Stealth vegan "fast food" restaurants should be encouraged
Entrepreneurs inclined to be restauranteurs should be strongly encouraged and supported with investment and expertise to specifically launch fast food restaurants that do not overtly advertise themselves as such.
We looked into the success of fast food restaurants that are vegan but don’t identify themselves as such (very few exist). We were particular interested to know:
1. Are they profitable?
2. Are they reaching non-vegans (perhaps by drawing in walk-in traffic) who otherwise would have eaten a non-vegan meal that day?
3. Are they having any lasting effect on non-vegans (making them more open to vegan meals, introducing to them vegan products such that they can then buy themselves in stores, etc.).
Examples of stealth vegan restaurants in the US include Veggie Grill, and to a greater extend STAND-UP BURGERS (owned by Veggie Grill). There is also Amy’s Drive Thru (vegetarian and not vegan).
We reviewed an internal survey from an existing restaurant and did some ad hoc interviews of patrons and have decided to not do more research ourselves. We are pretty convinced that this type of restaurant in the right location can be profitable, definitely can reach non-vegans who would otherwise have eaten a non-vegan meal, and can introduce non-vegans to plant-based products that then can then purchased in stores.
The only thing we're not so sure of is the effect on longer term habits of non-vegans, i.e., if meat-eaters wander in for fast food and order a vegan meal, will some percentage of them then be more likely to consume more vegan meals over time as a result of this experience (either returning to the same restaurant or being generally more open to plant-based foods in other places).
But we think there's enough data to say with some confidence that having more vegan fast food restaurants that do not in their outdoor signage identify themselves as being vegan would be a very good thing, and entrepreneurship in this area should be supported.
We're not able to analyze whether a dollar spent on building a vegan fast food restaurant is ultimately more effective in helping animals than a dollar spent trying to influence existing restaurants to offer vegan options. Keep in mind staring a new restaurant is a very costly and risky venture. But then again, adding vegan options to existing menus in average restaurants doesn't mean non-vegans will eat them.
But this is not an either/or. The Good Food Institue and other organizations work to get vegan options on existing menus. This work should be funded and accelerated to get more restaurants of all types to offer vegan options so long as smart testing is done as to what those options should be, how they should be named and described, and how they should be displayed on menus and advertised. And crucially, sales data needs to be gathered to indicate whether or not these vegan options are displacing other non-vegan options on the menu so a baseline can be established and experiments to increase positive effects can occur.
But for those entrepreneurs out there who may already be inclined to be restauranteurs (and certainly many vegan restaurants are popping up), they should be strongly encouraged and supported with investment and expertise to specifically launch fast food restaurants that do not overtly advertise themselves as such, that are located in high traffic areas, and that can be scaled/franchised.