However, a store's overall sales may have increased or decreased since last year, so managers also must look at sales for last month and last week. Having enough food in stock is only half the battle. Restaurant managers also must decide how much food to prepare throughout the day. Obviously, more food is required for lunch and dinner rushes than at any other time. For this reason, most restaurants keep a record of hourly sales for every day of the week.
Managers can analyze a particular hour's sales for the past several weeks and get an average.
They then use preestablished formulas to decide how much food needs to be prepared for that hour. Sources United States Census 2000. U.S. Census Bureau. 11 August 1998.