(My lunch, Blue Oyster Mushroom Sandwich and loose leaf Oolong tea cost $10.27 today, after Saturday 1/20/2016 it will cost $10.97.)
I’ve done the analysis (see yesterday’s post). And it looks as though we had no measurable drop in transactions after the most recent price change. That means you all kept coming. Awesome. If anything it looks like we’re seeing transactions growing vs. previous years (we were up considerably year over year for the recent months). So that’s great news.
We’re going to change prices again on Saturday (1/30/2016).
Why?
In part because expenses grow one year to the next. In part because we want to pay our employees more.
Yeah, but why on earth are you talking about this?
It’s true, most in our industry make price changes as silently as possible hoping nobody notices. We’re not doing that. Most importantly because we believe we all benefit from engaging in a conversation about wages and prices. Things have to change. We have to find a way to pay more and I don’t know any other way to go about that. And we think our higher wages are going to lead to better food and a better experience for our customers.
We’re hoping you appreciate this (and a little scared some of you will be mad about the price change!). In any case, we encourage you to join the conversation. Talk to us!
What changes?
Drinks that are currently $2.10 will become $2.33 (Our organic black iced tea, our house-made sodas)
Sandwiches which are currently $6.77 will become $7.47
Platters which are currently $7.71 will become $8.18
French fries which are currently $3.50 will become $3.74
All other menu items will stay where they are.
Wage changes?
Our most recent pay period showed average hourly wage of $10.95/ hour company-wide (does not include salaried employees). This is a significant increase since we made the last price change. You might remember that we were at an average wage rate of $10.60/ hour at that time. Starting Saturday our employee wage rates will change. We will not have a single employee earning less than $11/ hour.
This time we’re making he following changes to wages:
Provisional employees are currently $10.00/ hr will paid $11.00/ hr
Team Members are currently $10.25/ hr will be paid $11.25-12.25/ hr
Team Leaders are currently $12.75/ hr will be paid $13.50-14.50/ hr
Order Takers were recently changed to $12.00/ hr, and Order Taker Leads were changed to $15.00. Those changes, which just happened, will remain the same.
Overall we’re expecting 70% of our price increase to end up in our employees bank accounts. The remainder will help us pay for increasing insurance costs, food costs, and other non-salary expenses that allow us to run Clover.
