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BURGER

Bargain burger chain bites designer revamp

Swedish fast food chain Max is linking up with one of the country's leading architectural firms as part of a mission to improve customer experience. But how much do cheap burger seekers care about interior design?

Published: 14 April 2015 12:25 CEST
Bargain burger chain bites designer revamp
A Max restaurant in Skellefteå in northern Sweden. Photo: TT
Max is Sweden's oldest burger restaurant chain, launching in the Nordic nation in 1968, before both McDonalds and Burger King.
 
But the company's admitted its fast-food outlets haven't kept pace with the times and it's drafted in Wingårds, a leading Swedish architecture firm, to help revamp its 100 restaurants across Sweden.
 
The designers are best known for projects such as the Liljevalchs art gallery in Stockholm and Sweden's National Museum as well a new visitor centre at Sjöfallets nationalpark.
 
Architects at Wingårds says they don't expect Max to become instantly more “high brow”, but that they are discussing a wide range of options with the food firm.
 
“We are just in the beginning in terms of investigating opportunities,” architect Leila Atlassi told The Local.
 
“Max have asked us to create a new concept for both the interior and exterior of their restaurants – the facade, the layout…they have very high customer satisfaction regarding their food and want the dining experience concept to match, because they feel that is lacking right now,” she added.
 
“We work with a broad range of long term clients, not just the boutique projects like the museum that people will have heard of,” she explained, adding that she expected to be eating a lot of the company's fast food during the project.
 
“Of course – that's for sure!”
 
Meanwhile Max's president, Richard Bergfors, has said he is convinced that customers seeking a budget meal will be impressed by the upcoming changes.
 
“Wingårds…have an experienced team with broad expertise. Now we will jointly work out a concept that matches what Max stands for: simplicity for the guest, a love of good food, responsibility and sustainability. Our goal is to become a leader in the design of the fast food industry,” he said in a press release this week.
 
Global burger chains across Europe and the US are currently coming up against competition from rising numbers of fast food trucks and the resurgence of US diner-style gastro burger companies such as Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Byron. In Sweden, independent burger firms include Flippin' Burgers, Marie Laveau, The Barn and Bistro Bon.

FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits. 

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user). 

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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