Market Analysis Neighborhood Visit : Cayla Carson
Today Team Chavelas visited the Washington neighborhood to get a good sense of the restaurant competition in the area surrounding Chavelas. We first stopped in Chavelas to talk with Jose about how the business was going since we last saw him two weeks ago. We were surprised and delighted to see that Jose had made some changes to make the place seem more alive. The two televisions were finally on and playing Mexican music, there were tablecloths, and a bit more decoration on the tables and throughout. It was a great update from the quiet, empty restaurant we sat down in only two weeks ago. There were two people eating in the restaurant when we walked in and the waitress said Jose was busy, so we decided to walk around first and come back at the end. Although we did some research online about some of the other Mexican restaurants in the area before coming, we decided it might be easier if we discovered some of the places on foot.
Our team split up and half went one way and half went the other. My group did not find much luck at first because we attempted to find a restaurant that no longer existed. We ended up doing a loop around and found a really fantastic burger place with a ton of outdoor seating called the Burger Bar. You could order various burgers, different kinds of fries, chicken and a small amount of Mexican food, and some cute sweets like root beer floats and apple turnovers at the counter and then go pick it up when they called your number. It seemed like this was a pretty popular restaurant, only about a block away from Chavelas. Then as we were walking back towards Chavelas on First street, there were two other Mexican restaurants, Puro Michoacan, and Trines Café No.3. Both looked well established and had nice looking bars and sit down sections. On Yelp, some of the perks of Puro Michoacan Restaurant is that it accepts credit cards, has a parking lot area, and its specialty item that everyone goes there for is the morisquetas. Trine’s restaurant, the closest one to Chavelas, sells a Mexican soup called the cocido, which is very popular.
When our group reconvened at Chavelas to talk with Jose, we asked him a few questions about how business was and whom he thinks his main competitors might be. He was not too sure, but mentioned La Ceiba. He also told us that he mostly gets customers during lunch hours and that it still has not been very busy. Jose also showed us that he added some menu items like a breakfast burrito, and he has not figured out which items are selling a lot more over the others yet. We were also able to pick up the surveys that we dropped off with him on Wednesday and got quite a few responses that we will compile and examine for our market analysis on Tuesday.
Our group talked about how since there are so many other restaurants in the area, Jose needs to find a niche and specialize in a certain dish. It was great to walk around today because in order to help Jose we need to be more familiar with the area and know what other options his target customer has for dining. It will also be important to take a look at the surveys and see how his current customers discovered Chavelas and what they think about it. All of these things will help us formulate a plan for different promotions or updates Jose can make to better the business.