it wasn't so long ago that I hopped
dominated the breakfast landscape but
now many of them are closing so what
happened to the pancake king here are
all the obstacles facing what used to be
one of America's most popular diners
many of IHOP's woes are common in the
casual dining sector fast casual spots
like Shake Shack and Chipotle have been
the darlings of the restaurant industry
lately and they're the only sector in
the biz that's seen an increase in foot
traffic over the last five years these
days when people sit down to place an
order they tend to want to eat local
between 2017 and 2020 independent
restaurants and small chains are
expected to grow at a rate of 4 to 5
percent double the rate of major chains
that leaves casual dining chains and
fast food joints battling for a
shrinking customer base I have new
Aswath are so full of great stuff
introducing waffleicious waffles only
and I have nobody else but I hop would
think of something like this basically
what's trendy is changing and it no
longer includes IAP when it comes to
dieting carbs are often considered the
enemy I hop as new cheesecake stuffed
french toast made with creamy cheesecake
topped with apples and Toffees people on
the keto diet or the whole xxx diet
won't be eating at a restaurant known
for pancakes and waffles and neither
will vegans or vegetarians while it's
possible to eat vegan at IHOP you'll
mostly be stuck with simple sides like
fruit cups and hashbrowns without the
cheese and sour cream of course these
struggles aren't unique to IHOP most
chains aren't particularly friendly to
strict diets but most chains aren't
known for giving out free pancakes on
your birthday either compared to health
centric restaurants like sweet green
it's gonna be super tough for I have to
compete for the dieters dollar the
announcement everybody has been waiting
for the International House of Pancakes
changing his name in June 2018
I have kicked off an elaborate publicity
stunt by declaring that they were
changing their name to IHOP why am I on
this roof because I hop is gone
pancake pancake to burger and burgers
the stunt was an attempt to address the
fact that many IHOP customers didn't
realize the chain serves lunch and
dinner
well it certainly succeeded in getting
people's attention when I say I hob it
makes me do that and then it makes me
put that the button and then I'm like I
don't like that fast food chains like
Wendy's wasted no time mocking the chain
in several choice tweets including
remember when you were like seven and
thought changing your name to Thunder
Bay or sword would be super cool Burger
King got in on the ridicule too
Burger King switched its Twitter name to
pancake King as a way of poking fun
ultimately it's hard to say whether IHOP
stunt did anything other than annoyed
people they claimed they sold four times
as many burgers following the stunt but
location data tracking didn't point to
an increase in visits in fact it found a
slight drop among women
there were even conspiracy theories that
suggested iHub was a fail to rebrand
[Music]
being able to order online to grab your
food and go has been a key driver of
growth for restaurants in recent years
just look at how well Starbucks did with
its app something that other chains like
Dunkin Donuts quickly imitated sit-down
restaurants live and die on quick table
turnover and are increasingly a curbside
takeout business so you'd think the
appeal would be obvious for IHOP
especially with its presence at highway
exits yet IHOP only rolled out online
ordering in late 2017 making it the last
to arrive at a party that competitors
like chilies and TGI Fridays were
already ruling oddly eye hops sister
brand Applebee's rolled out their new
app nearly a year before although they
aren't the only chain that's behind the
curve here I hop started the race way
behind competitors and it's not clear if
they'll be able to catch up Amazon is
often accused of economic murder but
what it's doing to IHOP is entirely by
accident online shopping is growing far
faster than traditional retail we're
growing so fast that we need talent
people to come in and make an impact on
day one more and more people are
ordering online and staying away from
the mall even on shopping holidays like
Black Friday it's great that there are
fewer brawls over cheap TVs but it's
ultimately bad for restaurants foot
traffic is the lifeblood of all
brick-and-mortar retail but that's
particularly the case for restaurants in
and around malls food is one of the most
common impulse purchases so if customers
aren't in front of the pancakes they're
not going to start buying them
unfortunately the only way to solve
lower foot traffic is to start hiking up
prices a strategy that may work in the
short term
but you can only expect people to pay so
much for pancakes perhaps a few more
shameless movie tie-ins are in order
[Applause]