What services food hall vendors actually want
We’ve done a lot of work (and customer interviews) around this subject to improve our working experience over many years. As a long-term operator in the industry, we’ve focused on how to make the services we offer most efficient for our vendor partners. To begin, it’s important to boil down the goals of a vendor and then to work backwards. The top five goals of a food hall vendor, in order of popularity over time, have been:
Consistently hitting their high-water mark on sales volume (i.e. traffic)
Facilities that are clean and in good repair
Transparent/efficient communication about the facility
Customer awareness (“marketing”)
Parking for staff as well as convenient, understood customer parking.
Understanding (and planning for) both customers (the food purveyor and shopper) is where most food halls find success.
Consistently hitting the high water mark on sales volume can be very tough. Generally, it has to do with the intersection of natural foot traffic, an entrepreneur’s own pull, and what both parties do to build awareness. To avoid a dissertation, we’ll focus on the last item that is in direct control. Entrepreneurs with higher social media followings often naturally have a higher draw, but people may not eat that food 5x a week. Landlords that support their projects with activation and event programming tend to have high satisfaction among food tenants, because the underlying food vendors see extended value representative of visible “work” that translates into foot traffic. This means things like entertainment, event programming, or life-style programming. Food vendors may not fully understand the effort or expense that goes into these types of activations, but they are happy about the result. In general, active contributions to foot traffic generation are well received.
The second thing that is crucial is optimizing the actual workspace is cleanliness, repair, and maintenance. Food halls always have some amount of common area that has to be cleaned daily, weekly, and monthly. At a bare minimum the HVAC and loading docks are shared and this requires coordination and a schedule, but also a level of review that most developers are unused to, because there is inevitably bleed over from what is customarily tenant space, such as lighting, music, hood systems, bathrooms, and point of sale. There is a general underestimation (and later surprise) of shared services having to do with food halls. However, this is very manageable with preparation. Providing smooth access to functioning systems is the second most important thing a developer could do make its food hall vendors feel satisfied with the experience.
An effective, efficient communication system surrounding recognizing both of the afore-mentioned points is the third most important system. In reality, most developers are email heavy. Most food tenants are text heavy. Combine that with the fact that most food purveyors receive a mountain of marketing email for every software under the sun and you can see that there are inevitable breakdowns in communication. Over the years we’ve used many communication methods, but we are strongest when we use all of the systems succinctly. That means email, calendar, post-it notes at the vendor stall, and a regularly-scheduled owners meeting. For urgent/individual items, we follow up with a text message. Everyone communicates differently, but announcements are most effective when they come in all of the above formats. Topics deserving of regular and consistent communication include: maintenance updates, events/activations, facility staffing changes, relevant neighborhood news, food purveyor lineup changes.
Customer awareness can be a double-edged sword. If you get too little, shoppers will inevitably remind purveyors that they “didn’t even know [you] were here.” If the developer is able to time or tie-in a food hall opening to greater event OR the food hall is well covered editorially, the awareness can manifest in sales volumes with exceptional numbers which then result in a hangover period where the “check-it-out” crowd subsides resulting in a traffic lull that will unnerve new entrepreneurs. We find that food vendors (like most everyone) want stability. A routine or programmatic approach to event-based programming that feels like steadily-increasing traffic generates the most manageable customer awareness. The food purveyor needs to see and understand the work the operator/developer is doing to generate foot traffic. It's advisable to regularly communicate the marketing activities to maintain a strong alliance with the vendor-customer.
Parking for staff can be a touchy subject. Food hall purveyors expect that there will be planning for it due to the hardships a lack of parking can place on staffing retention which is the life blood of consistent hospitality experience. Employee parking subsidies or designated out-of-the-way spaces go a long way to improving retention, which improves customer experience.
To build a compelling experience for food hall vendors, consider focusing on these areas first and then let the outcome guide the major expenditure decisions.
Politan Group specializes in operating food halls, bars, and bars within food halls. We also provide remote accounting, HR, and administration for food halls. Finally, we sell software that organizes much of the routine processes. If you are thinking of building a food hall or need help with an aspect of a food hall you already own, reach out to us. Politan is the most-awarded food hall operator in the industry.