BBQ Restaurants Trends in the US – Celebrating Labor Day!

Can you believe that it’s the last week of summer? Today, August 30th marks the beginning of Labor Day Weekend! The good news is that for most of us in the United States, we have Monday off. But the bad news is that Labor Day Weekend also signifies that last weekend of summer before we transition into fall.

Labor Day Weekend is usually celebrated with a good old American BBQ. So, in honor of Labor Day Weekend, we thoughts we’d share some Restaurant BBQ Trends and give a few new stats on BBQ restaurants in the US.

According to Easy2FIND, check out these counts on BBQ & Southern/Soul Food Restaurants:

1. There are over 15,000 BBQ/Southern restaurants in the US (15,794 to be exact!)
2. 89% of the BBQ and Southern/Soul food restaurants are independents
3. There are over 14,049 BBQ Restaurants ,  87% of which are independents
4. There are 1,500 Southern/Soul Food Restaurants
5. The top three states with the most BBQ and Southern/Soul food restaurants are:  Texas, California and Florida!

Interesting findings right? Would you have guessed that BBQ and Southern/Soul food restaurants are mostly independents? And how interesting is it that Florida has the 3rd most BBQ restaurants in the US.

If you are every looking for restaurant counts or restaurant data of any type, please reach out to us! We have more data than you’ll know what to do with! Plus we can break it down by over 40 different segment filters. We are the only database company that focuses solely on the foodservice industry. Please contact cathy@chd-expert.com or give us a call at (312) 768-6900.

CHD Expert Presents: The Clean Data Challenge – How Accurate is Your Organization’s CRM or Database?

CHD Expert is challenging organizations to test the accuracy of their current CRM or database. If you utilize data for sales, marketing, or business decisions, take the challenge and compare the accuracy of your data to CHD Expert’s Foodservice Industry National Database.

Chicago-based foodservice database and analytics company, CHD Expert, is rolling out the Clean Data Challenge: How Accurate, Complete, and Clean is your Organizations Database? The company is asking organizations to compare their current data to CHD FIND® (Foodservice Industry National Database), the industry’s highest standard for foodservice data.

Customers can count on CHD Expert’s database. With consolidated data from over 80 different sources, it is guaranteed the most accurate in the industry, and every record is supported with a money back guarantee. To prove this, CHD Expert is proposing that businesses take a stand against dirty data, and compare their current data records to CHD Expert’s FIND® Database. To help make this happen, CHD Expert is extending a free sample match opportunity until September 30th, 2013.

The Clean Data Challenge will provide participants with a gauge on the accuracy and completeness of their current database, as well as put them in contact with a CHD Expert data specialist to help determine the best ways the data can be used to benefit their business. This includes insight surrounding market penetration, and how many additional foodservice operators are available in the selected sample region.

To participate in the Clean Data Challenge, please identify and provide CHD Expert with 1,000-2,000 records for comparison. A CHD Expert data specialist will then walk participating organizations through a 4-step process, summarized below.

Step 1: Data Preparation: Select geography from current records that makes up approximately 1,000-2,000 records, and compile it in .xls or .csv format. Include a unique ID, business name, address, and phone#.

Step 2: Data Cleansing: CHD Expert will prepare the data as follows:

• Postal normalization
• Removal of dirty data and special characters
• Formatting of all fields
• Deduplicating repeated records

Step 3: Match and Append: CHD Expert will then match the clean data to CHD FIND’s master records, appending it with information from the CHD FIND database. This can include, data on market segment, market information, and/or contacts. Which businesses have closed will also be identified. It all adds up to a clear, defined picture of the current holes in the data.

Step 4: Delivery of Results: CHD Expert will provide participating organizations with the results from the Clean Data Challenge, and walk through the findings with selected participants. For further incentive, participating organizations will be provided with approximately 200 NEW additional sales and marketing leads in the same geography, which are currently NOT in the database.

“Rarely does a company have a database that is 50-60% accurate. Normally it is significantly worse,” states Brad T. Bloom, Director of Sales for CHD Expert North America. “What I find most interesting is people’s reaction when the challenge shows them how incomplete and/or inaccurate their data truly is. Some people are shocked, and some are not surprised at all. Regardless of their initial reaction, they are glad they participated in the challenge, and come away with a lot of insight. If your organization has data, put it up to the challenge. You will be surprised to see how it compares to the industry’s best.”

No business is too big or small to participate in CHD Expert’s Clean Data Challenge. If your organization is interested in participating, please register on CHD Expert’s Data Challenge Page and a CHD Expert representative will be in contact.

Restaurant Data: The Landscape for Restaurants That Have Been Open for 5+ Years

Author: Nicolas Watson

Do you ever wish you could identify all of the restaurants that have been open for more than 5 years in a particular city? Well with Easy2FIND you can!

CHD Expert has the tools in place that allow you to segment restaurant operator data in a ton of different ways.  For example, if you sell point of sale technology or software, it might be important for you to know which restaurants have been in business for a while because you know that new restaurants have most likely already purchased your product. But, you also know based on your own sales data that you have the best close rate when you reach out to businesses that have been open for more than five years.

By working with CHD Expert you can license the data and have constant access to this type of information, and segment it however it is helpful for your organization! Here are a few options of ways you can segment the data in case you are having trouble being creative. You can segment by: Menu type, GFC code, average check, annual sales, number of employees, years in business, and so many more!

To illustrate how helpful this data can be for businesses, we’ve put together an infographic showing details for restaurants that have been open for five or more years.

Restaurant Data Infographic

If you have any questions or want to learn more about CHD Expert, please feel free to give us a call at (312) 768-6900 or email us at cathy@chd-expert.com.