Sonoran Taco Shop (STS)¶
Sonoran Taco Shop, Inc. — the crew café at the yard. It serves the crew a grab-and-go breakfast and one hot lunch each workday, priced so the food pays for itself. It carries its own cook on its own books; no other company in the group subsidizes it.
🎯 Headline metrics (base case: 15 crew, ~21 workdays/mo)
| Metric | Target | Actual | Variance | As-of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net company cost / month | 🟡 ~$0 (break-even by design) | 🔴 | — | — |
| All-in cost / head / workday | 🟡 ~$12.63 | 🔴 | — | — |
| Meal price / head / day | 🟢 $12.50 ($4.50 breakfast + $8.00 lunch) | 🔴 | — | — |
| Cost recovery | 🟡 ~100% | 🔴 | — | — |
1. Ambition¶
Keep the Arizona Truck Group crew on the yard and fed without leaving for food — a reliable on-site café serving a simple grab-and-go breakfast and one hot lunch every workday, priced at full cost so it stands on its own books. The strategic point is time, not subsidy: nobody drives off the yard for a meal.
Framing note for human review
At true break-even pricing ($12.50/head/day), Sonoran Taco Shop is a convenience vendor, not an employee benefit — the crew pays roughly market rate, so there is no compensation/goodwill element. The entire justification rests on on-yard time savings (crew doesn't leave) and the convenience of healthy food on-site. This is a defensible but thinner thesis than a subsidized meal program.
Open strategic question (Brandon/Dennis): is a break-even on-yard café worth operating as its own entity, versus simpler alternatives (crew brings own lunch / a scheduled food truck)? The numbers below are honest either way; the go/no-go is a judgment call this plan surfaces rather than hides.
2. Where it fits¶
Internal services. No external market. "Customers" = the Arizona Truck Group crew working at the yard. Sonoran Taco Shop exists to serve the engine's logistics (keep crew on-site), not to compete in food service or to generate margin.
🟢 Confirmed
Internal-only crew café, breakfast + lunch, on-site, standalone break-even.
🔴 Gap — Daily headcount
Confirmed daily headcount (modeled at 15; range 10–20).
3. How it wins (operational model)¶
The win condition is simplicity and zero waste, achieved by removing choice:
- One item per meal per day; everyone eats the same. Breakfast rotates (burrito / bagels / breakfast sandwich); lunch rotates (beef tacos / chicken bowls / bean-cheese burritos / chicken tacos / nachos). The cook sets the day's item; the crew does not choose.
- Grab-and-go breakfast — handheld only, eaten while working, no sitting, no plates.
- One hot lunch — single dish cooked in volume, no self-serve line, no variety.
- Solo operator, 4 hrs/day — one cook preps, cooks, serves, cleans. One protein cooked per day; bases batched.
Removing choice is deliberate: choice is where waste and labor cost live, so both are designed out. This is how job-site crew kitchens actually run.
🟢 Confirmed
No-variety, one-meal-a-day, solo 4-hr cook, standalone.
4. How money flows¶
- Charge: the crew pays the full loaded cost per meal (~$4.50 breakfast, ~$8.00 lunch = ~$12.50/head/day). This is not a token and not a subsidy — it is cost-recovery pricing set so Sonoran Taco Shop breaks even on its own.
- Cost: food (COGS) + Sonoran Taco Shop's own cook + supplies. No margin sought; no cross-entity subsidy permitted (subsidizing Sonoran Taco Shop on another entity's books would falsify that entity's P&L — explicitly disallowed).
- Return to the engine: purely the time saved by the crew not leaving the yard for lunch. There is no financial-benefit element at break-even pricing — the value is logistical, not compensation.
5. Pro Forma — Standalone Break-Even Cost Model (15 crew, 21 workdays/mo)¶
A cost center designed to net ~zero. Built on stated assumptions.
Assumptions block¶
- 🟡 15 crew fed/day, ~21 workdays/month
- 🟡 Food COGS ~$6.00/head/day ($2 breakfast + $4 lunch), bulk/restaurant-supply sourcing
- 🟡 Cook 4 hrs/day @ ~$19/hr + ~12% burden ≈ $1,790/mo, on Sonoran Taco Shop's own books
- 🟢 Crew charge ~$12.50/head/day ($4.50 + $8.00) — set to break even
Projected P&L — Monthly model¶
| Line | Monthly | Per head/day |
|---|---|---|
| Food (COGS) | ~$1,890 | $6.00 |
| Labor — 4 hr/day @ $19/hr + burden | ~$1,790 | $5.68 |
| Supplies / paper / propane | ~$300 | $0.95 |
| Total cost | ~$3,980 | ~$12.63 |
| Crew charge ($4.50 + $8.00) | ~$(3,938) | $(12.50) |
| Net | ~$0 (break-even) | ~$(0.13) |
The ~$0.13/head/day residual is rounding; tune the lunch price by ~$0.15 to land exactly at zero once real costs are known.
Projected balance sheet¶
🔴 GAP — kitchen/equipment already on-site, or a one-time capex line (range, warmer, fridge, prep)? Capex is NOT in the break-even above — if equipment must be bought, it either adds to the price or is a separate capital decision.
Projected cash flow¶
The model is monthly cost-neutral by design. Sonoran Taco Shop contributes no operating cash flow; the engine's "return" is non-financial (time saved on-yard).
🔴 Gap — Cook classification
1099 or W-2? Changes burden.
🔴 Gap — Actual food sourcing
Channel + real per-head COGS once running.
6. Path to Delivery (operating plan)¶
Priority initiatives¶
- 🔴 Go/no-go decision (Brandon/Dennis): is a break-even on-yard café worth running vs. simpler alternatives? (See §1 framing note.) This gates everything below.
- 🔴 Confirm headcount + lock the weekly rotation (cook owns the calendar).
- 🔴 Establish bulk sourcing to hold COGS at ~$6/head — the lever that keeps the break-even price at ~$12.50 rather than higher.
- 🔴 Set crew-charge collection (payroll deduction vs. cash vs. tab).
- 🟡 Track meals/day + cost/head for the first 60 days to replace 🟡 assumptions with 🟢 actuals and tune price to exact break-even.
KPIs & cadence¶
- Meals served per day (volume + crew adoption %)
- Per-head cost actual vs. ~$12.63 target
- Net to break-even (residual subsidy if any)
- Food cost % of revenue
- Wage stability (no minimum-wage races to the bottom)
7. Risks¶
- 🟡 Price resistance — at full cost (~$12.50/day), the crew pays roughly market; some will opt out and bring their own food, dropping volume and breaking the per-head math (fixed labor spread over fewer meals raises the break-even price → a spiral). Volume sensitivity is the key risk.
- 🟡 Cost creep if sourcing drifts to retail grocery (COGS could rise ~50%, pushing the price higher).
- 🟡 Single-cook dependency — no backup if the cook is out.
- 🟡 Capex not in the model — equipment purchase is a separate decision that the break-even price doesn't currently carry.
- 🟢 Tax: at full cost-recovery pricing there is no fringe-benefit gift element (cleanest treatment).
8. Gaps (punch-list)¶
🔴 The go/no-go: is break-even Sonoran Taco Shop worth operating at all? (the central question this plan surfaces) · 🔴 daily headcount · 🔴 kitchen capex (existing vs. new) · 🔴 cook 1099-vs-W2 · 🔴 sourcing channel + real COGS · 🔴 crew-charge collection method · 🔴 break-even volume floor (below how many meals/day does the per-head price become uncompetitive?).
Honest summary for review: Sonoran Taco Shop can be structured to stand alone at break-even — the crew pays ~$12.50/head/day, Sonoran Taco Shop carries its own 4-hour cook, no entity subsidizes it. But at that price it is a convenience vendor, not a benefit, and its value reduces to keeping the crew on the yard. Whether that is worth running as its own entity is a genuine strategic judgment — surfaced here, not assumed.