without having to worry about interacting with Caribbean people. And our "Olive Gardens" are successfully matching a dinner-house concept against the independently-owned restaurants that used to be the mainstay of Italian dining. But if only we could make more money...
GUY WITH MBA: Well, you have a huge mark up on your wine. Right now you have a bunch of customers who will never buy wine. You can't do much about them. You have a bunch of customers who will order wine no matter what, because they like it. We are fine on that front. But there are a few people who are so incredibly suggestible and stupid, that they wouldn't normally buy wine, but they will if you badger them about it. So I say that you change your restaurants from a "pleasant dining experience" to an "annoying as bugfuck we will get you to buy our god damn wine sellfest." You may make some more money that way.
CEO of DARDEN RESTAURANTS: Okay.I have an acquaintance who is a serious alcoholic. As soon as you walk in the door, he is waving a bottle at you, trying to get you to have a drink with him so he has an excuse to have several. Even at his worst he is not as obnoxious as the Olive Garden is. As I said, I am not a good enough writer to properly convey the cheesy hard-sell atmosphere of the new Olive Garden.
Not that it's wrong, but it does date from 2001.
"annoying as bugfuck we will get you to buy our god damn wine sellfest."
Indeed, that would be "Guy with MBA."
Also, nice to see some pottymouth sneak in here.
Hmmm, I go to the Oliver Garden on average about once a month -- it's practically become a ritual for one night of the week during the tradeshows I'm at.
And they ask if I would like to sample the wine, I say "no" and that's it.
And that's at Oliver Gardens from one end of the US to the other and a few places in between...
I've visited Olive Garden several times over the past few months and have not noticed this at all. I'll try to pay attention next time...
Assuming this actually happens, the issue is not that management are a bunch of greedy bastards, but rather that they've been incentivized to value short-term profits over the long-term benefits you get from customer goodwill and a positive dining experience.
Huh? I live in Manhattan, where there are a huge number of Italian restaurants which are independently owned, mostly owned and staffed by people of relatively recent Italian descent, frequented by large numbers of people of relatively recent Italian descent and where all or most of the food is cooked on premises. In short, this is as authentic as it gets.
And, in those restaurants, (i) there is a big bar in the front or along the side, (ii) often, the tables are set with wine glasses, (iii) when you sit down, the waiter asks you if you want to order a drink and (iv) when they bring you the menus, they bring you a wine list.
The "whine" part of the headline I understand, but otherwise I'm not sure what the point of this post is supposed to be. I'm sure Olive Garden would like to sell a lot of wine with a healthy mark up . . . ?
I think that every sit-down restaurant wants you to buy their wine, drinks and deserts. It's just where profits come from in the business. The margin on food is razor thin, while a $5 cocktail costs 20 cents to make. It also boosts the revenue per table versus just ordering food.
It's no different at high-end eateries, except the markup on the wine may be less. Industry standard used to be 3x retail for wine, and the top end places I've eaten at tend to price about there. At chains I see 4-5x retail on the mediocre wines they tend to stock. (K-J Chardonnay for $40?!!)
I worked for a summer in the 70s as a busboy for a new chain of steakhouses. Call them Ache and Stale, we did. The manager and I were talking the afternoon when we had become the number 1 store in sales. He said that the best part was that we were #1 in bar sales, which included all wine due to the state laws at the time. I do know that we hauled out about 5 55 gallon wastebaskets of liquor and wine empties to the dumpster on weekend nights.
Of course, it's sad that the chains like Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill have the stones to call themselves serious about wine when they serve most whites too cold and reds at room temperature. If they were serious, they'd at least chill the reds to cellar temperature.
You know what makes me mad? When restaurants charge for refills on soda. And why is it that the more expensive the restaurant is, the more likely they are to charge you for a refill on soda? At least Olive Garden is likely to give free refills. Heck, even McDonalds does. Some fancy place where a steak costs 50 bucks? Well, that's another $2.95 for a small glass of ice with a splash of coke.
I think somewhere between room temperature and cellar temperature is probably about right for most reds. The glass should feel cool perhaps, but 55° F is a bit too chilled isn't it?
Ben,
If your have European friends visiting the US for the first time, the concept of free refills will blow their minds.
And why is it that the more expensive the restaurant is, the more likely they are to charge you for a refill on soda?
Probably because the more expensive the restaurant, the less likely it is that they don't have soda fountains, but instead carry those little glass bottles.
Our "Bahama Breeze" restaurants allow people to experience the delights of visiting the Caribbean without having to worry about interacting with Caribbean people.
And writing on the internet allows people to experience the delights of being an insulting, superior, racism-imputing snob without having to worry about getting kicked in the mouth! Wow!
I ate at Olive Garden a couple of weeks ago in Las Vegas. 1st time I've been there since they first started appearing in our So Calif area in the '80s.
For someone weaned on Mom/Pop Italian restaurants, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food.
The first wine the server offered was OG's house brand, which was $29 a bottle which is a lot in my crowd for an unknown brand.
However the server was pleasant and in no way like the description above and they had wines in the $24 bracket which is more my speed.
All in all a pleasant experience.
Olive Garden is still in business?
My town has three comparably priced restaurants in the genre of at-least-vaguely-northern-Italian. The best one is an independant. The second best is part of a regional chain. The third best is an Olive Garden. My wife and I received an Olive Garden gift card, so we went there last night, a Thursday. The line went out the door, so we ended up going elsewhere. We have never had any problem getting into the local independant. Ah, the power of marketing!
I, also, have not noticed a "hard sell" on wine.
They do try and sell it, by offering it and suggesting it, but they've always taken "no" for an answer, the first time.
(And "drinks are where you make all the money" is really true of all dining, especially fine or relatively-fine dining and wine.)
The problem with ordering wine at Olive Garden (or any restaurant, for that matter) is the markup mentioned in the article. It just feels wrong to pay more for a glass than an entire bottle at Retail prices. And, what's particularly galling, is that the restaurant didn't pay nearly Retail for that bottle.
So, Megan, as an economist, I pose the question to you: what's the balance? I love wine, and would gladly order plenty at a restaurant if the price wasn't so insulting. They say they HAVE to mark up the wine, given the volumes they sell. But wouldn't they sell more volume at a lower markup? Isn't there someone who has tried this?
We have an olive garden in the town of Lafayette Louisiana (population of ~ 110,000) but we have so many better alternatives that I haven't been there in the last few years except for one visit with a business client who wanted to go there. The food seems to be spiced with garlic and garlic only. I like garlic in my food, but when it's the only thing you can taste in the salad, the pasta and the chicken, something is wrong. Plus the wines all range from crappy to mediocre. For the same price or even less there are other italian restaurants in town where you can get genuine italian food, well selected varities of wines in the celler and benefit a locally owned shop.