Data engineering · Durham, NC
Data engineering for Durham restaurants and downtown shops
Durham's downtown has close to 150 restaurants and bars, so a diner has plenty of choices and an owner has plenty of competitors. Our pipeline puts your records beside public ones and shows where you stand. It runs from collection through cleaning and analysis to a chart.
Durham data engineering for a crowded dining scene
With so many places to eat, small differences decide where a table fills. Your own records say how many covers, which dishes and which nights. Public pages say what others charge and how many reviews they hold.
We gather both into one table, one row per sale or per listing. Scraping stays on public pages, within each site's terms, and your own data comes from your register and booking tool.
Cleaning the Durham numbers before comparing
A menu item rung up three ways makes a bestseller look weak. A review count copied with stray symbols won't add. Cleaning fixes the labels and turns text into numbers.
Only then does analysis help. We answer questions like which weeknights carry the week, and a chart makes the answer plain.
Holiday weeks and event nights
Downtown keeps a busy holiday calendar, from a tree lighting at CCB Plaza to Sip & Sleigh shopping day. Dated sales let a retailer or a bar compare those days with a plain Saturday.
The farmers' market on Foster Street is another weekly marker for a food seller. Rows from market days show what travels well and what sits.
Where Durham history shows up in the data
Parrish Street was once known as Black Wall Street, and the American Tobacco district reinvented old warehouses as places to eat and work. New owners in those blocks start with no history of their own.
We help you start a record from the first week, so a year on you can read your own pattern instead of guessing. A new restaurant that logs covers by night and dish builds its own first read, and that read is yours to keep.
Questions from Durham owners
Can you see what competing restaurants charge?
We can collect prices and review counts that sit on public pages and are open to it. We stay within each site's terms. We won't touch private accounts.
My point-of-sale export is a mess. Is it fixable?
Usually. Cleaning exists for this. We standardize names, merge duplicates and convert prices, then tell you what the data can and can't answer.
Is there free help in Durham besides you?
Yes. The Durham Tech Small Business Center gives free one-on-one counseling and workshops. We handle data work, and many owners use both, so a counselor may send you our way when a question comes down to your numbers.
Sources for the facts on this page: Downtown Durham, Inc. · Durham Farmers' Market
Book a free call about your Durham records
Pick 15 or 30 minutes on the contact page, and tell us whether the question is about menus, prices or slow nights. If you prefer to meet in person, say so in the form.