IHOP Express goes self-service in San Diego - USATODAY.com
IHOP, the chain known for coffee-pouring waitresses and high stacks of pancakes, on Thursday will open an IHOP Express in a tourist-heavy San Diego location where you buy your meal at the counter and pour your own refills, and the waitresses are replaced by runners.
The location — its first express unit that’s not on a college campus or military base — will have free Wi-Fi, offer a menu with some quicker and healthier foods and, in most cases, have you out the door in about half the time of a conventional IHOP.
This is not your grandfather’s world of family dining. The move comes at a time the struggling family dining industry, whose $34 billion in sales have been basically flat since 2005, is looking to catch up with the 21st century. Rival Denny’s is also testing express formats, but has so far limited them to college campuses.
The question is: What good will any of these do?
“The whole family dining sector is caught in the middle and not doing very well,” says Ron Paul, president of the research firm Technomic. Many consumers, instead, are gravitating to fast-casual restaurants such as Panera Bread and Chipotle, he says, which typically serve food more quickly and where consumers aren’t expected to leave tips. This, he says, is family dining’s attempt to mimic fast-casual.