When the first Olive Garden It was inaugurated in 1982 in Orlando, Florida, was a disaster. Long lines formed to enter. The cooks could not make sufficient sauce to meet the demand.
The bells played constantly, alerting the kitchen team that there was a table waiting for their meal for more than 10 minutes.
Blaine Sweatt, co -founder and general manager of Olive Garden, immediately realized that she needed quickly and economically to satisfy the crowd of hungry customers while waiting for her main dishes.
Contact an infinite supply of bread sticks, soups and salads.
“This made customers very happy, but also helped the kitchen to update, as the waiters could get the dishes themselves,” said Jaime Bunker, senior vice president of marketing at Olive Garden.
The special – although slightly modified to choose from soup or salad – has been added to the menus and included for free to customers who pedisled a main course. Four decades later, the “Infinite” option remains a trademark of Olive Garden menu.
Bread, soup and salad sticks are still coveted by customers concerned with money amid the economic uncertainty that affects the casual restaurants sector.
The offer includes fresh bread sticks at ease, as well as a soup option (gnocchi chicken, pasta with phagioli, mystrone and zuppa toscana) or salad.
“It is a tradition of the brand that still incorporates the spirit we have of Italian generosity, family, hospitality, to be at someone’s house, where they just want you to have fun and be well fed,” Bunker told the CNN.
The special has become a “central element” for the identity of Olive Garden, said Maeve Webster, president of the Matters Menu Consulting company, noting that there was “a lot of pressure from some investment groups that wanted to get rid of it because of profitability and cost.”
About a decade ago, an important investor of Olive Garden controlling company was so fed up with weak sales from the network that it launched a slideshow of almost 300 pages criticizing their bread and sauce sticks, suggesting changes such as administrative reformulation.
Some things in the menu have changed as a result, but infinite bread sticks remained.
“It is necessary to give credit to Olive Garden and those who manage it because they are faithful to the brand identity and for remaining faithful to it, even if it costs a little more,” Webster told CNN.
Expanding the ‘infinity’
The infinite Olive Garden options offer value to both customers and the company, said Webster.
“It’s a value, from a price point of view, where you get a huge amount for the money you are spending,” she said, adding that there is a benefit to Olive Garden to send a message to consumers that “this network is really trying to take care of them.”
Bread and soup sticks are easy to serve and both are economic foods with high profit margins, which means they do not harm the network profits. Salads have a “slightly louder” cost because “products are a little more expensive and you need to prepare the salad,” she said.
However, Bunker said the price of three items is “incorporated” into menu costs. Darden Restaurants, a network controlling company, is cautious about price increases. She increased Olive Garden prices in just about 2% last year, a lower inflation value.
The special was expanded to a lunch option in 1991 and three years later for a dinner option. In addition, the popularity of these “endless” options led Olive Garden to expand the concept to other parts of its menu.
In 1995, Olive Garden launched an unlimited mass offer that takes place annually, except for a brief break during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The “Never Ending Folder Bowl” promotion takes place at the time back to school, in the fall, when “people have a lot of expenses” and “consumers want to save,” Bunker added.
FOCUS NO VALUE
Value options for customers, especially the return of the promotion “Buy a meal and take another home after a five -year gap, helped increase Olive Garden sales by 6.9% in the latest quarter.
This was the best sales performance in the same stores as the chain in three years and a strong reversal of the decline of 2.9% recorded in the same quarter as last year.
Darden does not expect growth to remain so high, but provides a solid increase of 2% to 3.5% in sales in the same stores next year.
Like Chili’s, Olive Garden claims that she is seeing customers return to the network because it offers a better value compared to fast food and supermarket purchases.
“Our consumers want to go out and spend the money they have made with a lot of effort, and we think we are gaining a slice of the fast food and fast casual market,” Darden CEO Rick Cardenas said in a teleconference with analysts in June.
Olive Garden will add more lower price options in the coming months and do not plan additional price increases, executives said in the teleconference. Darden’s shares (DRI) rose almost 20% in the year.
Part of Olive Garden’s success, in Webster’s opinion, is that the network has not “let it be distracted by the incessant search for trends in which the sector is.”
Bunker said Olive Garden has no plans to change or eliminate the option of soup or salad and endless bread toothpicks – and confirmed that there is no limit to how much a customer can ask at once.
“We are very committed to offering our clients abundant, infinite and delicious, with a daily value,” she said. “It’s part of the brand’s identity.”
