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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO, USA

Clean tables make all the difference

If you think customers choose a restaurant based on the quality of food, you'd be wrong. Ambiance, price, location? All wrong. Time and again, research shows that cleanliness is absolutely essential - while most restaurants have employees hurriedly wiping down tables with that same disgusting rag.

The proverbial scene at most food service establishments is a spray bottle and multiuse rag used to wipe down tables. Customers are very aware of how unsanitary this practice can be. The multiuse rag only transfers food and debris from one table to another, rather than eliminating the dirt and germs.

The restaurant industry has developed a solution with single use, pre-moistened cleaning wipes.

According to a Harris Interactive survey of 2,000 adults, when it comes to whether they will patronize a particular restaurant, nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults (62%) consider cleanliness to be absolutely essential, second only to the food quality (69%).

A study by Sandelman & Associates (www.sandelman.com/ ) of fast food restaurants mirrors the findings from the Harris survey: 77% of customers said that cleanliness is the most important thing they consider when choosing a fast-food restaurant. The taste of food came in second at 71%.

In the Harris survey, 63% of adults surveyed believe it is absolutely essential that tabletops be spotless. When asked about the methods used to clean tables, participants were three times more likely (74%) to say that a disposable wet wipe is effective or more effective to clean dining tables, compared to a multi-use cloth or towel (24%). Over half of the adults surveyed (55%) said they would be more likely to eat at a restaurant that cleans its tables with a disposable wet wipe for each table as opposed to a reusable cloth.

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