This CNN news video introduced a restaurant app that helps consumers better watch their diets. Based on a person’s specific diet needs, this app makes personalized meal recommendations from a restaurant’s digital menu. This web-based app is newly developed by two Georgia Tech professors and has not yet been widely adopted by the restaurant industry. However, I feel this app works really well with the E-menu concept we discussed back in January 2010. As consumers, how would you like to download this app when it becomes available to mobile devices later? As a restaurant manager, how feasible do you think of this app?
As a consumer and an avid restaurant goer, I would probably be the first person out my circle of friends and family who would download this application to my phone or on the internet. As Americans begin to become more health conscious, restaurants and food managers have to be on top of the newest and most innovative ways to offer healthy selections to their menus. At restaurants, people do not have the comfort of knowing what ingredients and cooking methods are used in the completion of the plate and therefore you cannot control what you eat. As stated in the video, from July 2009-2010 there were 59 billion restaurant visits with a predicted increase of 8%. This will cause restaurants to have to adapt to a new way of providing healthy choices to their consumers. The decision to add the application which provides a personalized menu for meal recommendations based on a person's own health, allows restaurants to offer menu items that meet people's health needs. The example in the video was from the Tin Drum located in Atlanta, Georgia. The application allows consumers to decide what menu item they will be eating before even stepping foot into the restaurant. Being that I am very into the health craze, I would love to have this application readily available at my fingertips. I would love to be able to compare the nutritional facts between different menu items so I can choose the healthier option. I believe more restaurants should offer this digital menu since it will attract new customers, make more "regular" customers, and provide menu options for those with disabilities such as diabetes. And as a restaurant manager, meeting consumer's specific health needs will help in their ability to satisfy all types of consumers. Especially in our generation, to be on the same page with consumer's one must be on the same page as the new technologies that are readily available. With gadgets like the iPhone that offers a limitless number of applications for business and/or pleasure, it is expected that an application for restaurant healthiness would be invented. We are in fact one of the most technologically advanced societies, therefore; why not use it to our advantage?
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