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How To Find A Good Restaurant
Site
by
Steven D. Zimmerman,
Restaurant Realty Company
May
1999
Individual restaurants have
different site criteria. A fast food
restaurant, (such as KFC, McDonald’s
or Burger King), a family coffee
shop (such as Denny’s, IHOP, or
Baker’s Square) and coffee house
(such as Starbuck’s or Peet’s) have
similar site criteria. They are all
looking for high visibility, easy
access, high vehicular counts and/or
heavy foot traffic. Other types of
restaurants such as a dinner houses
or other upgraded operations are
looking for a strong stable
demographic base of customers which
may include a combination of a
strong neighborhood population, a
dense business district, a heavy
concentration of office buildings
and/or a neighborhood or regional
shopping center.
Many independent restaurant
operators are competing against
major chain operators for the best
sites. Chain operators can normally
beat out independents in acquiring
these sites, as they can afford to
pay higher rents because they
generate higher sales volumes as a
result of their large advertising
and marketing budgets and their high
physical presence in the
marketplace.
Here are some of the ways
independent operators can obtain
good restaurant sites:
a)
Look for a situation where an
inexperienced operator has a good
site and is not doing well and will
most likely being going out of
business in the near future.
b)
Look at particular locations where
local communities do not want chain
operators and want only local
independent operators in areas.
c)
Talk to restaurant vendors and
suppliers who know which restaurant
operators are late pays and are
having financial problems.
d)
Check out restaurant sites where
former operators are out of business
and it appears that the equipment is
still in tact.
e)
Read the local newspaper restaurants
for sale or business opportunity
section and call various restaurants
for sale. In more cases than not
most restaurants for sale are in
trouble financially and good deals
can be made.
f)
Call a restaurant broker specialist
and there will more than likely to
be a broker that will be happy to
follow-up anonymously on your behalf
on situations where it appears that
the current operator is having
trouble financially or there is a
business that is closed, etc.
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