Why do restaurant owners underestimate the power of their data?

A restaurant owner once told me: “Data? I leave that to the big chains. Me, I just have a cash register and a lot of work.”

This sentence perfectly sums up a phenomenon observed across the foodservice industry: restaurant owners generate data continuously, but barely use 5% of its potential.

And yet… this data could help them save time, increase their margins, and make their daily decisions far simpler.

So why the disconnect? Why do so many HoReCa players overlook such a powerful lever?

Let’s dive in.

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Because data seems “complex” to restaurant owners, when it's already there

In the minds of many restaurant owners, “data” evokes complicated dashboards, endless spreadsheets, or tech projects that feel out of reach.

In reality, data is already inside the restaurant:

• every receipt,

• every order,

• every cancellation,

• every sale by day, hour, or product.

The problem isn’t a lack of data. It’s chaos.

In a fragmented industry, POS data is often messy, incomplete, or impossible to compare across locations.

So turning these numbers into actionable decisions becomes impossible.

This is exactly what Fyre set out to solve by connecting more than 120,000 establishments across Europe to automatically structure POS data and make it usable.

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Because they think “experience is enough”

Restaurant owners have exceptional instincts. They know how to read a room, sense a trend, or identify a product that works. But experience has a blind spot: it doesn’t show the full picture, only what you notice.

A very concrete example:

A chef thought his star dish was his “homemade burger.”

In reality, data showed the burger generated volume but not margin.The real profitability champion was a simpler dish… one he was about to remove from the menu.

Without data, he would have removed his most profitable item.

Experience gives intuition. Data gives precision. Together, they transform performance.

That’s why Fyre promotes a very operational approach: margin analysis, profitability ratios, product matrices (Stars, Cash Cows, Dead Weights…), category segmentation, and more.

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Because they imagine data is only useful to “analyze the past”

This is false, and one of the main reasons the topic is underestimated.

Data isn’t only for observing what happened. It’s for anticipating and steering.

With Fyre’s MarketPulse, restaurant owners can track market trends, understand how consumption, prices, customer behavior, or growing categories are evolving.

This type of insight changes everything when it comes to:

• adjusting a menu before peak season,

• repositioning prices at the right moment,

• identifying fast-growing segments in your neighborhood,

• launching a new product with less risk.

It’s a massive competitive advantage, and still largely underused.

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Because they’ve never had a simple, actionable tool

Let’s be honest: if data never really took off in independent restaurants, it’s not because of a lack of interest.

It’s because the tools were:

❌ too technical

❌ too expensive

❌ too disconnected from operational realities

❌ not built for independents or small groups

Historical solutions were slow, not customizable, based on outdated panels with weeks of delay.

Data didn’t really help make better decisions, let alone faster ones.

With Fyre, things are changing:

• Daily data, not monthly

• Granularity down to the ticket

• Built-in market benchmarks

• Clear views of sales, margins, prices, and categories

• Marketing activations deployed directly in the POS

Restaurant owners no longer need to become analysts, the platform shows them what to monitor, adjust, and activate.

Because they underestimate the financial impact of small data-driven decisions

A +€0.20 price change seems irrelevant.A menu reduced by 25% looks harmless.

A targeted activation in 10 locations feels “too small to matter.”

And yet… these “small” adjustments represent thousands of euros per year.

At Fyre, we regularly see:

• +15% profitability in three weeks after menu optimization

• –30% administrative time thanks to centralized data

• Immediate sales increases during targeted POS activations, measured in real time

Restaurant owners are often surprised by how clearly data reveals:

• margin-cannibalizing products,

• underused off-peak hours,

• cost increases not passed on to prices,

• categories where they overperform or underperform the market.

Data isn’t here to complicate. It’s here to simplify, and to make operations more profitable.

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Conclusion: data isn’t a luxury… it’s a vital advantage

For a long time, data wasn’t built for restaurant owners. It was too slow, too expensive, too complex.

Today, that has changed.

Restaurant owners now have access to:

• automatically structured data,

• simple indicators,

• market benchmarks,

• ready-to-use profitability analyses,

• measurable activations,

• and a clear view of their performance.

The only remaining question is:

Why ignore a tool that improves profitability, simplifies decisions, and provides a real competitive edge?

Data is no longer a constraint. It’s an opportunity.

And those who embrace it now will be ahead of the game in the months to come.