A different ROI model for menu boards

July 16, 2007 by Dave Haynes

I have been working on a few things involving fast food lately, so the Return On Investment thing is in my head.

I saw this brief on Digital Signage Today and found the ROI spin intriguing:

Salad Spinners is a quick-service food establishment that operates four locations in the Chicago area.

“Since we have installed digital menu boards from IDS Menus, our food cost has decreased by 3 percent,” said Rich Levy, chief executive of Salad Spinners. “The decrease is due to the digital menu boards’ capability of providing Salad Spinners many different avenues to market our more profitable items and de-emphasize the less profitable ones.”

IDS Menus has installed its digital menu board systems in two Salad Spinners locations. Six LCD screens with synchronized programmable content provide lively, animated illustrations of how to prepare your salad.

I almost always think in terms of digital boards driving incremental sales on promoted items, but I gather from this that they are able to cut back on food supply and prep work on lower margin stuff by using the screens to hump the higher margin goodies.