@expert setter wrote:

I, too, am a GROUPIE!! Watching their stock go up and up!

LOL. Welcome to the club!

@expert setter wrote:

Their stock has gone up tremendously. May consider making money just on their stock, lol!

Too overvalued now, expert setter, imho.

Relative to risks too...just too expensive now. I feel I missed out at the one day it was $25 (I think it closed at $30 that day off the lows). I even had a chance to buy at $33/34 and remember staring for two hours at my computer screen and couldn't muster the decisiveness to buy that day. I'd buy if it ever fell back to $37/38 maybe. Nothing higher than that for me right now probably.

@plmccut wrote:

I love TR and, yes, you can buy their rolls separately and even get them unbaked so that you can make them fresh at home.

I'd love to do that some time. My parents love their rolls. They should open up separately a Texas ROLLhouse in like a mall food court or strip mall mini-bakery.

@ wrote:

BTW, I've been staying in but when I have had to venture out I've been stocking up on the BOGO offers or family packages and then making my own TV dinners. I really like Olive Garden when they do their buy one, take home one deals. I think I also read that TR was one of the few chains that was able to keep their earnings up.

My mom is a massive cheapo and she used to do Olive Garden buy one get ones, in addition to their lunch specials where you order a main pasta dish and can get unlimited salad and/or soup + breadsticks. She would sit for a long time drinking their soup (bowl after bowl after bowl) and eating their bread to fill up and take home an uneaten pasta order.

re: keeping earnings up - TXRH's revenues fell YOY in Q1, due to a very negative month of March. They had positive same store comparable sales Jan. and Feb., however. COVID hurt them in March enough that they saw revenue decline YOY for the first quarter, but they were still net income positive if that is what you were thinking of. They earned $652 million in Q1 (compared with $690 million in 2019 Q1) and made roughly $16 million in net profit the first quarter (compared to $50 million in Q1 2019). It would have been more had they not spent a lot money on worker relief packages and increased health benefits for employees. This was a nice thing they did for their company and imho to be applauded.

Long-term, TXRH is a gem. Pre-COVID, their 2019 YOY revenue growth was 12.2% and same store comparable sales were up 4.7%. For people not familiar with retail/restaurant/brick and mortar companies, those are stunning numbers. In general, a company able to obtain 10%+ revenue growth per year in any industry is quite good. This may be more common in technology companies, but is not at all common in many other industries. Walmart, for example, 8-ish% Q1 growth and they are supposed to be one of those stores that has benefited from the virus. So, that tells you how special TXRH is in a "normal" year. As far as same store compare sales ("comps" ), the industry average for a brick and mortar type of store is 2-3%. TXRH doubles that.

Their margins have been criticized at times, so while their revenue growth and comps have often been above-average for their industry, their earnings off of them haven't always been the best. However, I think this is fine and for good reason. They never skimp on worker wages, staff training programs, and food quality costs. Wayne Kent Taylor had a chance back in 2015, I think it was, to improve margins with cheaper quality food products and refused to. I was listening to him talk about it and he felt it was important for the brand to maintain food quality despite higher costs. They often don't pass the cost along to customers either. Sometimes they do, but sometimes they don't and eat the cost as a company themselves. What they "lose" from paying workers better and maintaining food quality, they make up for in customer loyalty and higher volume sales/repeat business, I'm sure.

Everyday I think about this stuff, I just want to shoot myself for not buying their stock back in March.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2020 06:54AM by shoptastic.

I'm with your Mom. When I retired I signed up for all the restaurant reward companies I could find. My niche for MSing was the restaurant and some of the fast food shops (like 5 Guys) and that's gone away for the time being. Now what I am doing is watching for good deals for "family" bundles and buying them and dividing up into individual servings to freeze. I should get your Mom's email and we could share tips!! ;0) And I truly love the OG BOGO and always have a couple in the freezer. Since I don't eat as much now that I'm older I can split one of OG's meals into 2 meals.And I did the same as she did - would go in for dinner and eat a couple servings of the Zuppa and take my dinner home.

I don't know about TR but their sister org, Bubba's managers have told me that they actually do a buy in so they own part of the company. I have to kind of assume that TR may do the same. With skin in the game the managers are very good about providing good service and food. I always took the Bubba's and TR bar shops. I feel sure that the Bubba's staff knew I was a shopper but not sure about that as they always treated me pretty well.

@plmccut wrote:

I don't know about TR but their sister org, Bubba's managers have told me that they actually do a buy in so they own part of the company. I have to kind of assume that TR may do the same. With skin in the game the managers are very good about providing good service and food. I always took the Bubba's and TR bar shops. I feel sure that the Bubba's staff knew I was a shopper but not sure about that as they always treated me pretty well.

If you mean buying into shares of the stock, that wouldn't be too surprising. With Bubba's, I'm not sure if it's just because they are new and maybe staff haven't developed "practice" and consistency with service concepts, but I have seen many more negative reviews of the service there (Google reviews) vs. TXRH. I rarely see bad reviews of TXRH. If there are any, they are swamped by many, many more good ones.

Wayne Kent Taylor has called Bubba's jokingly a "redneck Buffalo Wild Wings." The story for why he started the company is kind of funny. He was ticked off at some BWW executive and drafted up a competitor to them on a cocktail napkin and decided to go for it and make it a business. LOL

I find the Bubba's managers/bartenders here to be exceptional. I have never had to turn in a bad report. And to be honest I like the menu at TR better but Bubba's here provides excellent service. Prior to COVID they were talking about building a second location but that has probably been put on hold.

@plmccut wrote:

I find the Bubba's managers/bartenders here to be exceptional. I have never had to turn in a bad report. And to be honest I like the menu at TR better but Bubba's here provides excellent service. Prior to COVID they were talking about building a second location but that has probably been put on hold.

Speaking of Bubba's, this location is awesome:
[www.youtube.com]
They created a drive-in movie theater at the restaurant and are aiding essential workers. That's a creative/innovative use of real estate space during COVID!

[www.forbes.com]
Wayne Kent Taylor talks about how everything (like TXRH) is made from scratch there. Even the burger buns (crazy) are handmade from scratch.

I'm going to create a TXRH/Bubba's 33 Groupie thread in General Chat. This topic deserves its own thread!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2020 11:12AM by shoptastic.

what mystery shopping company does texas roadhouse?

@SK3030 wrote:

what mystery shopping company does texas roadhouse?

SK3030, Please don't ask which MSCs shop which Clients. It is against the Forum rules to list the name of the MSC in the same thread where the Client is listed. If anyone does repond, the Mods will delete the post. Just do your due diligence and sign up with as many companies as you can, several each day. The list to the link of MSCs at the bottom of each page of the Forum will keep you busy and will yield you plenty of emails for work. One of them may just be the company you are looking for!

@plmccut wrote:

I'm with your Mom. When I retired I signed up for all the restaurant reward companies I could find. My niche for MSing was the restaurant and some of the fast food shops (like 5 Guys) and that's gone away for the time being. Now what I am doing is watching for good deals for "family" bundles and buying them and dividing up into individual servings to freeze. I should get your Mom's email and we could share tips!! ;0) And I truly love the OG BOGO and always have a couple in the freezer. Since I don't eat as much now that I'm older I can split one of OG's meals into 2 meals.And I did the same as she did - would go in for dinner and eat a couple servings of the Zuppa and take my dinner home.

If you signed up with all of the restaurant reward programs I hope that means you also signed up for the birthday freebies. I get so many emails for all the freebies I have to keep a list of the restaurants and when the offers expire.

Jason's Deli is another place where you can get an entree and unlimited salad bar.

Can eat until you're full at the salad bar and take the uneaten sandwich home. No servers either, so no tip. They were one of the fastest expanding chains in America pre-COVID.

The last time I went to TXRH, we saw a young couple (mid-20's looking) sharing a meal and the male eating mostly bread and peanuts. They sat across from us, so we watched them unintentionally. The young lady got a meal. The male friend sat and ate peanuts and bread (lots of refills) and took a bite or two of her meal. Server didn't seem to mind giving him "free" bread.

I do get lots of emails during my birth month. My pet peeve is that few of the offers really and truly give you a gift. Many state that if you buy one you get your meal free. I always print off my offers and mark the expiration on the top and then work through them. The few who actually give the birthday girl a free gift are IHOP, Dennys, Nothing Bundlet, and Red Robin. I like to eat at Mimi's and they were doing the buy one get your meal free and I complained about it to my favorite server. I don't know if he moved my complaint up the line of management but they have now changed their birthday gift to a dessert. Sometimes I use the BOGO but always tell my guest that I will split the check. If I had a significant other the BOGO offers would be more useful. Most of the offers are not geared for singles!

Habit Burger gives a free Charburger for your birthday month

@MsJudi wrote:

Habit Burger gives a free Charburger for your birthday month

We don't have any here. How do they compare to Burger King's char-style burgers?

@shoptastic wrote:

@expert setter wrote:

I, too, am a GROUPIE!! Watching their stock go up and up!

LOL. Welcome to the club!

@expert setter wrote:

Their stock has gone up tremendously. May consider making money just on their stock, lol!

Too overvalued now, expert setter, imho.

Relative to risks too...just too expensive now. I feel I missed out at the one day it was $25 (I think it closed at $30 that day off the lows). I even had a chance to buy at $33/34 and remember staring for two hours at my computer screen and couldn't muster the decisiveness to buy that day. I'd buy if it ever fell back to $37/38 maybe. Nothing higher than that for me right now probably.

Hi again, fellow groupie!

Guess what I found? This was one TXRH location on Father's Day (these people waited two hours):
[www.youtube.com]
Looking decently full inside.

Here was a long line for TXRH in Utah during COVID (video dated May):
[www.youtube.com]
Literally ridiculous!

Might be time for me to invest a few thousand before earnings. I have seen videos with less packed dining areas, though, during COVID. I feel like calling all 600 restaurants and asking how busy they've been (I could come up with some excuse that would be believable). ...Really, I have so much time that I probably could. Stock fell 5% today after Texas and Florida announced restaurant restrictions. If it falls again, I might buy it in the 40's.

The location near me put up a giant tent in the parking lot adjacent to the indoor location. We went the other night (on our own dime) and it was really spaced out. It seemed a lot safer than some of the other local eateries that have to squeeze everyone into a small patio.

The Texas Roadhouse by me also put up an outdoor tent. It is still up even though indoor dinning at 50% is now allowed. Have been in twice on my dime inside. Still not even 50% full but picking up. I enjoy my Texas Roadhouse. I don't have Bubbas near me but wonder how the burger is. I know at Texas Roadhouse the burger is the only menu item I don't care for. Everything else is really good to great. Thankfully prices at mine did not go up. They were doing good with takeout during the pandemic prior to outdoor and now indoor opening.

Oh yeah, I've seen vids of some places with tents. They actually do look safe, given the spacing.

[www.youtube.com] This North Carolina location (posted three days ago) is 95% empty with no seating restrictions inside.

Other videos show indoor seating open, but every other seat roped off for social distancing.

Habit can't compare to Burger King. It is much better and their fresh salads are the best.

Hopefully they will be back soon!

I shop in both Kentucky and Florida. They’re back on the board in Kentucky but not Florida

They're back now in Florida - I'm seeing them posted in Estero, Ft. Myers, and Naples.

Apparently, Texas Roadhouse may have been the top dine-in restaurant during coronavirus:
[www.foxbusiness.com]

Not sure I understand the "survey," but interesting, nonetheless. I bought shares a few weeks ago before earnings at around $48. I was holding my nose at the high price relative to recessionary earnings, but it's at $60 now. *shrug*

Olive Garden came in second.

After many TR meals through the years, we haven't found their food salty, and we rarely salt our food during cooking. We often are surprised at the high quality of their salads and sirloin, rivaling finer steakhouses. Sirloin is lean and tender, and their grilled salmon never disappoints. Having sides of broccoli and sweet potato with only plain cinnamon makes a great and healthy meal.

The baked potato has salt on it and the fish and chips are incredibly salty as well (not to mention unhealthy for other reason!). Because the locations near us have been open for months I get excited whenever I get an email from the MSC that shops them, but inevitably it's just "storage industry."

Never seen anyone get fish and chips there.

I know I wouldn't. I could get that elsewhere. I want me some steak at TXRH!

Great. Just great. Now I've got drool all over my keyboard. And I'm suddenly very hungry.

More of Jaggers could be coming soon too. That is the third concept restaurant within the Texas Roadhouse umbrella company/brand/family. Jaggers focuses on chicken sandwiches and burgers. Some overlap with Bubba's 33, but not entirely.

Here is a breakdown of all TXRH umbrella brand restaurants:
[s22.q4cdn.com]

Total Restaurants: 617

Texas Roadhouse: 585 locations
-489 U.S. company-owned locations
-70 U.S. franchised locations
-26 non-U.S./international franchised locations
Bubba's 33: 30 U.S. company-owned locations
Jagger's: 2 U.S. company-owned locations

Jaggers only exists in Indiana. Reading through their recent filings (2019), they are looking to expand this concept. I hope they do in my area! We only recently got a Bubba's 33 (which is also expanding across the U.S.). Bubba's has higher profitability, based on better margins, than Texas Roadhouse actually. I'm guessing it has a lot to do with beer, as it's got a huge sports bar area.

Our Gov. is finally allowing 25% inside dining starting next week. I do hope TR and Bubba shops come back, too!!

@NinS wrote:

Because the locations near us have been open for months I get excited whenever I get an email from the MSC that shops them, but inevitably it's just "storage industry."

Yeah. I finally sussed out who the MSC for them is thanks to a recent blunder by an online journalist who named TR and their MSC together, but when I check that MSC the only shops around me are storage.