One location or three: running more than one shop from one account

The catalog is shared. The rush is not. The mistake is copying the first shop and pretending the second is the same.

A second location is not weaker work. It is weaker memory: who changed the price, which shop ran out, which WhatsApp the tickets hit. One account is not a luxury. It is how nobody works off a stale copy.

Here is what should be shared, and what should stay local — without building an IT department.

1. One catalog, availability per shop

Two separate lists means a price changes in one place and is forgotten in the other. Guests walk into the second shop and find another number.

Better: items are central. Availability and the kitchen differ. Maadi can switch a dish off, Nasr City can still sell it — without two menus.

2. If prices must differ, write them

Rent is not the same. Force both shops onto one price and one of them will lose quietly.

Better: split the price when the gap is real. Do not let waiters “adjust” in their head. The catalog number is the number.

3. Tickets should not share one chat

A WhatsApp group for every location sends the order to the wrong person, or loses it in the scroll. A driver leaves for the wrong door.

Better: each location has an order board. Cashiers see their tickets. Management sees all of them. Not the other way round.

4. Reports add up. Shifts do not

Weekly sales for the brand is one thing. Friday’s rota in the busy shop is another. Mix them and you will move people on a total, not on the floor.

Better: a report that rolls locations up so you see the trend. A rota for each shop from its own peak.

5. The second opening is not a carbon copy

A new shop needs a week for guests to understand the code and drivers to find the door. Do not judge week one against a location that has been open a year.

Better: the same catalog and QR tools from day one. A quiet opening is not a product failure. It is learning time.

A two-shop test

Change one item’s price on the account. Ask both shops: did the number show? If one is still on the old price — you are not on one account. You are on two copies.

menutables runs locations from one account, with reports that add up. Free is one location, Starter up to three. Start free and build the second shop without copying the work into a spreadsheet.