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Tried and tested strategy
In terms of Fry the Coop’ s menu, when Joe first started, he modeled it on In-N- Out Burger’ s approach: very simple and very focused.“ The chicken sandwich was always the hero of the story,” he shares,“ and alongside that we just had fries and drinks. That was basically it.
“ In time, we started adding things cautiously and intentionally. For example, we introduced chicken nuggets a few years later because we realized families wanted to bring their kids in, but a giant chicken sandwich wasn’ t exactly practical for them. My own kids were kind of the test subjects for that idea.” Indeed, over the years, the brand has experimented with a lot of different menu items, but Joe has learned that something only works if every part of the business supports it.“ Customers have to love it, it has to sell at a profitable price, sourcing has to be reliable, logistics have to work, and even the finance side matters,” he explains.
“ So, we’ ve tried things that didn’ t work, and when they didn’ t, we took them off the menu and moved on. I think that’ s a huge part of building a business; you test ideas, fail, learn from them, and keep pivoting until you find what works. The biggest thing is listening to your customers.”
When evaluating sites for development, one of the biggest things Joe looks at is traffic count; ideally, locations with 30,000 cars a day or more.“ A lot of restaurants love small downtown districts in suburban towns, and for some concepts that works well. But for us,” he elaborates,“ I’ d rather be on a busy road that people naturally pass every day than tucked away in a trendy downtown area. I think convenience wins over the long term. A restaurant might be popular enough early on that people will go out of their way to visit,
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