Party catering in a package in other words how to have a party which is pre packed! There are now 2 major party catering trends emerging catering to home entertainment:

• Lets have fun by doing it all ourselves
• Lets have fun by doing as little as possible ourselves

In the UK party catering business they are catching on quick. Let's say ... today it’s the day for easy going ...

First lets have some drinks ... cocktails please!
www.cocktailbox.co.uk is a great food party catering service which will deliver to your home, individually prepared portions / pouringsi of cocktails! Margarita’s, Manhattens or Mojito's, take your pick and let Cocktailbox make them and deliver them neatly wrapped to your party…


Now let’s have dinner ...
Go to www.destinationdinners.com and order the dinnerparty set you need . Its all there just follow the instructions . NO shopping for all the ingredients just follow the pack’s steps and presto here’s the meal. 

Dessert ... no worries…
Just order the prepacked and freshly made dessert to your home. Plonk it on the table and have a great meal.

Why the 60.00$ kitchen when you can do it with a 400$ laptop?

It doesn't need to be new! Josephines in Antwerp, Belgium is a great Belgium restaurant, bar and jazz club where everything is recycled. Furniture, lamps and décor straight out the fifties of the last century .
All picked up at sales and markets from all over Belgium, reconditioned and used to create a great and warm, yet elegant atmosphere. Nice food and great music complement a true experience that must have cost relatively little in comparison to the clubs and restaurants that sprung up all over Europe and the US. Inventiveness and a consistent eye for detail coupled to great meal make this recycled belgium restaurant a must when next in Belgium!


Visit: http://www.josephines.be

This is the Experience economy as Pine & Gilmore meant it! It's a great retail store supermarket that encompasses all one could wish for :

1. Top assortment
2. Great  routing
3. Fantastic staff (some 121 FTE) no temps
4. Super mix between smelling, looking , tasting and feeling 
5. Superb restaurants IN BETWEEN the shopping isles:
6. Grill restaurant
7. Sushi counter
8. Coffee and cake  
9. Wine and cheese

Wide isles and spic & span environment with unobtrusive isle fillers, no where “out of stock”!
If you are passionate about retail stores and innovative retail store concepts then travel to Europe and go and see this great innovative retail store supermarket in Germany:

Edeka Frische Center Zurheide
Zurheide, Dusseldorf –Germany
http://www.frischecenter-zurheide.de

Dare I say franchising is the panacea for all retail woes? Too often Franchising is used to expand rapidly a new concept in order to achieve economies of scale that are required in todays competitive retail world!
Too often too the Franchising route is used to finance international development plans in times that a bank finance is relatively difficult to come by!  

Franchising as a means to an end

Use franchising for your retail expansion and / or international development ...

My own experience has been that Franchising is a  great  model to use in the launching of a concept if one sticks to a number of rules :

1. Build a solid and profitable retailing model first
2. Select Franchising only after you have developed and matured your model
3. Use Franchising only if you have the financial ability to ensure compliance of your Franchisees.
4. Make sure that your selection of Franchisees is well founded and reflects the core values of your concept/company .DO NOT COMPROMISE YOUR SELECTION CRITERIA...
5. Accept that you can and will make mistakes in the selection of your Franchising partners.
6. Prepare to eradicate any mistakes as soon as they are visible.

Only if you are willing and able to follow these rules will Franchising as a model for growth be worth while .
Be prepared that Franchisees (and especially in Europe) are no Entrepreneurs but at best entrepreneurial in desire. Notwithstanding what they say when you lead them through the selection process.
My experience has been ,that the first carefully selected and nurtured bunch of Franchising partners was and still is succesful and above all dedicated!

Act Decisively
After number 10, it became much more unyielding and the newer group started to form cliques…..as soon as the first problems arose. This was / is the moment to act….and act decisively!  Don’t hesitate and above all don’t compromise.

Any system is a strong / good as its weakest link. If you are the weakest link the chain will collapse before it is even expanded!

Visit our Retail Consulting Website for expert advice!