If you put all of the breadsticks Olive Garden uses in one year end-to-end, they’d circle the earth three times. That's 700 million breadsticks.
The average customer gets three. But they rarely eat them all, and investors think that’s too many.
Starboard Value, and investment group that owns eight percent of Darden's shares, estimate that cutting the number of breadsticks per customer could save the chain about $4 million.
UCF Economist Sean Snaith expects the company to make a change, but not anytime soon. “I think that would be a decision not hastily made just because of the nature of it and how much the brand was characterized by these unlimited items,” says Snaith
Darden’s food costs are some of the highest in the industry – around 30 percent. Lowering food costs is one of a range of recommended changes.
Darden says it will ‘carefully and thoughtfully’ review Starboard’s plan.
