Question

Nina’s Mexican-Style Restaurant

Nina’s is a casual style, full service restaurant. The average meal ticket is $14.63 per person. The waiters serve some of the finest Mexican-style food in the United States. They are primarily located in the South. The hours of service are 11:00am to 11:00pm Sunday through Friday and 11:00am to 1:00am Saturday.

Nina’s, surprisingly, currently prefers to take over well-located existing restaurant facilities and convert them into Nina’s restaurants. This has resulted in lower start-up costs and has provided a faster entry into an area. A few restaurant facilities which are suitable for conversion to the Nina’s concept are available for purchase or lease at attractive prices. Nina’s major criteria for a great site location include the following:

Building Size- 3,000 to 6,000 square feet to allow for 120 to 180 seating capacity; lounge seating for 30 to 50 people and parking for 70 to 110 or acceptable overflow

Site Criteria Guideline- (A) strong traffic count of 20,000 plus, (B) excellent access to and from the site, (C) outstanding business/office employment in immediate trade area, (D) distant visibility of building and signage, (E) traffic generators, and (F) major retail shopping center

Demographic variables- (A) population of 35,000 to 50,000+ in primary trade area, (B) medium to upper income area (large percentage of white-collar workers), (C) age 20 to 45, with a median age of 35 or less, (D) good mix of single family homes and apartments, and (E) high education levels

Nina’s is ready to build out across the southern states. What additional criteria should the company employ before building in your city (Memphis)?

What might be a good location for a Nina's Restaurant in your (home) town? On what specific factual data do you base this?

How many Nina's Restaurants would you put in your town, and based on what specific factual data?

If you had to choose ONE demographic data point on which to base the decision to build a Nina's restaurant, what would that data point be, and why?

Answer 1

1. An additional data which is important to the decision is the food habits and tastebuds of the local population that will help the Nina's to come up with the most suitable set of offerings in the menu. The decision should be taken after doing a careful analysis of the businesses operating in the same domain ( Mexican restaurant) in the city.

2. Most appropriate location for such restaurant will be the citycentre or any such place which has proximity to residential areas, educational institutes and office /shopping complexes. The strategic location should have optimum distance from each of them.

3. Going by the guidelines, a town with a population of 80000 may have 2 restaurants located at a distance of 5-8 miles from each other and catering to different target markets. For example one located in the commercial district may cater to the office goers and shoppers, while the other located near to the univerisites, educational institutes and residential areas may meet the needs of students and families.

4. Lager percentage of white collar workers is the criteria that is most important, as it is directly related to the lifestyle of the inhabitants. The population having larger proportion of white collar workers is more lilkely to have a lifestyle that defines the customer profile of Nina's, the ones who want to eat out, explore new food items, have decent paying capacity and wish to enjoy their leisure time with family or friends.