I work at Flock in the mall with frontage on Yonge and this is entirely true about the brand names. I trained at the one on Richmond where they avg $7000 during a weekday. Whereas at Sheppard, we avg 1200, maybe, 1500 on a week day. Now obviously Yonge/Sheppard doesn't have the same density as Bay and Richmond but I can't help but feel that the discrepancy is very troubling. Should I be looking for a new way to myself through university?
Many shops around here - especially at EmeraldPark - would kill to average $1200 revenue per day! It's also a perspective of overhead like headcount & rent.
Flock does well downtown - in financial core there's a captive customer base of office workers looking for lunch. As Flock expands downtown, downtown workers & residents are already familiar with it.
YongeSheppardCentre Flock is really their first satellite shop outside downtown - here it's a different ball game:
- In the last 20 years since amalgamation, here in the North York Centre Secondary Plan area (Yonge corridor between Beecroft & Doris from 401 to Drewry/Cummer) there's been 60+ condo towers built VS 1 office tower - it's now a Vertical Sleeping Community!
- ratio of office worker to restaurant is a lot lower here since there's fewer office workers & likely a higher density of restaurants with greater variety???
For a restaurant to survive here, they have to win over the residential crowd. The restaurants that does well here are the true ethnic restaurants and unique restaurants with cult following (like Blaze?). Why? The ethnic demographic here is very diverse with 25% Chinese, 15% Persian, 12% Korean in Ward 18 Willowdale. It's not just diversity but also the "fresh"-ness of it,... this area is also known as the new Spadina - the first landing area-settlement for many new immigrants. Why is all this important? Because the best dish Flock offers like white chicken meat with a bowl of fresh greens/salad would be viewed by some as an inferior product! Chinese folks who were raised oversea value the fattier tastier dark chicken meat over white chicken meat,... and they would never eat raw vegetables - it must be cooked or steamed.
When you look out your Yonge Street window, look at who's driving the fancy cars & who's wearing the expensive clothing - they have disposable income. How can you're store cater to their needs & wants?
Many folks were excited about Flock coming here, but now they have to support it,... with their wallet.
A midtown Flock at Yonge&Eglinton area would probably do better since the local residential demographic is,... less diverse.
Service gigs are a dime a dozen these days - your next gig will pay attention to how long you lasted at Flock & why you left,... As a university student, a less-busier Flock would probably be better for you as it's less demanding & less stressful.
Since Flock is the only Yonge frontage restaurant with direct connection to mall, I'm wondering if Flock business will pick up over the Winter - while other Yonge frontage shops like Blaze, FiveGuys, IQ Foods, BasilBox & Sweet Jesus drops off.
