Scientific-practical approaches to justification of location of quick service restaurants

Abstract

Research on specifics of selecting locations for QSR and assessing their potential is becoming increasingly vital in the conditions of high uncertainty and risks associated with the restaurant business. Therefore, the investigation of theoretical and applied fundamentals for justifying factors influencing the choice of QSR location is becoming more urgent. The aim of this investigation is to consider the development of recommendations on the ways of applying the above mentioned fundamen- tals .Decisions on deployment of the operating system of service facilities including restaurants are strategic in nature. The key factors affecting location of projected QSR can be divided into general and specific, which consider the requirements for the territorial location of the facility in the city/area and the development site. Among them are: proximity to residential areas and other objects necessary for potential employees and consumers; availability, capacity and significance of transport routes, vehicle speed; volume of transportation of potential consumers, convenient access roads; composition and territorial dispersion of a cluster of product form and territorial com- petitors; availability of a high-professional competitive supply network; availability and proximity to traffic generators (magnets); size, configuration, relief and other technical features; its visibility; zonal restrictions (norms for development of the territory, consistency with neighbouring objects, possibility of organizing a parking lot); appropriate format of quick-service; possibility of reconstructing leased premises. Important variables in the decision to choose a QSR location include analysis of: 1) the routes of potential customers, their initial and final destination before/after visiting a QSR with «HOUSE», «WORK», «SHOPPING (ENTERTAINMENT) « AND OTHERS» being most decisive; 2) the size of the QSR’s commercial area defined as the distance customers are mentally prepared to cover for visiting a restaurant; 3) focal distance providing division of the commercial area into sectors of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 minutes of accessibility and showing contribution of the inhabitants of each sector to the overall structure of the QSR sales; 4) existing and potential generators of QSR customer flows, requirements for their mutual location. When choosing a QSR location it is necessary to provide a realistic assessment of the market opportunities and threats to the QSR’s further development; take into account sector speci- ficity in determining the intensity of competition and market capacity; analyze flows of customers; substantiate the focal distance and the size of the QSR’s commercial area; consider generators of QSR customer flows and specifics of their mutual placement.