Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop in Sioux Falls, SD with David Bloom
Guest: David Bloom
Topics: Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop, restaurant industry
Transcript:
Chris Ressa 0:02
This is retail retold the story of how that store ended up in your neighborhood. I’m your host, Chris Ressa. And I invite you to join my conversation with some of the retail industry’s biggest influencers. This podcast is brought to you by DLC management. I’d like to thank one of our sponsors, retail openings and closings.com. In today’s dynamic retail landscape, tracking openings and closings before they take place has never been more important. Having this intelligence is an undeniable competitive advantage, retail openings and closings.com also known as Rock Tracks, future openings and future closings, comprehensive accurate and reliable the rock is your crystal ball and the key to making well informed decisions with confidence in today’s evolving retail climate.
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so, David, why don’t you tell us a little bit about who you are your your kind of career trajectory and what Capriati is doing these days.
David Bloom 1:34
You know, just without given all the boring details. I grew up in the restaurant business in New York and attended hotel restaurants grow out of Vegas and then went to work for Norman Brinker, who sort of invented the National Restaurant seems taken out Bennigan’s, I was a young kid and got to run my own restaurants all over the country for a number of years and really learn how to run a business from a professional standpoint. And then got into the hotel side and food and beverage for about 10 years working for a company out of London called Arranque organization. So I got to do some real got to do my own concepts. But years and years ago got involved as a franchisee you really got a chance with Quiznos to grow a brand from a very small, you know, Denver based brand, at 18 sub restaurants, became part of the leadership team there and was one of the largest franchisees and left the brand when it was sold to JPMorgan. We were at 5000 restaurants in 20 countries when I left so really learned how to grow a brand at scale, and then have had the opportunity to do that. A number of other times have worked in about 33 countries today growing brands. Today, I’m the Chief Development and operating officer for CAP realities, we are based in Vegas, we’ve got about 100 Change restaurants open. We’ve got another 200 restaurants and the development pipeline today. So we’re obviously on that, you know, accelerated growth curve that brands go go through, hopefully, brands like to go through. So yeah, this is a really fun time. And even though this is a weird time, we’re continuing on that trajectory. So that’s a little background.
Ressa 3:25
So for those who don’t know, you know what is Capriati these
Bloom 3:32
Capriati started as an Italian Valley and the Little Italy section of Delaware. What sets us apart is really we were one of the largest buyers of butter butthole butterball turkeys in the world. We roast all butterball turkeys, in our restaurants every single night. butterball raises a lot of turkeys for us called a Capriati, super calm. We’re roasting our own roast beef, we roll our own meatballs, we’re making our stuffing or we’re making everything else. So sort of a high end sub sandwich concept. We were named the bobby our turkey sub Thanksgiving sandwiches named greatest sandwich in America, we win, you know, best sandwich whether it’s our cheese steaks or Capistrano, or a Bobby we win best sandwich. In virtually every city we go to, we tend to have much higher averaging advice, I’d say, you know, a normal sub shop, our average is well north of 750 where the top 25% of the brand being at about a million to so high end, you know, high volume sub sandwich.
Ressa 4:38
Wow. And so, and how big are these shops?
Bloom 4:47
You know, it’s interesting, I’ll tell tell us, you know, we started out as relatively small footprints, probably for the Cabri IDs, by the way, has been around for 40 years. So we just started going national a few years ago. If you go back and look at the early vintages, the shops were very small, almost no seating whatsoever almost all carry out and to go. I don’t know over the years the shops like a lot of brands got larger and larger and they peaked at about 2000 square feet. But about two or three years ago, we started shrinking that footprint. So today, you know, on average, we’re about 14 1500 square feet.
Ressa 5:22
Got it and and what type of real estate are you guys freestanding buildings in shopping centers in downtown’s, what do you what? Where do you guys Excel?
Bloom 5:33
Now? Like I think a lot of people in our category the answer is yes. You know, we do freestanding buildings with pickup windows were in CBD central business districts were in residential areas. You know, again, we’re sort of a high end sub shop. So it’s more driven by you know, densities, demographics, you know, discretionary spending traffic, the perfect restaurant for us is going to have, you know, high density daytime and nighttime seven days a week, so that we can do a strong launch and a strong dinner business. That’s, that’s the optimal situation for us.
Ressa 6:12
Interesting. And so you’re, you’re starting to go national, and you started out on in Vegas. We started in Delaware, Delaware,
Bloom 6:25
okay. existed in Delaware for probably a decade, decade and a half before. The owners just like to go to Vegas, Los Angeles. And so they they decided to open up some shops in Vegas. So the brand existed for probably 20 to 30 years in just Delaware and Vegas just in those two markets. So they have kind of East Coast west coast a little about today, as I started word, over 20 markets, we’ve got another 28 new markets represented in that 200 restaurants in our pipeline today. So we’re entering new markets at a very rapid clip.
Ressa 7:01
You know, Are these all over the country? are different MSA? Is there a geographic strategy? Or is it franchise, you know, where the franchisees are? What’s driving it?
Bloom 7:13
Yeah, it’s really more where the opportunity is. So where from Boston to, you know, to San Francisco, and everywhere, virtually in between. And if we’re not open, we’re in the throes of opening in most states. And so it really is, it’s driven by having the right franchise partner versus us targeting a given geographic area.
Ressa 7:36
Any markets that you’re really excited about from a geography place?
Bloom 7:42
You know, it’s always great to build up density or core, you know, volumes in a market. So we can start to build advertising co ops, and really optimize supply chain and things like that. But some of our highest volume mark, you know, markets are places like South Dakota, places that you you wouldn’t think that we’re going to kill it. You know, and I think it’s different reasons in different markets, some areas like Sioux Falls, South Dakota may just be underserved compared to Dallas, Texas. But that at the end of the day there, we tend to do very, very well. And in those markets, as long as we do a great job, picking our real estate picking our franchise partner, and being educated and being committed to marketing on a long term basis. Are you? And
Ressa 8:40
do you guys like second generation restaurants? Or do you want to start from scratch?
Bloom 8:44
It’s, you know, sort of six and one half dozen for us. advantages to both, I think, you know, certainly it’s nice to get second generation space when it lays out perfectly and it’s, you know, the conditions are right, but otherwise, we’re fine with with new space. Got it.
Ressa 9:06
So, you know, you mentioned before that you guys grew in size as restaurants do, and you mentioned seating and we’re in an interesting time, you know, how is Capriati is done through COVID-19.
Bloom 9:21
You know, we haven’t publicized this because it’s, it feels a little weird too. But we’re literally 2019 was a record year for us in terms of sales growth and expansion of the brand. And the date 2020 is actually double digit above that. So we are probably not you know, as as good as the, you know, Domino’s of the world. But pretty close behind that. We have a very very and we have had a very strong off premise business for the last several years and they had invested very heavily in that and that’s really paid off.
Ressa 9:56
So are you doing takeout or are you doing deliver We both
Bloom 10:00
takeout delivery, continuing to do some catering even though that has shrunk down quite a bit. So we have national deals with all the major aggregators GrubHub DoorDash. Post mates UberEATS. We have some unique relationships with companies like Fouda and ANOVA. We have our own cap attics app, that we work with Olo and DoorDash, on tremendous amount of pickup and delivery business. As far as I said, that’s kind of how the brand started. Our sandwiches are very affordable. You know, they really hold up well, I think there’s people that would argue their better or a half hour after they’re made, the minute they’re made. So I think our food lends itself really well to what’s been going on. But it’s also we had invested years and a tremendous amount of time and energy into optimizing our presence on all those platforms, and really figuring out how to make it work well. And that’s just paid off.
Ressa 10:57
Yeah, I had a I had James Walker, the CTO of Nathan’s on Nathan’s. Yeah. And he, he has a view that this and, you know, really was good for comfort food?
Yeah. You know, and I think that’s probably right. And, you know, I’m working out a lot, but I definitely enjoy my comfort food here at home when you’re stuck at home. No doubt. So I can imagine that, you know, one of the things I’m sure you saw in New York City, and, you know, you being from Yonkers, you know, the the restrictions they put on delivery fees.
Bloom 11:37
Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. I’m sorry. No, I
Ressa 11:41
was just gonna say, you know, a lot of, you know, restaurants and I guess a lot of local restaurants have really been crying wolf from the fees of delivery. And I get what, you know, you mentioned, you’re partners with GrubHub, door to everybody, how are you navigating that and is that just scale?
Bloom 11:58
It scale. It’s, you know, we were gonna negotiate our fees every year. You know, you got a company like Taco Bell that buys into an aggregator and just buys the feed down. So it’s not necessarily an even playing field. But it’s also knowing how to optimize your presence and your pricing on those aggregates. And our experiences, that consumers that want access, and are married to GrubHub, or Postmates, or whatever, DoorDash, whatever platform that they utilize, are not price sensitive. They’re much more convenience oriented. And if they if you have a great product that people are willing to pay a fair price for, you’re going to do really well. If you’re price driven, say like a taco bell, or McDonald’s or what have you, you might not do as well, on those sites. So I think there’s, it’s a combination of things. I’m not a fan of government intervention and pricing, I tend to think that the marketplace does that much more effectively, and much, much more timely basis. We are certainly seeing some of that in like LA, San Francisco, New York, places like that.
Ressa 13:14
Yeah, I, I like to test things out, as new technologies come out, I try to, you know, given that I’m in the retail real estate business, I try to test them out. And from a consumer perspective. And so it’s a great point that if you’re if you’re in DoorDash, or GrubHub, you’re probably less price sensitive. I think that is different, though, than Instacart, which I think there’s people looking for delivery of groceries that are price sensitive. And I think that’s, you know, getting challenging on the we’ve tried, I you know, when Alexa came out, I was trying things on Alexa and Google Home and trying to you know, get firsthand, tasting from a consumer perspective. And my wife and I ordered a chocolate milkshake from McDonald’s through DoorDash. Just one milkshake, to see how the experience was how it would hold up. And you know what the pricing would be is the most expensive milkshake that I’ve ever gotten. I wouldn’t do that again. But I your points well taken and probably something that I don’t think everyone thinks about is that those people are probably less price sensitive, and they’re more convenience driven. So it’s a great point.
Bloom 14:32
Yeah, some products just don’t travel very well. You know, I don’t I don’t happen to think hamburgers, french fries and tacos travel really well. And some products, pizza, you know, subs, sandwiches and things like that they travel really well. And I think consumers inherently know that. Yeah. And so they, whether they’re thinking, you know, really comprehensively through this process. When you’re ordering at home, you’re kind of like what sounds good and what And you know, in the back of your mind, what’s going to arrive in good shape and what, you know, like a milkshake. You’re kind of like, it’s 100 degrees out, I’m not sure that’s going to do so well, you know, by the time it gets to, you know, most consumers.
Ressa 15:16
So you, you guys have, you know, navigated COVID better than most. But you’re still going to have to deal with you. And I mentioned before it, I kind of skipped around the reduced occupancy and seating you grew size of footprint, and added seating, and now that’s challenged. How are you guys thinking about that?
Bloom 15:42
No, we’re sticking to our 14 1500 square foot model. Because we find that optimal from an operating standpoint, it provides enough seats to serve as guests. But given the fact that so much of our business has moved off premise, and we continue to see that trend going on, even as as dining rooms are reopening, we, you know, we have seen even as dining rooms reopen, people coming in and sitting down, but we think that this trend of off premises just going to accelerate, if anything, but having bricks and mortar locations that represent the brand are convenient to consumers, and are located where they want you to be when they want you to be there is an important part of our brand. And so that that part of the business is not going away, we’re certainly investigating, you know, things like ghost kitchens and virtual kitchens and things like that. And in a number of markets, and have national agreements with all of those guys, as well. So we see that as being supplemental to our retail business. How long does it take
Ressa 16:51
to get the dining room business back to where it was pre COVID?
Bloom 16:56
You know, I’ve read a lot about this, and we’re very involved with the International Franchise Association, and one of our board members is past chairman. another board member was past Chairwoman, work, you know, they have equity and things like dominos China. And so we see a lot of advanced data. And I will just say that all the data that I’ve seen says it’s very market specific and sort of geopolitically driven. So if you live in New York City, you know, half of the people that live in New York City know somebody that’s contracted COVID, you got to Pittsburgh, only 13% of the people know somebody that’s contracted COVID. And so the sensitivity around the pandemic, and what their behaviors, their consumers behavior, driven by sort of how they see the world and their what their, you know, what their region looks like, what their politics, look, what their socio economic background looks like, is really driving their behavior much, much more than governments opening and closing, you know, dining rooms here in Vegas, for instance, dining rooms were allowed to open weeks ago, and the company shops that we own and operate ourselves, we still haven’t opened our dining rooms yet. And our revenues continue to climb. Some people, you know, that are strictly, you know, dining room, you know, oriented full service restaurants, per se, opened up as soon as they could. So I think it’s brand specific, and it’s also regional, um, in terms of consumer behavior.
Ressa 18:30
It’s great insights. That data that you talked about the 13% and the 50%. In New York, that’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that yet. What haven’t we talked about that, you know, is top of it’s top of mind for you?
Bloom 18:46
You know, I think number one, my experience is the team you work with is the most important thing. Having great people that are committed long term at every level of the organization really, is what will determine whether you’re going to get there or not. So from a board, you know, investor level board members, senior leadership team management team, all the way down the line franchise partners, their employees, having alignment on mission and purpose and values means more today than ever before. And I think candidly, the reason a lot of brands, you know, achieve their goals and some brands don’t achieve their goals. It’s not that they don’t have a great product or they don’t have, you know, a really good brand. It’s they don’t have alignment and a really strong management team, you know, from top to bottom, again, investors all the way down to the people working in the restaurants day in and day out. And that today, it takes a tremendous amount of time and energy and commitment to make happen. It doesn’t just happen. And then secondly, I just say that the adoption of technology, younger Standing the adoption and integration of technology, all of the technologies that are, that have been coming at us from the last few years, that adoption rate by consumers is only going to accelerate going forward. This crisis and pandemic has clearly taught people, you don’t have to leave your home to go to work, you don’t have to leave your home to go shopping, or to have food brought in. And people place a premium on convenience and, and their time, and are willing to, you know, to pay for that. So if you can, you know, work with those things, and make sure your product and your offerings and your marketing and sort of the consumer experience works well with that, then you’re probably going to do really well, if you’re not if your management team and your product and your offerings not aligned with that. And there are a lot of brands out there today that are not at all aligned with that, you’re gonna have a very, very rough ride.
Ressa 20:56
Yeah, that’s great perspective. Really, really interesting stuff. One more question. What question, are you, you know, as we come out of this, what question is, you know, burning inside you that you’re dying to have answered, what are you what are you very curious as to what happens is the pandemic settles and reopening happens?
Bloom 21:22
You know, I think the question short term, I think, in terms of, you know, short and long term, in the short term, you know, we don’t know what’s what she was going to drop next. And so we, we have to do a lot of scenario planning, and preparation for everything, you know, we, when this crisis started, we literally had to say, what happens if we lose 100% of our revenue? What does our cash burn look like? And how do we make sure we’re going to be in business 18 months from now, and then obviously, we’ve, we’ve done a whole lot better than that, but you’ve got to really look at every single scenario, and make sure you have a plan for it. And so we do spend a lot of time but even with all that planning, and even all that time and energy, you know, we don’t know what’s going to happen tonight. And so that, I’d love to, I’d love to know what was gonna happen tonight, nevermind, tomorrow, I don’t even know, the night. And so, you know, we’re having to really be very, very nimble and, and stick to our core values, and let that be our guiding light. In terms of how we react to things or go through things, in the longer term, I would say that the integration of all of the technologies and and I we work really, really closely with a, you know, we’re with the ghost kitchen, guys, you know, there’s there’s three main ones out there today that all have slightly different business models. And then we work with really, really closely with a lot of the technology platforms like oh Alo, but also people developing robotics and sensors, and, you know, face facial recognition and facial payment, all those, you know, all those technologies that are coming together and called the next five to 10 years, what’s that really going to look like, at the end of the day? And how does that impact our decisions around things like real estate, where to put restaurants, you know, where to put ghost kitchens? Where, what kind of virtual brands to launch? How do we think about mobile kitchens, which is a whole nother piece of the business? You know, how’s that all going to work together as that sort of roadmap and and we’re spending a tremendous amount of time and energy thinking about that. And, you know, clearly we don’t have all the answers. But once again, we’re kind of we’re testing, we’re kind of using the technology roadmap, which is, you know, fail forward, fast and iterate. And we find that that, you know, that technology way of thinking about things in the restaurant industry is probably a little bit new for restaurant tours. But it is sort of key to success in the future. At it.
Ressa 24:12
The you mentioned that, you know, who do you think that the three top ghost kitchen players
Bloom 24:18
are? Well, they’re clear. I’m in cloud kitchens, which is backed by Travis Kalanick. Uber, founder of Uber. Yep. Judging united, which is backed started by John Miller has genius, backed by Google Ventures and reef technologies, which is I think, today, the largest private network of real estate in the United States have got, you know, management or ownership of 5000 parking garages in the country.
Ressa 24:48
Yeah. So you mentioned a topic I haven’t heard much about, but I’ve read a little bit about which is mobile kitchens.
Bloom 24:56
Yeah, there’s a company called Zoom and have run outs Gardner has tested it with a concept called Z pizza. But, you know, having mobile kitchens, not food trucks, mobile kitchens that are fully integrated from a technology standpoint. So the UberEATS and DoorDash is and grub hubs of the world can literally go to that kitchen, but they can, they can place those trucks and know where to place those food trucks right next to the consumer based on time of day. So when you look at like real estate mapping, the typical real estate mapping programs or platforms, whether it’s site Zeus, or wherever else you use, these guys have real time data, like real time cellular traffic, they can tell you, you should park this truck at such and such a place based on you know, real time revenues, real time traffic, real time densities, things like that. And, you know, you can now leverage your brick and mortar locations, not just as restaurants, but also as commissaries for the and ghost kitchen for that matter, as commissaries for these mobile kitchen platforms. So being close to consumer and being able to provide that sort of last mile delivery is going to be a piece of the pie as well. Fascinating,
Ressa 26:16
really fascinating. All right, so I want to pivot a second to you have a story about an interesting Capriati that you guys worked on that opened up in a in a certain spot?
Bloom 26:33
Yeah, I mean, I think my favorite stories are the ones that you don’t expect to be home runs and turn out to be home runs. Yeah, that’s always the best surprise, right. So I think, you know, when it’s sort of the inside deal, you know, it’s, I’m sure a lot of people that are listening to this podcast, do site tours with prospective owners and operators all the time, and they’re looking for space that’s available. And you’re always telling people look that, you know, often the best deals are not obvious when you’re driving down the street, right? It’s having the relationship with the right people that are in the deal flow, and know what’s going on and know what’s coming up. And so you know, when when the when you’ve got that kind of a relationship with a great real estate rep in the market, and they’re, and maybe they represent Chipotle, and, and Starbucks and all the other big players in the market. And they can tell you, hey, that Starbucks down the street, is moving. Um, they’re building a freestanding building across the street. And so that space is going to be, you know, become available landlord doesn’t even know it yet. I know the landlord, I put your, you know, in the deal flow. And if you guys want it, let’s make that deal. And, you know, that’s how that happens a lot. You know, where it’s, it’s really about relationships, as much as it is about the data analytics, and all those kinds of things and negotiations. And so, you know, without pointing to specific deals that happens to us, in virtually every market in the country, it’s making sure that we have the right relationships, and communication and really working relationship with the right people that know the market are, you know, have a lot of that, you know, boots on the ground expertise, but also, they’re in the deal flow, they have great reputations and know what’s going on. The landlords respect them. So when they bring tap realities, which the brand they’ve never heard before, to the table, that gives us a lot of credibility. And then obviously, we do a whole introduction. So those are my favorite kinds of deals is where we, you know, they’re not obvious where we’re kind of digging to find the best opportunity and then and they turn out to be home.
Ressa 28:53
Is there one that you didn’t think was going to be a home run that turned into a home run? Yeah, so
Bloom 28:58
Sioux Falls are Sioux Falls, South Dakota, like
Ressa 29:05
Sioux Falls, South Dakota. So how did you guys end up choosing that you, you know, originally that you wanted to be in Sioux Falls?
Bloom 29:12
We didn’t. Branch you know, prospective franchisee a lot of people come to Capriati, because they’ve tried the food, they know the food or somebody said something to them about the food. You know, it’s always been sort of this cult following. And so we get a lot of, and we’re based in Vegas, we have over 40 restaurants in Vegas, we’re in casinos. And you know, we’re in T Mobile, and we’ll be in the Raider stadium with a baseball, you know, so we’re all in all these venues. And so people, you know, come across us and they’re like, holy moly, this food is incredible. How do I bring this back? And so that’s been a big driver of our growth. That’s how we ended up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota people, the guys love the food. And they said, hey, I want to do this. And one of the guys was actually in the debate. augmented real estate and construction development business and got his wife into it and said, Hey, we think you guys do great up there. We go out there, and we look at the market, we do all our, you know, analytics and analysis and find it’s good. But again, you’re kind of like, I have no idea how we’re gonna go to falls, I’ve never really spent any time there. And then it comes out to be, you know, million dollar plus store day one. And their biggest problem is that he’s handling all the business they have with no market. That’s always that’s always nice.
Ressa 30:32
And so when you sell the franchisee comes to you, and and you guys go to Sioux Falls. And, you know, you’re you wasn’t, you know, one of the top 20 MSA is that you were targeting? And you end up there? The Is it the same real estate process? Where you did you go through the same process that you normally would you guys went and tried to find the best real estate in the market?
Bloom 31:02
Yep, our process is pretty in depth. And we have an executive team that has to review and approve every single side, which includes the CEO, the President and myself and our VP of real estate. And there’s a very comprehensive site package that has to be submitted by both the real estate team and the franchisee that includes all of the financial projections, three year financial modeling, layouts, cost construction estimates, you know, all the mapping all the heat mapping, competitive analysis, you know, site, you know, site plan, site surveys, everything that you could think of goes into a site package. And every single site we do has that we find there probably, I’d say, from a revenue projection standpoint, within 80 to 90%. Accurate now. And we know what the cost basis is, because we’re in enough different states to have some idea of what new markets versus existing markets look like, from a distribution standpoint, we know what our operating costs should be. And so we have pretty accurate, this is what the ROI should look like. And we we live and die by that that model, I think a lot of brands kind of get enamored of what they would call flagship locations and homerun sites and, you know, kind of rationalize why they can pay double the triple what they normally pay or what have you. We don’t do that we just look at everything from an ROI analysis, we make sure that long term, we can’t keep a cap on our construction or capital costs. And we really, because we own and operate cap realities, restaurants, ourselves, we keep a very, very close eye on things like cost of goods and labor and things like that, to make sure that, you know, we know what the real operating expenses are, day in and day out. And that’s how we run the brand.
Ressa 32:59
And so you run the model for Sioux Falls, and you know, it’s going to be a decent performer, but certainly not your what you’re thinking of a home run. What what what do you think happened here with this deal that turned it into a home
Bloom 33:16
run? They’ve been great locations. I mean, they’re both the success points, and the failure points are usually the same. It’s just Which way did it go? Great location. You know, that was really well built out really good visibility, great, you know, really good looking store that’s really well operated from day one that’s committed long term to marketing and building a brand in their area. Those are the three elements that have to happen for us to achieve what you call a homerun. If we miss on two of those, we’re still usually pretty good. If we pick a good location, and we operate it well, but they don’t do a lot of marketing that are just not really, you know, oriented, that way that stores still pretty gonna probably still do pretty well. But if we pick a bad location, and don’t operate it, well, we’re dead. When your entire brand is built on having the kind of food you can’t get anyplace else, if we have a bad location and then don’t deliver that, then we’re going to be in trouble. So that’s kind of how we look at it. Those are the three real pain points or critical points for determining our success and what it’s probably going to really be so you know, a perform a model might say, Hey, you’re gonna do, you know, 15 grand a week or 18 grand a week and you come out of the box, day one you’re doing 30 grand a week. That means you probably picked a really good location. And then as long as you can execute well, and we spend a lot of time and energy and money on training and supporting new openings. If the first guests that come in or get that food the right way and the service the way it’s supposed to be delivered. They’re probably coming back and they’re probably bringing their friends about that business. is off to a good start. And we don’t even begin marketing for a few months, because we, you know, we’re just really trying to handle the business that’s walking in the door, get the crew and the management team settle down a little bit. But if you open the doors they want and there’s nobody coming in, you know, you picked a bad location, and you know, you got a problem and you really have to address it. So,
Ressa 35:23
location, operational excellence and marketing, those are the three ones.
Bloom 35:29
Yeah, I think probably for, for the vast majority of brands, those are the three, you know, the make or break kind of points that determine success or, you know, level of success, I’ll call
Ressa 35:44
and how many stores are corporate owned versus franchise,
Bloom 35:49
we’ve got 105 shops open today and 13 are company owned, will we tend to own and operate stores, in around in and around Vegas, or, or in markets where we want to test something out like we’re about to open to ghost kitchens, maybe three actually, in the LA area, we tend to when it comes to product or technology platforms or or like freestanding buildings with drive throughs we tend to do those quarterly ourselves and kind of figure it out, before we pass along to the franchisee as an opportunity that they think they should pursue. So we’ll continue and we tend to do a lot of the sort of non traditional locations ourselves like ballparks and stadiums and things like that. Just because they’re they’re unique. But that’s that’s kind of our corporate versus franchise plan. And
Ressa 36:43
the arm the franchisees, do they are they typically one store owners, multiple store owners?
Bloom 36:51
Yeah, no, we don’t really ever have one store, I think we have one. In the last three years, we’ve had one person start with one shop, most of them started with between three to five. And we have people you know, last year bill Berg, who’s was named by the multi unit franchise conference, as they multi unit multi brand franchisee of the year is one of our franchisees. So, some of our franchisees are multi unit owners with other concepts, and some are just multi unit owners with us. But they you know, anywhere from three 510 15 is the highest. And so if we built a system, we built a platform in advance for multi unit owners, so their technology, you know, insights and ability to run the business remotely if they want, and really get real time data and insights is a big key to our growth, ability to grow and support that growth in advance of what actually happened.
Ressa 37:50
And do and are these are these owners in in the stores a lot? Are they doing other things, you know, if you had 15, obviously, you might be a multi unit owner of you know, Capriati is Taco Bells, other things like that. But you know, D are a lot of these guys in, in the, in the stores, often,
Bloom 38:16
I would say they’re either in the stores, and they have really good directors of operation that they depend on that are in the stores all the time. So obviously, you know, when they’re first starting out, they may be in the stores, and we want them to come to training as franchisees. But they’re not there may not be in the stores themselves all the time, but they keep a very, very close tab. I wonder what’s happening in those shops. And we’re starting to get some franchisees that are opening in multiple markets, you know, maybe they’re, there’s no more opportunity here in Vegas, and they want to go to Chicago or Salt Lake City or Arizona or something like that. So we’re starting to get a little bit of that as well, which would be sort of our next, you know, I guess, growth curve is franchisees that have no more opportunity in their existing markets and so they want to go to another market, but they’re whether they’re in the stores or not, they’re deeply involved in the business. And that’s restaurants is a tight margin business. It’s gotten tighter and tighter over the years so people that you know are acutely aware of what’s going on day in day out are the ones that do the best.
Ressa 39:23
Fascinating Well, this has been really interesting. I’m excited for Capriati, he’s and you know next time I’m in Delaware, I’m definitely stopping at Capriati ease. And as you make your way up into my neighborhood, I am looking forward to it. So last part of our our show is called retail wisdom. And we talked about it earlier you know the questions but here they go, you’re ready to the best piece of commercial real estate advice
Bloom 40:00
I think commercial real estate is 50% are and 50% science and the art side is really experience and relationships and depending on people on the ground that know what they’re talking about, and yet and the science side is really the data analytics and having a deep clear understanding of what you’re getting into and what that looks like from a financial modeling standpoint. And really kind of balancing those two to make a good decision.
Ressa 40:29
I agree that’s, that is great advice.
Bloom 40:35
Number 2x
extinct retailer that you wish would come back from the dead that’s a tough one for me.
I’m not I look backwards guy. You know, brand I’ve been in business for a long time and I would just anybody that’s been in the business for a long time, I’ve seen a lot of great brands come and go. And I worked for Bennigan’s, you know, as a kid growing up and growing up and they were literally like a license to print money when we were first starting out. And today if you talk to people about Bennigan’s, they don’t you know, lots of people have never been to one, right. So it was great to be there. It was a great experience. I learned a lot I love the people I got to work with and but I don’t wish that they’d come back. I just you know, their time is, you know, kind of done. And so I kind of think I tend to spend like 100% of my time looking forward. I’d say if anything, I wish you could still sit at like a Walgreens counter, like I did in New York growing up and get a soda and you know, something like that with the waitress behind the counter. I think those days are kind of the soda jerk days. Were kind of cool. But that’s right, ever actually do that. So
Ressa 41:47
that’s my last question. So you’re a high volume. restaurant chain better than average for sure. And so I’ll bring you to one of the highest per square square foot volume retailers on the planet. And that is Lululemon.
Bloom 42:08
I am on
Ressa 42:10
Lou’s website and I am looking at their men’s ABC jogger pants.
Bloom 42:16
Which if you ever saw me you know I never wore
Ressa 42:21
what what do they retail for David? 100 bucks. You’re close. $128. But thank you for playing.
Bloom 42:32
I do know Lululemon I do have a family that’s in great shape, including Mitch.
Ressa 42:39
Well, listen, David, really appreciate you coming on. If there’s anything I can do for you. Don’t hesitate to ask. You know, I’m hoping we can can stay connected. Catch up here and there. And hopefully, you know, when all the dust settles, we’ll see each other in person. I appreciate it. Thanks. Thanks, David. Thank you for listening to retail told, if you want to share a story about a retail real estate deal that you were a part of on our show. Please reach out to us at retail retail at DLC mgmt.com. This show highlights the stories behind the deals from all perspectives. So it doesn’t matter if you’re a retailer, broker, entrepreneur, architect or an attorney. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to retail retold so you don’t miss out on next Thursday’s episode