S.W.O.T Analysis Report
Maize Mexican Grill
60 East Green Street, Champaign, IL 61820
Background
Maize Mexican Grill is a Mexican restaurant located very close to the University of
Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. Specifically, it is at the northwest corner of First
Street and Green Street. A former student, Armando Sandoval, opened the
restaurant in Fall 2011. He strived to make Maize feel as close to an authentic
Mexican taqueria as possible - everything from an assembly line of cooks to
homemade tortillas to a small, cramped building. Since Maize is small, there is not
much room to dine in, so most orders are for takeout. The restaurant has many
strengths, some weaknesses, opportunities to grow, and some local threats - all of
these will be explored in this report.
Strengths
Maize has enjoyed lots of success in its first year and a half of being open. This is
due to its various strengths. Its main strength is the food. The general consensus
among customers (as is evidenced by asking people, long lines, word of mouth, and
online reviews) is that the food is very good, authentic Mexican food. The tortillas are
made in-house, the food always seems fresh, and it is made consistently well. On
top of this, dine-in customers enjoy delicious free chips and salsa.
In addition to the food tasting good, you can see it being made in an open kitchen.
This is a strength because people enjoy being able to watch their food being made in
front of them (think of expensive Hibachi restaurants) because it proves that the food
is being prepared fresh, as opposed to being grabbed out of a freezer and popped
into a microwave.
Another strength is the menu prices. Most items on the menu range from three
dollars up to around ten dollars, which is appealing to everyone, especially students
who are typically low on spending cash. Especially when taking the quality of the
food into consideration, the prices can be considered a very strong strength.
The staff at Maize are generally friendly, courteous, and attentive. They are more
than happy to get you a glass of water, take your order, and answer your questions.
More often than not, the staff has a smile on their face and seem like they genuinely
enjoy working at Maize. This certainly adds to the pleasant experience that people
have at Maize.
Weaknesses
The main weakness with Maize is the establishment’s limited seating and parking.
Given the physical constraints of the size and location of the restaurant, there is no
simple or cheap solution to these issues. Although the location of Maize is near
campus, it is farther away from the heavy foot traffic that other restaurants receive
on Green Street. This puts them at a disadvantage since they lose pedestrian
customers who don’t usually walk that far away from campus.
Because it’s a very popular Mexican restaurant, it is often very busy and crowded
especially during peak hours. Thus, customers have to wait outside where there is
no seating provided and this causes some to make their order to-go and there are a
lot of cases where they are so discouraged by the waiting time that they end up
leaving. While in the restaurant, it appeared that cleanliness was a slight issue
because there were tables that had not been cleaned thoroughly before the next
customer arrived. There were also food remnants in the small areas where you could
put personal belongings, which caused people to have to resort to other methods of
storing their bags.
Another weakness is that the menu listed on their website is inconsistent with the
one provided in the restaurant. There are no prices listed in the online menu and this
usually gives the impression to customers that their menu is expensive. However,
since their prices are actually quite inexpensive, they are sending the wrong
message to potential customers.
Opportunities
Maize has a lot of opportunities to improve on its external factors for the restaurant.
One of the things they need to improve on would be the website. Maize’s menu at
the actual restaurant is different with the menu on its website. Some of the
dishes/entrees were missing on the website. They also did not list any prices on the
website for the customers to view before their visit. Another thing they are can
improve is the location, they can relocate to more larger and accessible place. The
parking lot and the seating area are really small that it can only hold the capacity of
15 people, which can decrease their revenue.
Maize can additionally have daily specials because during our visit, our group did not
know what to order because we’re not familiar with Hispanic food. Even more, we
realized that their management is not organized. The same person was taking
orders for both walk-ins and take-outs with another person running around trying to
get through the customers to deliver the food to the table. Maize can better their
management by segregation of duties.
Threats
Since Maize is located near the campus and is off of Green Street (the main street
that runs through the campus), it is located near many other restaurants, all of whom
are competing for students’ business. These restaurants are external threats to the
continuing success of Maize.
Maize offers “authentic” Mexican food, and therefore competes with the other nearby
restaurants offering similar food. Across the street is El Charro, which serves
authentic Mexican food. However, El Charro is not a very large threat because its
business focuses mainly on its store and its restaurant sees little business.
Nearby is the sit-down Mexican restaurant of El Toro, which serves similar food as
Maize. Additionally, El Toro is more accessible via car since it has lots of parking.
Because of this, El Toro is a threat to Maize’s driving customer base. Since El Toro
is not within walking distance of campus, it does not threaten Maize’s student base.
Mas Amigos is similar to El Toro and is therefore is the same type of threat.
Torticas and Burrito King are other Mexican restaurants located a few blocks closer
to campus than Maize. Because of this, they are a threat to Maize’s student base
since they are easier to get to. The food at these two restaurants is less authentic,
which helps mitigate them as threats. They also target primarily the late-night crowd,
which doesn’t overlap with Maize’s target customer (due to its hours).
Qdoba and Chipotle are located near Torticas and Burger King and both offer “fast
food Mexican food” where your burrito or taco is ordered in a Subway-style manner.
These two places have similar prices to Maize and also target students during lunch
time, so they are certainly a threat. The food at Qdoba and Chipotle is not nearly as
authentic as Maize, which helps separate Maize from Qdoba and Chipotle.
There are many restaurants located near Maize that threaten its business, however
Maize is the only authentic lunch/dinner Mexican restaurant located within walking
distance of campus.
Conclusion
The overall performance and results of Maize Mexican Grill seemingly outweighs its
weaknesses and threats. Any observer can see that the restaurant performs well
during the fall and spring semesters of the University of Illinois. Despite the limited
seating, crowdedness, limited parking, and the waiting outside for an order,
customers continue to flock to its destination. This can be attributed to Maize’s
authentic Mexican food, fast and friendly service, affordable prices, or any of its
other strengths.
The fact that Maize has been in business for only a little over a year, some of the
opportunities that is has can only be taken when the restaurant is more proven.
Opportunities such as updating its website, developing a daily special, and improving
the management can be addressed now. These three opportunities affect the
everyday aspect of the restaurant. For instance, updating the website will allow
campus restaurant website users to find and know what they want from Maize ahead
of time. Developing a daily special will accrue returning customers. If Maize
improves the current management process, it would allow for a more organized
service. Moving to a better location can be delayed because the restaurant might not
have the funds being that it is new.
The threats to Maize do not seem to affect its overall business even though they are
closer to campus. The other companies such as Chipotle, Burrito King and Qdoba
are not as authentic. The fact that Mas Amigos offers more eating space than Maize
does not compare to the food and service that Maize provides. El Charro is across
the street from Maize, but it is more of a grocery store than a restaurant.
Maize Mexican Grill seems to have what it takes to keep the customers returning.