Soup, salad and sandwich combos have significant menu penetration:
featured on 24% of QSR menus
featured on 36% of FSR menus
By bundling soup, salad and sandwiches into combo options you are helping to:
Simplify the ordering process for your customer
Streamline the menu with pairing recommendations that will best deliver the optimal food experience
Increase sales check average and potentially profits by capitalizing on an impulse decision to add soup or side salads
Combos' Increase Sales Volume
For Example:
If a typical sandwich costs $5.00 and a salad is $5.00, these items can be menued as a combo for $9.50. Thus, the combo has a high perceived value to your customer.
The benefit is, that your customer may have intended to only buy the sandwich for $5.00, but was drawn by the value of the combo meal and therefore spent an additional $4.00 more than they would have otherwise.
Thus, additional incremental sales driven by perceived value.
Combo Pricing Rule of Thumb
A combo meal should offer a clear ‘savings’ to the end consumer of at least $0.30.
The greater the savings, or perceived value, the greater the draw to the combo offer.
If Ordered Individually: Full sandwich ($4.78) + Bowl of soup ($2.99) = $7.77
Menued as a combo at $7.47 = $0.30 Value to the customer
Profitability of Combos
It is clear that combos encourage, or increase sales volume, by offering a perceived ‘value’ or ‘deal’ to your customers, and that combos are in demand by consumers for taste and value reasons. But what about profits?
The benefit to offering a combo is that you’re likely to incent a consumer to purchase two items (in a combo) versus only ordering one item such as a salad.
The profit of two items in a combo is greater than the profit of just one menu item.
Even If you have a successful side salad or soup side option that is ordered frequently, a combo option still makes good profit sense as a daily special.