Competing Items

Question 1

Unit 2 Assignment: The Menu Sales MixI

Restaurants use several methods to determine the popularity of competing items on a menu. A sales mix analysis is used to monitor the effectiveness of menu items that best meet the needs of customers and maximize the profits of the operation. Several steps are involved in performing a sales mix analysis.

You are the new Assistant Manager at your hotel’s upscale dining restaurant. The food and beverage director asked you to prepare the sales mix analysis on the top 5 competing menu items for the restaurant. Based on the formulas in the textbook, determine the steps in the sales mix analysis and complete the table in the template below.

• Determine the menu mix percentage (popularity rate)
• Determine menu item CMs
• Calculate average CM (profitability)
• Compare menu items and average CMs
• Classify the menu items
• Make a recommendation on which items (if any) should be dropped

Question 2

For this discussion board post, respond to the prompt in at least 200 words. Respond to the comments of at least two of your classmates, as well. Each of your responses to a classmate should be at least 50 words.

Discussion Prompt: Bittman et al.’s article describes how the current U.S. food system impacts children. Has the quality of life for children been enhanced due to the food system as compared to earlier generations, or has it deteriorated? Provide at least three examples from the article to support your point. Additionally, Fallon’s article discusses the different harmful ways commercial foods are processed. Fallon later states that “to be healthy, we need to prepare our own food…this is the only way to get nourishing foods into our children.” Would adopting a national food policy alleviate the harmful ways that the foods she discusses are processed, or is the processing of foods an unavoidable by-product of a modern society?