Your Best-Selling Sushi Roll May Be Making You Less Money Than You Think
By ProfitWise - a Visa Business Plans company
Pull up the sales report at almost any sushi restaurant and there are usually a few obvious winners.
Maybe it’s the spicy tuna roll that’s been on the menu forever. Maybe it’s a specialty roll with salmon, avocado, spicy mayo and tempura flakes that customers order so often the sushi chefs can make it without looking at the ticket.
When an item sells that well, it’s natural to think of it as one of the restaurant’s most valuable menu items.
But popularity and profitability aren’t always the same thing.
Imagine that specialty roll sells for $19. When it was originally added to the menu, the price made perfect sense. Since then, however, the cost of salmon has increased. Avocados have had their ups and downs. The portion of fish being used may have become a little more generous over time, and the restaurant may now be paying considerably more for some of the imported ingredients that go into it.
The price of the roll, meanwhile, has barely changed.
None of this is particularly noticeable during dinner service. The roll keeps selling, customers love it, and at the end of the month it still appears near the top of the sales report.
That’s exactly why looking at sales alone can be misleading.
At ProfitWise, when we work with restaurant owners, we like to understand what individual menu items are contributing after their direct costs are considered. Sometimes the results are exactly what the owner expects. Other times, an item everyone assumed was a star turns out to be producing much less than another dish that sells half as often.
Sushi restaurants make this especially interesting because the cost behind two items with similar menu prices can be very different.
A roll built around cucumber, avocado and imitation crab doesn’t have the same economics as one loaded with bluefin tuna, salmon, eel or another premium ingredient. Even within the same roll, a relatively small change in the amount of fish used can make a meaningful difference when that item is sold hundreds of times a month.
Then there are the extras customers don’t always pay separately for. Soy sauce, wasabi, ginger, takeout containers, chopsticks and other items may seem insignificant on a single order. Across thousands of orders, they become part of what it actually costs to sell the food.
Once you have that information, the goal isn’t necessarily to remove a popular roll from the menu.
There may be much better options.
Perhaps the price needs a small adjustment. Maybe the portion should return to the original recipe. A premium ingredient could be offered as an upgrade, or the restaurant might decide to feature another roll that customers enjoy just as much but produces a better return.
Sometimes you don’t need to change anything at all. A lower-margin roll may bring customers through the door and lead them to order sake, appetizers, sashimi or other profitable items. If that’s happening, the roll may be doing an important job for the restaurant even if its individual margin isn’t spectacular.
The point is to know.
A sales report can tell you what your customers love ordering.
Looking underneath those sales can tell you which items your business should love selling.
