Keep the Remarkable
by Shane on 24/01/06 at 10:01 am
2 comments
These past holidays my family and I visited the well known Barn Yard Farm Stall in Tokai, Cape Town. There are a couple of things that make this place really special – ask most Capetonians about The Barn Yard and they will probably mention or highlight the following:
- Massive breakfasts cooked on an outdoor stove
- An excellent selection of homemade breads and cheeses
- Homemade ginger beer by the jug
- Rolo muffins
In February 2005 the Barn Yard changed ownership and the above aint there anymore. These are the things that made this place special! All of this is gone and I have no real reason to go back.
Now, I don’t want to be too harsh on the matter, but I would really like to know what they were thinking when they scratched these gems off the list?
Was it a matter of profitability? Ok fair enough. Or was something lost when new ownership/management came onto the scene? I do hope they asked their patrons what they thought before bringing in the axe.
So what makes your business special? What things would be missed by your clients if you brought in the axe? Make sure you keep and guard the things that make you remarkable!
Shane Dryden is the 'Maven' at Ideate. The driving-force of Yuppiechef, Shane loves to write on advertising and innovation. He spots the non-obvious stuff behind the obvious, which seems obvious, but isn’t really that obvious (obviously). View more articles by Shane.
Andrew
Jan 25th, 2006
I think we’re going to have to start a resturant / coffee shop one day. The mistakes that other people are making seem so obvious to us, and there are so many great ideas for doing something amazing. However, I’m guessing there is a ton of stuff that we don’t know about, and that’s probably what consumes the owner’s time so that they miss the things we think about.
Fred
Jan 25th, 2006
Ah come one Andrew. How hard can it be? People want food and drink; we serve food and drink.
A walk in the park…