Search results

Cheese is rallying. The block market is trading at 2.00 and I don’t think we’ve seen these prices since 2008, or if we did it was only momentarily. The reports are that dairy prices will remain high through at least the first half of 2014. Are you making any changes? Our business is UP, the...

I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately… I’m coming up on the 10 year anniversary of signing my lease and jumping head first into this business. So, I decided to go check out the Think Tank of old. It was 10 years ago that I first found the TT and starting reading, and reading, and reading. I went...

I’m looking for a solid full-time cook and it’s looking like I need about $10/hr to get somebody worthwhile. Wondering if this is in the ballpark of what everybody else is paying these days. This cook would be responsible for a lot of prep while being the primary day-time cook and being a top...

We were slow tonight, so I decided to do some data analysis on my customers. I track customers using their Lifetime Value (LTV) since that’s what really matters… how much will the customer make me over the course of their lifetime. I calculate this using the customer’s average gross margin per...

Just curious… I know a lot of indies and small regionals don’t really compete with the Big 3 for customers, but I’m guessing many do. I’d like to hear from some of those that do go head to head with PH or PJ, and what kinds of strategies you have for doing so.

For those that think it’s a good idea to blast text your list of non-opt-in phone numbers: http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/13/technol … apa-johns/ This isn’t going to touch PJ’s corporate, only franchisee that participated. The penalty is $500 per text, possibly $1,500 per text if it is ruled...

It seems like over the past 3 months it has become increasingly difficult to get any traction with Facebook posts. My posts (to 5,000 fans) used to get at least 2,500 impressions. I’m starting to have trouble cracking 1,000 lately. Small impressions means small interaction, and that means my...

Does anybody have any experience with reducing their open days? When I opened 8 years ago I had nothing but time. I was single, childless and living in an apartment. Unlike the VAST majority of independents where I’m located, I opened 7 days per week. Go forward 8 years, and I’m now married...

We’re getting ready to launch a loyalty program and along with that I’m going to be adding tiered levels for our best customers - Gold, Silver, Bronze or something like that - that they can move into with purchasing behavior. I need some ideas of what kinds of perks to give to these different...

… because I can’t find a decent employee to save my life right now. I have positions paying upward of $10.00 per hour and I can’t find reliable people to fill them. They come dressed ridiculously for interviews, are late on their first day, can’t follow simple instructions, and everything in...

Does anybody know how to get to the evaporator coil on a True prep table? I’m decently versed in refrigeration but I can’t figure this one out. The placard next to the fan says “Do not operate with evaporator cover removed” but the only thing that appears to have screws is the fan cover. I...

Is there a rule of thumb for going from active dry yeast to instant yeast? We’ve been using active dry yeast for years but I want to take the guess work out of hydrating it. Aside from quantity, will I have to make any temperature changes?

We just need an average Sunday tomorrow at our first store to have a record week - this coming off of October being our 3rd best month ever. This is with significantly less discounts, less food cost, less labor and less advertising than we were running a year ago at this time - all leading to...

Daddio, I know it’s a fairly long way from you but have you ever visited the County of Forty Mile?

The CME thread reminded me of something I stumbled across a couple months ago and forgot to post about. Some new ETF’s have hit the market recently that might enable us small guys to actually hedge some of our costs, including cheese, flour and meat. Teucrium Corn Fund - This fund is designed...

I just noticed this new forum: viewforum.php?f=15 It seems like Kamron has been “off the radar” of the pizza world for a while. I remember he penned a few articles for the other magazine and then he seemed to have vanished, at least around the forums. Kind of the same thing with Dave Ostrander.

Had a customer order tonight and use a coupon on a combo package - Pizza, Salad and Bread for $19.99. Full price would be $28.77, so the computer is set to discount the pizza $8.78 to arrive at the proper price. The menu price of the pizza is $16.29, so the pizza price shows up on the receipt as...

I posted this on POSRoundtable too, but I thought I would try here as well since it’s more heavily visited… I’m trying to create a report that tells me how many half toppings we sell. I’m attempting to do this by analyzing the “Receipt Description” in the OrderItems table and determining if it...

Just a survey to see what everybody is doing. We used to charge slightly extra for half toppings, then we stopped, but we’re considering doing it again as a way to offset the rising cost of food/supplies. Do you charge 50% for a half topping? Most expensive half? Something in between?

Well, I know how to account for breaking them. I guess the question is really when to break them. I’m ordering new gift cards and I got to thinking about this problem. Our gift cards are issued without expiration dates, as were our gift certificates before using gift cards. I have open gift...