by Dos Equis
The University of Georgia is in a city unlike most cities around. Located at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Athens is renowned for its history, tradition, and diversification. Athens is made up of many different people, lifestyles, and of course, restaurants. One restaurant that seems to have the common touch with the majority of the students is Sons of Athens. Located down from five points on Lumpkin Street in the heart of Athens, Sons of Athens, commonly referred to as Sons, has a laid-back, good-feeling atmosphere that people normally frequent in masses during the better weather months. �The thing that makes Sons so nice is the cheap beer, good food, and relaxing outside with your friends,� said Brandi Rucks, a senior Broadcast Journalism major. Sons of Athens (formally known as Sons of Italy before changing of owners) has been serving University of Georgia and Athens visitors for many years. Yanni Pagonis, currently the owner of Sons of Athens, acquired this restaurant around three years ago. Mr. Pagonis, since acquisition of Sons, has made gradual changes in the menu, beer, and the service provided. Mr. Pagonis made successful changes in the menu by keeping what everyone likes, for example: pizza, hot wings, and salads. However, Mr. Pagonis added a couple of sandwiches and salads from this native Greece. These dishes he added have gone over well with his clientele. Mr. Pagonis also changed his beer sponsor in order to better compete with Sons�s competition. The competition, Steverino�s, which is located right beside Sons of Athens, currently is sponsored primarily by Budweiser and Bud products. Mr. Pagonis, therefore, changed his primary beer line to Miller Lite products. By doing so, the Miller Lite distributor built him a new counter space to hold, chill, and dispense the beer. Mr. Pagonis also started a new beer sales campaign. This campaign began by selling 32 ounce mugs that had a Sons of Athens graphic design full of beer. The initial cost of the beer filled mug for the customers is around $3.00 to $4.00 and the refills on the mugs is around a dollar less. Sons also has the $1.00 bottled beer special which is attractive for the lunch and early afternoon crowds. The service from Sons of Athens also changed. Mr. Pagonis included more girls at the front counter more of the time in order to better serve the customers needs. Mr. Pagonis did so in order to counter-balance the rush crowds and heavy business months. The aforementioned service requested of the girls consists of 1) taking food orders from customers for both pick-up or delivery, 2) refilling beer, 3) busing tables, and 4) cashier of all the orders. During the rush hours and busy months this job is very demanding and fast paced. However, this restaurant, like many other restaurants, has its off periods and problems. The one problem that the Dos Equis group found when evaluating this restaurant is the fact that there was no official work schedule for the girls. The goal set for our group is to remedy a solution for schedule quandary. An otherwise well organized businessman, Mr. Pagonis preferred to call the scheduling of the girls work hours as he saw it fit for business that particular week. Mr. Pagonis�s current method of scheduling girls to work is by calling them a day or two in advance, asking if it were convenient for the girls to come into work. The proposal that the Dos Equis group is issuing to Sons of Athens is a work schedule that maximizes working hours, maximizes worker output, and offers better customer relations. The proposed schedule is based on the working hours that Mr. Pagonis already required (5:00pm - 1:00am). The work schedule will consist of two types of work time slots labeled slot A and slot B. Slot A will require work from 5:00pm through 1:00am everyday of the week. Slot B will require work hours from 8:00 to 1:00 from Tuesdays through Saturdays. The reason to add slot B is to compensate the work load for the busiest hours involving the most customers. Historically, the busiest days are Tuesday - Saturday and are the only days that need two girls working. However, Sons has had two girls working every night which wastes 15 hours of paid work. The differing time slots are also set up because the customers between 5:00 and 8:00 are primarily for food orders and can be handled by one girl. The additional slot is set to help with the beer sales. The proposed schedule will reduce the number of total paid hours worked by the girls from 112 hours per week down to 81 hours. Sons of Athens currently has six girls working. Implementing this schedule will reduce the paid hours worked by 31 hours. This allows the business to reduce the number of girls to five. Reducing the number of girls by one, Sons will still have the girls only averaging around 16 paid work hours per week per girl. Lowering the average number of hours worked per week helps to get the most out of each employee. The reduction of work hours will also allow the girls to be able to conform there schedule to their work schedule. Choosing their own work schedule, the girls will hopefully be able to be the most productive. After the evaluation of Sons, the Dos Equis group decided that there is no downside to an official schedule. The girls who work at Sons are all students. Therefore, the girls will choose their own schedule at the beginning of each quarter and are responsible finding someone to work if they cannot work themselves. An official schedule will hopefully cut down on the employee turnover which currently is fairly high. The schedule our group decided on is based on business during the Spring, Summer, and Fall quarters. A separate schedule could be made for Winter quarter. As a group, the schedule designated for the girls of Sons of Athens will be effective and make the restaurant more worker efficient.