Those were the times.
The streets had fine dining restaurants. They cooked amazing unforgettable meals. They had star chefs who loved crafting these delicacies. Cooking was a work of art. The chefs took a lot of time and care to cook up these meals. People would come to these restaurants once in a while, spend a lot of money to enjoy their meals. These fine dining restaurants were expensive, and their chefs were nothing less than stars.
Then people’s lives changed. People got busy. Time suddenly was at a premium. They didn’t have a fixed time for meals anymore. They started having many light meals during the day. They discovered what is called ‘Fast food.’ They wanted it quick. They wanted it on the go. They didn’t expect very high taste from fast food. They wanted just about a consistent quality but wanted it fast.
Often these people would go to the fine dining restaurants and ask for fast food. The fine dining restaurants didn’t know how to cook fast. Their chefs looked down upon fast food. Cooking was like an art for them. They hated speed. They refused to cook fast food. The big restaurants turned away the customers. There was an opportunity waiting to be tapped. For the fast-food chains to pop up. They appeared quickly. And priced themselves cheap. The customers loved them for their speed and cost. The taste? As long as it was above a certain quality, they were okay.
The fast food guys didn’t charge any premium. They made their money from the volumes. The star chefs at fine dining restaurants were still resisting learning how to cook fast food. Some of them tried making it but couldn’t do it fast. And when they did make it, it turned out to be expensive. After all, the star chefs were expensive and the kitchens were massive. The owners of the big fine dining restaurants could never figure out how to make money selling fast food. Now the customers were spending a lot of their money having fast food. And their visits to diners started reducing. But sometimes they would miss the taste of those big meals. But they had gotten used to paying less for the meals. So, they would go to the diners and haggle for the money even for those elaborate meals. Also now when they would go to the diners, they wanted even the big meals faster (they had gotten used to speed).
The big diners were a little desperate now. They took the orders. But started cutting the costs.
Lesser number of chefs and servers to address the demand. Overworked chefs, stressed out servers.
It was getting difficult running large fine dining restaurants. Some tried converting their restaurants into fast food chains. They failed. Un-training and re-training the whole staff was tough. Some of them went and bought small fast-food chains. One fast food chain became really big. To add sheen to itself, it went and bought a fancy fine dining restaurant.
Some of the big diners started to close down. It was getting difficult making money in the business of food as they saw it. The fast-food guys were now big. They were innovating fast to delight the customer. They were following the consumers 24X7 to not miss any opportunity. They even started serving snacks.
They even set up live counters to serve them on demand. The world had changed so much from the days of the leisurely old diners.
Meanwhile customers would often complain while eating at fast-food joints ‘I still remember those amazing meals I used to have at those diners.’
Why did this happen?
Should the big diners have changed fast? Should the fast-food guys have charged more when they were setting up shops? Should the customers realise having fast food 24X7 would soon lead to the feeling of sameness in the mouth?
If you were the owner of a big fine dining restaurant, what would you do? And, if you were to co-write this story with me, what would you add to it?
The writer is currently the chief operating officer (COO) at McCann WorldGroup India. Views expressed are personal.