Every year travelers ask us for recommendations on restaurants, nightclubs, cafes and spas in Miami Beach, but the one request we receive most often concerns hotels,

It's been a tough storm everywhere for us to deal with.

Restaurants are moving in the direction that consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers took some years ago. Continuous measurement and evaluation of marketing channels such as television, radio, internet and print and in-store promotions is either in practice or under consideration at a number of leading restaurant chains.

It is crucial that restaurants match sales with shipments. If demand for an item exceeds supply, individual restaurants are faced with either unhappy customers or higher costs when they have to place special orders at the last minute. Conversely, an over-supply of a product is an unnecessary expense. Pairing an automated marketing intelligence system with a sophisticated supply chain program virtually guarantees that a restaurant will have the products the customer wants.

We applaud Burger King Corp. for launching this program to replace these nets and improve playground safety at its restaurants nationwide,

Before we'd go out [on a mission] he make us all rub that little bag, for luck.