The biggest threat to local pizzerias is internal. I know that is not what they want to hear… the inclination is to look outside for threats.
The external is predictable and noisy. If the indy/local pizzeria fails to give the customer a reason to order from them (and that reason is NOT price!), fails to differentiate themselves by creating an identity and role in the community they are vulnerable to loosing the cost/price game and disappearing.
Perhaps another way to say it is that the challenge comes from outside but the threat is the failure to meet the challenge… and that threat is internal. Don’t respond or respond ineffectively and you loose but the difference is what each indy/local chooses to do and not the external conditions they contend with.
The external world is changing. In particular the customer is looking for businesses that communicate directly with them. To that end indy stores need to ramp up their customer direct contacts and quickly. Again the conditions that create the challenge are external but the threat is failure to act and that failure is internal.
Get them into our contact system so we can reach out directly to them. Whether that is getting them to like our FB page or better yet to order online so we track their activity and can communicate directly with them, being able to connect is key to keeping them coming back.