Trader Vic's info

So this lady drops a package under the door on how she wanted to open a tiki bar downtown, but until then she wanted to work for me.

Yeah right, I'm going to hire someone who's goal is to soak up the tiki culture, then take the concept and become my competition.

Plus her resume was all education based, not food/drink related. Strange.

So she came in last night and boy did she have a tale to tell.

She had been trying to open a Trader Vic's Mai Tai bar. She had investors lined up, consultants hired and realators scouting for locations.

It was a several hour conversation, but I will give you some highlights:

To buy a TVMYB, the franchise fee is only $50,000. Actually pretty cheap and not much more than a Subway. However, they insist on you spending $700,000 in the build-out.

the prices are double for a full size Trader Vic's.

TV would prefer a downtown location, and they insist on a patio. Both these requirements seem to us the opposite of how the Bellevue WA location came out.

Sven, director of new developement even flew from Germany to Portland to scout ot locations, but none of them were either big enough or had the patio they require.

Anyway, in the end, she is such a nice lady with an infectious good nature, I might even hire her for a shift or two.
Robert

They also want something like 8% of gross yearly sales for the franchise rights. Usual fee is 4 to 5% maximum. Its expensive to be a trader vics

Now I see why Mr. Tiki's Mai Tai Lounge in San Diego is independent, not a Trader Vics, as the owners apparently origianlly considered.

Just curious how the TV franchise cost numbers above look like after all these years...

Doesn’t seem like another U.S. location will ever happen.
So many of these failed locations are tied into real estate markets that are in very high stakes areas

The obvious comparison, at this point, is how the Trader Vic's terms match up against Don the Beachcomber's. We know the parent company is more than willing to license out the Don's name. But who's willing to take them up on it, other than the currently-homeless Huntingdon Beach group?

How much does the parent company charge to license out the Don's name?

I’m still mystified why there are only two TV’s left in the States, where polypop originated and is enjoying a huge resurrgence, meanwhile there are 6 of them in the United Arab Emirates alone. And one in Oman. OMAN?!
Man, must be that Middle East oil money.

Sorry, THREE locations in the States if you count the Mai tai bar that recently opened (or will open?) in the San Jose Airport.

On 2018-08-19 10:12, santa wrote:
How much does the parent company charge to license out the Don's name?

If it's cheap enough, maybe we can licence it for our home bars!

On 2018-08-22 06:54, EnchantedTikiGoth wrote:
If it's cheap enough, maybe we can licence it for our home bars!

Good idea! I don't think they're desperate. I wonder what their strategy is? They're missing out on opportunities in the US and are favoring overseas restaurants. It's possible they're very happy with the way things are going, and they get to travel globally to see their franchises in operation. They may have the opportunity to just relax and not worry about the US market when overseas markets are performing so well.

Is Trader Vic's privately owned? It sure seems like it.

On 2018-08-22 08:01, AceExplorer wrote:

On 2018-08-22 06:54, EnchantedTikiGoth wrote:
If it's cheap enough, maybe we can licence it for our home bars!

Good idea! I don't think they're desperate. I wonder what their strategy is? They're missing out on opportunities in the US and are favoring overseas restaurants. It's possible they're very happy with the way things are going, and they get to travel globally to see their franchises in operation. They may have the opportunity to just relax and not worry about the US market when overseas markets are performing so well.

Is Trader Vic's privately owned? It sure seems like it.

Maybe they're worried about the recently developed "cultural appropriation" stigma here in the USA, which as far I know, isn't an issue overseas.

On 2018-08-22 08:07, tikitube wrote:
Maybe they're worried about the recently developed "cultural appropriation" stigma here in the USA, which as far I know, isn't an issue overseas.

Good point.

Trader Vic's is privately held. I pretty sure that they would be open to selling a franchise. All you need is cash and a good location. They seem to favor locations in hotels; problem being that hotels tend to be picky about the type of restaurant they are leasing to. Most hotels are not about to choose tiki over a steakhouse chain.

There is huge risk in opening a 200+ seat restaurant in a high-end hotel. My guess is that investors at that level already have their own brand. I don't think cultural appropriation has anything to do with it.

We should start a Tiki Central investment fund. When it gets to about $2M we can occupy our time arguing over the location of the new Trader Vic's. That will be fun.

My first choice location, and I’ve been thinking about it for a while, is to put a nice TV on the top of the new International Place in Waikiki. The top floor is reserved for high-end big restaurants and two recently closed because, to be honest, there are too many high-end restaurants up there. The rent or lease must be over the top. Business wise, this sounds like a bad proposal but I propose this for two reasons, the important one is (and this is important to me) I hated what the new IMP did, replacing the old one, BUT this is what they should to to help put Tiki back into the new International Market Place! A new large and modern exposed steel beam and glass A-frame outrigger should be erected in the front of it and it would be the new signature restaurant at the current IMP. The other surviving restaurants are doing well but they don’t say Hawai'i’i nor Pacific, this is what the tourist want. Second reason and granted not a good or sound reason is my hunches seem to do well. I wanted to put a nice Tiki venue in Dubai years ago and look what happen. Problem, as usual, is money. I’m just an average dude with an average wallet, but we all can dream.