Olive Garden makeover coming soon! A report posted today at MSN says Olive Garden parent company, Darden, plans to give the once booming restaurant a makeover in an attempt to boost sales. Olive Garden restaurants were popular in the early 2000's, but the company has slowly lost customers to popular, fresh-faced eateries like Panera and Chipotle.
Darden says part of the plan to revamp Olive Garden locations will include new employee uniforms, and healthier menu options. Also,those "stone-and-wood archways that have been in place since 2000," will be torn down. In fact, reports say the new Olive Garden makeover will remove the Tuscan decorations completely.
Olive Garden's new President, Dave George, took over in January, and since then the company claims they will be offering more variation on menu offerings, including lower prices and healthier choices. Additionally, Darden says the restaurant will be more "relevant." However, the restaurant chain has tried all of this before. In October the Olive Garden introduced a new "600 calorie" menu, and changed their slogan from "When You're Here, Your Family" to, "Go Olive Garden." Those changes still resulted in a 1.2% drop in sales for 2012.
Will a new look, changes to waitstaff uniforms, and lower pricing be enough to bring customers back? What are your thoughts on the Olive Garden makeover?
Comments