Friday, December 5, 2008

The Truth About 'Dream Dinner'

By Peter Hallway

The term 'dream dinner' may bring to concious mind a hone date at a candlelit table, violin music in the background, with the meal capped by a engagement ring concealed in the champaign glass. Having said that, dream dinner is even bigger and quickly spreading from mouth to mouth. It involves prepared menus and places where people go to acquire instruction in preparing them. A lot of people ask, why didn't I think of that?

People are very busy today. Eating well at home is seemly more and more difficult . Even the terrific pre-made food available today in stores isn't quite the same as home cooking. When the agenda is full, however, will people give up their jobs or their home made meals? That's where this franchise comes into the picture.

It works something like this. Customers select up to 14 menu meals every month. Number of servings determines cost of each meal. Now while still at the store, they cook. Cooking experts supervise in either exclusive or normal cooking sessions. It's as if a cooking show host comes out of the television set to show people how to make the meal.

The cost is much less than what you might be expected. A 14 particular menu costs about $3.5 per serving, with side dishes and extras like salads and potatoes purchased separately. The price per portion with the sides is about $5. That's a great deal for the food plus the cooking instruction.

Remember, these are franchises. It has its problems. It's not the food or menus or preparation, but rather the franchisees. Dream Dinners was profiled in March of '8 by Forbes. That particular article doesn't give a ordained thougts for the company. Franchisees flocked to this brand new concept. But many of the franchisees lost their shirts after only a short time, which meant the business plan may be flawed. The article detailed what was described as misrepresentations of the profit possible, and thus the overall valuation of franchises.

Business disputation aside, Dream Dinners is a fantastic idea that allows busy people living the 21st century fast-paced life a way to getting even to some of the home spun food value of the recent decades. - 16003

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