Glossary of Terms

Follow numbers 1-19 that correlate with group selections on the criteria selection page. Special note on choosing criteria: The all box must be un-checked in each category in order to select specific fields.

1) Company Type

Here you can choose what type of company. Please note that a company could be a main franchisor, a franchisee, a unique brand and a public company all in one.

A) Main Franchisor is a company who is franchising their restaurant concept.

B) Unique Brand is a company that operates under their own flag or brand, with same name and operation types throughout. For example-Outback, Friday’s.

C) Multi-Concept are companies who operate more than one restaurant type. Locations may be similar or different concepts. As long as they are owned by the same parent company, they are in this category.

D) Franchisee. is a restaurant company that is a franchisee of franchisor concepts. They may also be multi-concept companies if they operate more than one concept. For example- XYZ Corp may own, (10) Taco Bell's & (8) Pizza Hut's.

(E) Public Company. A company that is publicly traded on the stock exchange.

2) Size of Business

There are many ways to look up by size using this criteria selection. You must fill out a “from and to” for the selection you want. Please keep in mind on seats, sq, feet, check average and AUV, they are an average per location. Obviously some companies have multiple concepts with a variety of sizes and types. We have taken this into account to create an appropriate average.

A) Seats. The average number of seats per location.

B) Sq Feet. The average number of square feet per location.

C) # Of Units. The number of company units, including out of U.S. locations.

D) Average Unit Volume (AUV). This is the average sales per location in one year. If the company is public their information is gathered on-line from the company’s financial disclosures. If they are private companies (most are) we use an algorithm considering the size, style, type, additional services offered and region of operating units.

E) Annual Sales. This is the system-wide sales of the company record We get to this number by multiplying the number of units worldwide by their AUV.

3) Location Geography

This is where you pick and choose states of the U.S. and Provinces of Canada. Please note that counties will only work for Headquarters States.

A) Headquarters States. Pick the states where the company headquarters is located.

B) Counties. Choose the counties within a headquarters state.

C) Trading Areas. Pick the states where companies have operating units. Counties search is not available with this field selection.

4) Alcohol. Choose locations that are limited to specific sale of alcohol types. Please note that sometimes not all locations serve the alcohol field selections listed. This is often a result of a multi-concept company.

5) Service Type. This field selection is for the style of service offered. Please note that we have many delineations of quick service. You have to pick them all if you want all quick service records to be returned in your look-up.

A) Buffet. Service is mainly buffet style throughout the entire day.

B) Family Style. Service is casual. This is the largest segment. For example- Red Lobster, Outback, Olive Garden, Applebee’s.

C) Upscale Dining. Service is semi-formal to formal. Picture restaurants with white tablecloths and dinners for $25 and up per person. For example- an upscale steakhouse like "The Palm".

D) Fast Casual. Restaurants that combine family/casual with a quick service method. (i.e.) Atlanta Bread Company, Chipotle Mexican Grill.

E) Mostly Take-out. Service is quick and there is a small area/room for patrons to self-serve, sit and eat.

F) Quick Service. Service is quick and fast. Typically customers will stand across a counter in front of a register and order by waiting in line or using a drive-through. For example- Burger King, McDonald’s, Taco Bell.

G) Take-out only. Service is quick. There are no tables and chairs for customers.

H) Take-out/Delivery Service is quick and no tables and chairs for customers. In addition, the restaurant has and promotes delivery as a large part of sales.

6) Per Person Check Average. This field selection is for the average cost of one person eating one meal, in one meal part. Please note that we have 14 different check averages. Check averages can often be much higher due to alcohol, specials, etc.

Please take special note that we have considered the fact that pizza may be offered only by the pie, and may be for multiple people, and for leftovers. Our cost range takes this into account using the one person, per meal part methodology.

7) Meal Periods. For choosing meal service times throughout a day.

8) Cuisines. This field selection is for choosing the overall cuisine type of a company. Please take special note there are times companies offer multiple cuisines, we pick the cuisine used at most locations of the company.

9) POS Equipment. Point of Sale. In this field we place the most used POS system in the most units for this company. Often a company may use multiple POS systems and they change frequently. This is probably the most difficult field for us to be exacting. Considering the magnitude of data collection on this field (and food distributor) we update this field once per year vs. every four months like all other fields.

10) Primary Food Distributor. In this field we place the most used food distributor in the most units for this company. Often a company uses multiple food distributors and they tend to have many. We are striving for the distributor that brings operators their backbone products such as canned and dry goods as well as other staples. Considering the magnitude of data collection on this field (and POS equipment) we update this field once per year vs. every four months like all other fields.

11) Services. Users can choose a variety of services offered at units of the chain.

A) Banquet. They must have banquet space available on-site at locations. They may cater on-site as well (but not off-site). Therefore, we consider it banquet.

B) Catering. They must have off-site catering service available. As stated above, on-site catering is considered as banquet.

C) Take-out. For chains that offer take-out services of meal parts.

D) Delivery. For chains that provide delivery service of meal parts.

E) Online Reservations. A chain that offers customers the ability to make reservations online through their website or a third-party website.

F) Merchandise. A chain that sells hats, t-shirts, and typically other private label retail products. Products can be sold at locations or on the web.

G) Internet Shopping. A chain that has a website where a user can transact purchases using a credit card. Purchases typically include private label merchandise, gift cards/certificates and sometimes food ordering.

H) Gift Cards/Certificates. A chain that offers them for sale.

I) Online Food Ordering. A chain that offers a customer the ability to order via a website, or a third party website and order meal parts for pick up and/or delivery. This can include companies who offer catering orders online.

12. Search Alerts. Here you can search alerts by date range. Alerts are the changes, additions and modifications to the directory. The website is uploaded daily and there are dozens of changes every day. Whether it is a change in personnel, or a company trading into a new state or any of the other 37 fields that have some sort of change, those changes will show up here. Users should be aware that all alerts have been uploaded into the directory. Users also receive the prior weeks alerts in one file on Tuesday’s of every week.

13. Key Word Search. Use this field for looking up any key word or a person’s name. Do not use this field for restaurant/concept name search.

14. Restaurant/Concept Name Search. Use this field for looking up a restaurant by corporate name or concept name (trade name, D/B/A name).

15. Contact Title Search. Use this field when you are looking for personnel with specific titles. On larger companies of 30-50 units or more, we strive for all personnel to be in the Vice President category of decision maker. Sometimes on smaller companies the only decision makers will be an owner, partner or chef. This varies widely by company structure.

16. Websites. Click and find only companies with a website.

17. Email Addresses. Click and find only companies with at least one email address.

18. Franchise Percentage. This is the percentage of units that are operating as franchisees of a main franchisor.

19. Last Verified Date. Users can enter in a date range and find records that have been researched by calendar date. We display the actual date we re-verified each company on every record.

Also,

“In Store Office” and “Office Only.”

Here are two fields that are not available for selection, but are on the output for user awareness.

Each record has a field called “office only” or “in-store office” These fields delineate the difference between an office that may be located inside an actual restaurant versus a freestanding corporate office. Smaller chains most likely have owners or decision makers who float between units. We use the address and phone that is considered the BEST place to find the owners and decision makers even though they may be at other stores.