34 Controlling Costs in Foodservice
Step One. Determine Item Popularity
List all the items in the section being evaluated. Use sales levels to determine the
popularity of each. Sales levels can be obtained in several ways—from point-of-sale
software, by manual tallies of check request sheets, or by asking the waitstaff to tally
items when they are ordered. Regardless of the method used, sales should be tracked
over a period of time—as long as one year and not less than three months. The
number “1” is placed next to the most-popular item. The number “2” is placed next
to the second-most-popular item, and so forth until all items are ranked.
Step Two. Determine Item Profi tability
Next, the Moneymaker column is completed based on the contribution each item
makes to profi t (sales minus expenses). The number “1” goes in the column next to
the most-profi table item. This process is continued until all the items are ranked.
Step Three. Total Points
The points across each row are totaled. The manager determines which of the
following classes each menu item falls into.
• Stars: Items with the lowest scores.
• Puzzles: Items that score between dogs and stars. These great moneymakers are
easy to prepare, but may not be popular.
• Plow horses: Items that score between dogs and stars. They received good popularity
points, but are not great moneymakers.
• Dogs: Items that rank in the top 10 percent (highest scores).
The goal is to maximize the number of stars on the menu, minimize the dogs, and
tweak the puzzles and plow horses until they reach a good balance between popularity
and profi t. The manager can adjust the price or the recipe of a dog, puzzle, or plow
horse to increase the overall profi tability of the operation. Or a manager may choose
to eliminate the least profi table items from the menu.
Menu engineering is an ongoing process. The menu will never be perfect and items
may move between classes. Also, customers and trends may change. Each time the
menu is adjusted, the balance of the four classes will change. Therefore, an operator
should complete this process at least once a year.