Identifying mobility patterns and classifying consumers within a point of sale or areas of interest helps large retail fast fo measure foot traffic in and out of their stores while understanding the behavioral patterns of their consumers.
The correlation between location and footfall analytics, visits, sales, and the success of retail fast-food franchises have been studied and proven, so the development of this type of analysis has become a priority in the site selection process and expansion strategies.
Relocating existing restaurants, strengthening the digital sales channel and identifying the areas where consumers are currently concentrated in order to choose the location of new stores are some of the strategies of the chains when executing their expansion plans.
As a result of the covid-19 outbreak, several expansion projects were affected, which must now reinvent themselves and adapt to the new commercial reality, in which consumers have different lifestyles.
The new location in which Friday's invested $150,000 is located in Los Yoses, east of the capital, and has the capacity to serve 180 people, but because of health restrictions it is only half full at the moment.
Previously, Friday's served its clients in San Jose in the La Bandera traffic circle, San Pedro de Montes de Oca, but, because its property was expropriated in 2019 due to the construction of a viaduct, the company was forced to close its operations in that location.
Removing commonly used beverage dispensers, signaling establishments to ensure social distancing, and installing doors with a foot opening are some of the adaptations that restaurants will have to make to operate in the new commercial environment.
The restaurant sector has been one of the hardest hit by the covid-19 outbreak, as in most countries the authorities have prohibited these establishments from serving their customers in the table area and only allow them to sell take-out.
In Costa Rica, the Burger King restaurant chain announced that it plans to open three locations in San Jose, Heredia and Alajuela in the coming months.
According to information from the company, the restaurants that will begin operating in the next two months will be located at Universidad Latina de San Pedro, Santo Domingo de Heredia and City Mall, Alajuela.
Pizza Hut, KFC and Subway are some of the fast food chains that plan to invest in opening new restaurants during 2020.
The Pizza Hut chain plans to invest close to $1.8 million in the opening of six new stores this year. The points of sale could be located in the areas of Aserrí, Paraíso de Cartago and San Ramón de Alajuela.
In Costa Rica, the Pizza Hut chain expects to invest about $1.6 million in the next few months in the opening of six new sales points outside the Greater Metropolitan Area.
Representatives of the company informed that the new premises will be located in Nicoya, Orotina, Quepos, San Rafael de Alajuela, Turrialba and San Ramón. In the case of the sales point in Nicoya, it was inaugurated last September 17.
During the rest of the year, the Papa John's pizza restaurant chain plans to open seven new points in the Greater Metropolitan Area.
The company said in a statement that the first of the seven locations that are planned to open, is located in Barva de Heredia and began operating last August 24.
KFC chain will invest $3 million to open three new restaurants and $1 million to remodel other locations already operating in the country.
The company reported that the new restaurants, which will begin operations in 2019, will be located in Escazú, Limón and Heredia, and those that will be remodeled are located in downtown San José, Alajuela and in Multicentro de Desamparados.
In Costa Rica, fast food restaurant chains plan to open at least 14 new sales points in different areas of the country next year.
Some of the companies planning to expand their restaurant chain in 2019 include: Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Subway, KFC and QSR International, and their key commitment to further expansion will be to move into smaller locations.
The KFC franchise has announced that it will invest $5 million this year in the opening of two new restaurants, three local self service branches and the remodeling of four existing ones.
The company plans to fully remodel the branches on Avenida 3 Calle 1 in San Jose as well as the Former Embassy, and the branches in the Ruins of Cartago, Tibás and Jacó.In addition, its representatives announced that they will be building two new branches, one in the Greater Metropolitan Area and one outside it.
The owner in the region of Juan Valdez coffee shops has acquired the Burger King franchise in the country and is preparing for the opening of eleven outlets in the remainder of the year.
After having announced in October of 2015 the close of the 29 restaurants that operated in the country, due to a decision by the shareholder and franchise holder BKC EE.UU., the brand is returning to the country in the hands of the business group JV Centroamérica. The new owner has already opened one restaurant and is preparing to open two more in the next two weeks and eight during the second half of the year.
Thirteen fast food franchises will be opening 40 new stores this year, after 2015 saw the arrival of some new players and the departure of others.
A survey carried out by Nacion.com on the franchising industry revealed that about 40 new stores will generate 360 jobs this year, compared to the 654 redundancies recorded in fast food restaurants segment in 2015.
In the same month that two fast food franchises closed operations, another chain has announced that over the next 18 months it will be investing $4 million in opening three new stores.
At the moment the fast food chain Johnny Rockets operates in three locations, in which it has invested about $2 million. It is expected that in the coming months there will be three new facilities to be located in City Mall in Alajuela, Escazú Village and Terrazas de Lindora, with an investment of 4 million.
Between 2010 until October 2013 at least 500 restaurants were built in the country.
The data was supplied by the Association of Engineers and Architects (CFIA). The increase occurred in all areas and all categories, which include restaurants and bars, plus six other categories, as defined by the Treasury Department.
Elfinancierocr.com reports that "if you encompass the eight in a single block, the data shows that the amount of legal persons who declared income grew by 11.6% between 2009 and 2012". Meanwhile, sales tax was up 16.5%.