Between 1970 and 2000 sales in the American fast food sector increased by $104 billion dollars (2) and $150.1 billion is projected for 2007 (3). Americans now spend more money on fast food than on education or new cars (2).
The Chicago loop was chosen for the location of the restaurant because there are many businesses and a diversity of culture (See Appendix A.2 for ethnic population). There is high foot traffic in the chosen location of over 8,000 people per day during the work week (4). There are currently no quick serve Indian restaurants in Chicago, but Indian food is no stranger to Chicago. Indian food has been enjoyed by Chicagoans since the 1972 (29) and is still popular today. See Appendix H for near loop Indian restaurant reviews.
Our target markets are employees, residents, students and tourists in the Chicago loop who go out to lunch and dinner. We expect that 80% of our business will occur between 11:30 to 1:30 based on seating capacity, size of our restaurant and the business of a local ethnic restaurant(4). We are targeting these groups because there are over 300,000 employees (6) and there are over 45,000 attending school in this area (7). Tourism in Chicago increased 10% from 2001 and 2005 and Chicago is ranked 3rd in Travel and Leisure's top ten cities in the U.S. and Canada …show more content…
The competitors included Subway, Panera Bread, Chipotle, Taza, McDonalds and Burger king to name a few. There are eight full service Indian restaurants near the loop, but these are not close to our restaurant location. The fast-food and quick serve restaurants we are competing against have better economies of scale than our restaurant so we will compete with them on our flavorful food, food quality and excellent service in order to stay competitive. Our prices are competitive with the other quick service restaurants and higher than the fast-food restaurants. See Appendix L for an example of the planned menu. Our competitors have brand recognition and our promotions targeting our various markets will familiarize people with our restaurant and increase