Does Racing's Revenue Response Ignore the "Little Things"?

I read a story on Dave's Hot Chicken recently, and it more than just made me hungry (I've never heard of Dave's Hot Chicken before). 

The brand was started by four friends in LA, and a quarter of their 270 stores reside in the Golden State. As many of you likely know, California raised their minimum wage to $20/hr, and Dave's and other fast food brands had some choices to make. 

They set up emergency calls with all franchisees and went to work almost immediately. They had to cut costs, and find ways for customers to spend more money (because they had to raise prices, and higher prices mean lower sales).

Here's what they came up with, in almost real time, with all of these changes implemented within months.

On the cost side:

• They invested in automatic dishwashers instead of cleaning dishes by hand
• They contracted out cleaning work
• They shifted prep to contractors
• They installed grease systems that were automated and were able to reuse grease

On the revenue side they did increase prices (8%; to counter an $8M labor cost increase), but they did quite a bit more than that:

• They implemented self serve kiosks, and found out customers ordered more when ordering for themselves, upping spend per order (in betting parlance, churn). 
• They created "Hot Boxes" and new packaging to increase order size, and gross sales
• They created low-cost menu items like single chicken orders for $7. 
• They added new products

The CFO said "there's a lot of little things"; the CEO added, "We can't just raise prices, we have to get better."

All of those "little things" (absent price hiking) has increased the bottom line per store by about $200,000 per year (guesstimating here based on my knowledge of that vertical, that's about 5% of gross sales). And it happened with lightning speed. 

Over in racing, the response to falling revenue has been primarily twofold:

• For the vast majority of players margins are increased (from 6% in 1905, to 21% now; ironically, CAW's are the only ones getting 1905 margins). 
• More alternative gaming is asked for

Some racetracks, like the Meadowlands which relies on handle, have cut costs the best they can. They run two nights a week for a reason. 

On the revenue side, as noted in part in HRU this weekend, has the sport even tried to increase in-store sales by maximizing the track feed? We still see races raced over top of each other, why? Where are the coupons and discounts to every day customers to encourage wagering and wagering stickiness? 

If Dave's Hot Chicken can spend money on kiosks, letting customers choose their meals, why can't customers get access to better tools to allow them to bet better or bet late like CAW's can? Hell, can we get a system to the point where a customer knows what the final price is? Where's the single wallet? 

Jim Collins' seminal work - Good to Great - noted how companies flywheel to grow. They do a whole lot of little things. 

Dave's Hot Chicken received an $8M kick in the ass that could put them out of business and in response immediately did those "little things". Our sport seems to get hit over the head with a plank on a yearly basis, and I don't get same vibe. 

Have a nice Tuesday everyone.