Restaurants are a real profit generator

[Jaggid Edje]

In the zoo I've mostly been working on since they added the restaurant, I currently have 1 Restaurant, 1 Pizza Pen, 1 Chief Beef and 1 Hot Dog Squad (plus 5 drink shops) and have played quite a few years at that volume of shops.
The restaurant is making 3-4x the profit as the best of the food shops and 5-6x the profit of the drink shops, consistently, even though it's farther from the entrance than any other food or drink shop.

I should mention, this is with a current visitor limit set at 2,250 visitors and vendor staff fully trained to 5*. All shops are operating at the "efficient" level.

What I'm wondering though, is how many food and drink shops it actually replaces? (in terms of visitor need satisfied). I find it hard to imagine it is actually 4x the profit generator and assume it has offset the need for multiple other shops. (Though that still is nice, just for the labor need reduction).

Has anyone done any tests on this? I'm just curious and may have to stage some controlled tests of my own if no one else does it.

[K.. La Sorcière]

Good to know. Thanks for sharing.

[Starbucaneer]

Now that sounds interesting. I have not tried the restaurants yet. My current zoo has large queues at the shop so I think I will try placing a restaurant and see how many prefer it and if it clears the queues.

[Jaggid Edje]

In my current zoo, the main paths (wide avenues) form a Cross with the Zoo entrance at one end and ~8 habitats plus ~6 exhibits in each arm of the cross (counting the top of the cross as an arm as well, for around 24 total habitats.

My plan is to have a restaurant at the end of each "arm" and at the top, for 3 restaurants total.
So far I only have one arm done, but it's kind of nice to know that i will apparently not need very many food shops at all.

I never set visitor limit above around 6000-7000 so it looks like the 3x restaurant plan is going to work out really well considering one is doing wonderfully with 2250.

[Starbucaneer]

My food court is in a big paved area as the Visitors enter into the Zoo with shops and seating areas and banks of vending machines, then they pass through by various paths past groups of exhibit animals of which there are a lot but I have room for more. The big habitats are beyond this. My visitor limit is set to 2500 which seems to work well on my PC. I only have 3 habitats done so far and they LOVE the Peahen/Flamingo reserve. Then the Anteater/Monkey one. The Bear one attracts the least. I am working on an Aardvark/Meerkat one now. The dual critter ones are walk thru which always seems to attract the most Visits.

[Jaggid Edje]

You are actually better off putting your shops a little further into the zoo other than perhaps one of each, for people arriving in desperate need.

The reason for this is that visitors will spend more when their education rating is higher, so shops right at the zoo entrance catch visitors at 0 education, when they are not willing to spend as much. Thus reducing your profit potential.

[Starbucaneer]

Ahhh I see, good point. I do actually have another eating area at the end by the Bear habitat (I forgot about that) the visitors prefer the big food court possibly because it has more choices and is full of decoration??. I need to develop that area more as the Zoo expands.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Starbucaneer:

Ahhh I see, good point. I do actually have another eating area at the end by the Bear habitat (I forgot about that) the visitors prefer the big food court possibly because it has more choices and is full of decoration??. I need to develop that area more as the Zoo expands.

That and because the Zoo entrance is the single busiest area of the zoo, just because everyone comes in there AND everyone leaves through there.
That's why I always put the most attractive animals farthest from the zoo entrance and also why I am putting the restaurants at the "ends" away from the zoo entrance. Those things attract visitors through the park and help reduce congestion.

[grampers62]

Of course one must consider the cost to build and decorate the restaurants and the much wider choices in it.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by grampers62:

Of course one must consider the cost to build and decorate the restaurants and the much wider choices in it.

I don't generally view one-time costs as much of a factor. They don't have an impact on profits after the initial expenditure has been recouped.

[Starbucaneer]

Originally the area was central to my zoo but as it has evolved that is no longer the case. I will make my 1st restaurant at the "back" of my zoo, as you advise and then I can gradually move the shops and vending into the surrounding area and the current area can have a nice lake with planting and statuary. I had originally only intended the Zoo to be compact but it seems to be doing quite well so now it is going to be expanded.

[Jaggid Edje]

Just another reminder, you can use the billboards/projection/tv screens to direct people to locations that are more remote as well.

I honestly don't know just how great of an effect the "advertisement" feature has, but it can't hurt to use them a bit.

[Protus]

Just testing a little I found they give around 1-2k extra income each with 3 extra tables.
I am sure if I added more tables and got rid of some of the other food stands it would be more. I have 8500 guests atm.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Protus:

Just testing a little I found they give around 1-2k extra income each with 3 extra tables.
I am sure if I added more tables and got rid of some of the other food stands it would be more. I have 8500 guests atm.

Mine is generating about $7,500 per year, with 20 tables and 5-star staff.

[grampers62]

Been too busy building things to even keep track of the profits....
XD

[NanoGrrl]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

You are actually better off putting your shops a little further into the zoo other than perhaps one of each, for people arriving in desperate need.

The reason for this is that visitors will spend more when their education rating is higher, so shops right at the zoo entrance catch visitors at 0 education, when they are not willing to spend as much. Thus reducing your profit potential.

I did not know this! Thank you for the tip.