“While much of the industry has been competing for lowest prices, we chose to further improve our customer experience – adding a line of chopped salads, reformulating certain soups, improving our French baguette, and introducing new small batch coffee blends from South and Central America. We use hearts of romaine exclusively in salads and manage lettuce production, reducing the time from harvest to fork to yield the freshest possible product. During the summer months, salad sales grew 30% year over year, due to higher check averages and higher gross profit dollars.”
– Scott Davis, exec. vp/chief concept officer, Panera Bread

“In 20 years, we’ve never cut back on quality, something our customers tell us they really value.
Some recent adjustments have even enhanced quality. We made two slices of cheese standard on all cheeseburgers, continued to serve our standard two slices of high quality tomatoes during the recent shortage without increasing prices, and increased our standard pickle serving from four to five.”
– Molly Catalano, director of communications, Five Guys

“We’ve refused to budge from our mission to provide the highest quality food and dining experience for our guests
and we would never consider serving lesser cuts of meat or turning tables faster. Even in this difficult economy, we have been confident that people would pay a few dollars more for certified Angus prime beef. As a result, we far surpassed anticipated sales, and 90% of our customers are repeat.”
– Rosemary Statlere, marketing director, Red, The Steakhouse, Cleveland, OH and Miami, FL