Customer Interviews No. 3

First off, please excuse the fact that I do not have my interview videos posted.  I have no clue what happened to them, but when I went to upload them to YouTube, all of them were just gone.  It may be due to the fact that my phone is just flat out stupid.  So instead I will use excellent descriptive language to show you how the interviews went down.  Here we go...

First off, I will go over my interviewing strategy.  As for the questions that I asked, I pretty much slightly modified the questions I asked before.  The main one being "Would you be willing to pay slightly more for food made with 100% locally grown ingredients, making the meal healthy and nutritious?" My target demographic is young adults (so basically college students).

Before each interview, I had each interviewee read an index card with a summary of what my company would be doing.  After they read the card, I recorded their reaction and comments.  Four of the five loved the idea, the other one had sort of an "ehh" attitude; he stated that he doesn't really care how fresh the ingredients were in his food, and he also said that he would prefer to pay less than five dollars for a burger over spending more on "healthier" food.  Just as there was someone who didn't really go for the idea, there was another person who seemed super excited for the idea (it was a little overwhelming actually).  She said she has actually been wanting a restaurant like this and that she would be more than willing to spend more on a healthy meal.  She also proceeded to say that I have her full support and unlimited access to her broke college-kid bank account (it's the thought that counts).

From these interviews, I learned a little bit more than my passed interviews.  The one guy who wasn't all for spending more for healthy food opened my eyes to the fact that not all college students would be willing to spend more money on food just because it is fresher and healthier.  Of course I was aware that not everyone would be a fan, but hearing this helped spark ideas in my head that could tend to the needs of people who don't want to spend more.

Again, sorry for losing the interview videos.  I'll try to be better next time. 

Idea Napkin No. 1

1.  Who am I?  I am Dakotah Diaz.  My talents include being tall, making friends, and hacky sack.  My skills include running track, the ability to write an essay last minute, and the diligence to follow through on any task I set my mind to.  I have several aspirations, the biggest ones being to run the 800 and 400 meter race in the Olympics.  My other big aspiration is to start my own business, either the one I have been doing for these past assignments or an athletic training business.  If I were to start my own business, of course it is going to play a major role in my daily life.  I am going to need to make sure that everything is running smoothly, and that both my customers and employees are satisfied.

2.  Since I have been using Comfort Food Inc. as my business idea for the past assignments, I will use it again for this assignment as well.  Comfort Food Inc. serves food made only with locally grown produce, dairy, and meat.  The fast food industry has been slowly but surely declining in recent years, mainly due to the fact that many people (especially young adults) are becoming more conscious of what they are putting into their bodies.  Locally grown food is fresher, and in turn healthier, and not to mention tastier too.  This is especially true with produce, which begin to lose their nutrients after the first 24 hours of being harvested. The overall goal of Comfort Food Inc.  is to bring the food from the farm to the plate as quickly as possible to ensure that we provide the healthiest and tastiest food to our customers.

3.  Even though healthy food can be targeted towards any demographic, I would try to aim more towards college students, simply because, as I stated before, it is young adults who are leading the recent "eating healthy" trend.

4. People desire to eat at a place where they can feel calm and comfortable knowing that what they are eating is giving them good nutrients and helping them lead the healthy lifestyle that they want.  People buy fast food because it is convenient, and for college kids, convenience is everything.  They don't have time to prepare a healthy home-cooked meal.  But Comfort Food Inc. asks "why not have both?" 

5.  The main aspect that sets Comfort Food Inc. apart from other fast food chains is the supply chain.  We will get all of our ingredients from either local farms, or even have them grown on sight in compact greenhouses.  I know the idea of a greenhouse on sight sounds ridiculous, but it is actually completely feasible.  This restaurant would provide the freshest and healthiest ingredients out of any other fast food chain, since other fast food chains receive their ingredients from giant farms located several hundred miles away from their location.  The ingredients that most fast food chains use are on average, about two to three weeks old.  By that time, the produce has lost practically all of its nutrients and flavor, and being kept in a freezer the entire time doesn't help at all. 

Buying strictly from local farms and growing on sight can end up being very difficult.  Sometimes, there are shortages in a certain food, and the different seasons will result in different produce.  However, it does not make the goal of this business impossible.  First off, the mild changes in weather in Florida throughout the seasons allow for most of the same produce to be grown year-round, like guava and mushrooms.  Also, we could simply have seasonal menu items.  This could be beneficial because a changing menu provides customers with plenty of new dishes to try throughout the year.