We cut our café menu by a third—food waste fell before sales changed
Eight weeks of purchasing and sales notes from a 28-seat neighborhood café.
We removed nine low-volume items that required ingredients used nowhere else. For eight weeks I tracked purchasing cost, discarded prep, ticket totals, and complaints.
Weekly food waste fell 22 percent by weight. Revenue was essentially flat, while average ticket time improved by just over a minute during lunch. Two removed items had vocal regulars, so we brought one back as a Friday special using ingredients already stocked for another dish.
Where do you stand?
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3 responses · oldest first
Flat revenue with faster tickets is a meaningful result. Did labor hours change during prep?
Prep averaged about four fewer staff-hours per week, though two of those hours shifted to the Friday special.
The special is a smart way to retain identity without keeping a low-volume ingredient in stock every day.