I just heard that Dominos is rolling out a nationwide program with Haagen Daz. We have been delivering Ben and Jerry’s for almost a decade with coupons for free pints and it has become kind of a local trademark for us. I don’t know how Dominos is planning to use it (free pints?) but I am not happy as this has been a good promotion for us for a long time.
I’ve been trying to find someone to buy pints from to resell with not much luck. Wish I could have beet them to the punch.
Paul,
In our market both HD and BJ are distributed by Meadowgold. I found out originally by calling Ben and Jerry’s and asking about the distribution. If you have any small local grocers or convenience stores that carry the pints you want, ask where they get them. (The big national chains have their own distribution)
So your store sells the ice cream with deliveries and for carryout and you give out coupons for free pints?
Yes, we deliver pints. The coupon for a free pint with a 16" pizza has been one of our most popular offers for 9 years. The menu price for the pint is $5. Giving it away costs $2.70. I would rather give something that costs me $2.70 than give a discount. The average ticket stays higher, the customer gets a $5 value.
We stock 6 flavors (fits across one shrlf in our double door freezer)
Very nice promo, may look into it for my own store as we are both in the same type market… Hope you don’t mind?
I can’t imagine anyone is going to switch from your quality pizza to Dominos so they can get HD. On the contrary, with the inevitable TV promotion they will use to launch this project, the customers will start to expect the local pizza joint to deliver icecream also. And can Pizza Hut be far behind? Those of us who don’t already deliver icecream may be the ones to suffer, not those of you who have an established program already.
We make our own icecream, but have not promoted it for delivery, just diningroom. Our approach will be to offer delivery of icecream, rootbeer or orange floats, shakes, and maybe some type of sundae…emphasizing the homemade and flavor of the month aspects
Where did you hear this? I’m unable to locate anything that talks about this. Inside news? How reliable?
I am also curious as to where this info came from? Domino’s does not have the ability to hold any frozen product in the stores as they do not have freezers. So unless they are going to demand that all stores add freezers, then how would they deliver ice cream? Also, my Domino’s Franchisee friends have heard nothing about this. Now, keep in mind that Domino’s and all Big chains are constantly testing products in different parts of the country to see what works and what doesn’t, so maybe they are testing in a small market the viability of adding ice cream. Just my 2 cents as a previous Franchisee.
i use edys grand pints
i also serve 16 flavors hard serve,cones, sundaes, splits,shakes.
i have them delivered straight from edys
Taknbake, All good points. I am just relaying what I heard from the distributor that will be supplying them. Small freezers are not a hard thing to find. Haagendaz may actually be supplying the freezers. I know other suppliers that have similar programs… But it is all hearsay.
Napoli, I agree with you on the minimal risk. It is more frustrating than anything else since it has been a very popular promotion for us that they could not touch. Actually another independant store copied the idea 5-6 years ago and actually got a lot a grief over it from the community for copying us. We have an annual “caberet” show every spring where the show pokes fun at local people and businesses. In that show our competitor took some hits after they copied that offer of ours and a couple of other advertising ideas. No names are mentioned, but the town is small enough that everyone knew what was up. In that sense, most locals will see the Dominos move as copying us and will not realize the program is bigger than that.
Garlic Jims sells pints locally.
I dont see great value for selling ice cream with terrible margins, with employee snacking and holding cost (unless the volume is there you are stuck with ice cream for long periods of time) and I have never seen a price quote from an owner here that would get my attention, selling ice cream for 5 bucks a pint when people can swing to the grocery store for much less…well that is my point.
On the dessert front, I tried the Pizza Glut for the first time in maybe 8 yrs to try their pasta and Hershey’s sticks…both were average to yucck.
I had the alfredo and they make it cheap, light on the cheese and chicken. The sticks were just their lousy bread sticks with some chocolate sprinkled on top and a dipping dish of chocolate…no sweet at all.
With their scale of operations I dont get why they dont mass produce more of a cookie type product and bring it in done rather than those thick, terrible sticks with some choc sprinkles on top. 5 bucks for that? No thanks.
Ice cream does not have terrible margins when you consider there is NO labor cost in it at all and it is an add-on sale, just grab and go; put another $2.30 gross margin in the bank. No prep, no make line, no cleaning, no condiments or boxes.
$5 for a pint of Ben and Jerry’s delivered to your door compares very nicely with driving across town to buy a pint for $3.50. Convenience is worth a lot. If people only shopped price they would buy $3 pizza at Safeway instead of ever buying from any of us.
Employee snacking? Not when you stock pints. Spoilage? Never happens. Ice cream sales run about 3% of gross which equals salads for me. Yes we give a lot of it away, most in fact. Again, $5 perceived value that costs $2.70. Keep your ticket average high, provide value rather than discount.
We go through about 80-100 pints a week when we are slammin… but hey, what ever works for you.
Lets think about it a little more.
What margins are you making on your regular menu items? Do you have 100% mark up? Of course not, the margins for COS are much better. I dont count out something because of labor involved, or the convenience of grab and go, rather the margin and sellability of the item in question.
I think there are BETTER alternatives than expensive HD or BnJ ice cream pints, like Dryers or even a local brand that you might have awareness for and you can make more of a margin.
I would even consider a HD BAR versus a pint, because you can buy them in greater bulk with better margin and a lower price point.
Often I scratch my head at why large suppliers dont offer products at competitive prices, say like a Sysco or US Foods, they dont offer these kind of side items at great prices day in and out with any selection. You are almost better served to shop ads and buy from the grocery store when it goes on sale than to pay higher prices through a distributor.
I have my views on what sells for side items, but that is for another conversation. I applaud you for selling that kind of volume, that was the disclaimer above…that most arent going to run through 100 pints a week unless you give it away as you do, thus the spoilage and snacking would occur more often than in your store.
No, there are not better ice cream alternatives when it comes to the perceived position of the product. Sure, there are cheaper ice creams… but that is the point, they are cheaper and do not enhance the image of a store with a reputation for providing the best. You mentioned Dryer’s. Dryer’s, Byers, whatever… are mass market brands; nothing special, therefor they fail… to provide something special. Differentiation is where pricing power comes from. The premium brand not only commands a higher price, but, by association it helps justify my higher prices. There are some local brands that are available in pints. They are something we are looking at; my concerns are that our tourist customers have not heard of the them and they are MORE expensive than B&Js, not less. (By the way, Ice cream bars, assuming you are using premium bars, have two problems; they melt before they get to the delivery address and they cost more rather than less since you have to give 4 of them in place of a pint)
The best part; it works. “FREE BEN & JERRYS” stops traffic in the local dining guide. Compared to the discounts offered on the national chain ads it is a better deal for me. I don’t want to discount product if I can avoid it. Providing added value instead maintains the premium positioning of the store. In a tourist driven market, I need to find very fast ways to convey the message that we are different and better otherwise the visitor will go with what they know. The brand of premium ice cream helps to do that, the value added sale rather than a discount reinforces it.
In the end it is gross margin $$, not gross margin %% that gets put in the bank. You have to count labor when labor is used to make something. The labor to make the dough and sauce, make the pizza, gas to fire the oven are all part of the picture. If you consider that the variable costs associated with selling a pizza are 50% of sales at best and 60% in many stores, the contribution margin %% of ice cream is just fine. If I had an alternative that would drive top line sales, lend brand identity, attract customers all while providing higher margins with no labor cost, of course I would look at it. So far, I have not found it, not that I have stopped looking.
I am sure that whatever you are doing works for you and that is great. I am in an environment where costs are high. Pizza makers are $10-$12 per hour. Assistant managers are $14-$18. Occupancy cost is about $30 per foot. There is a huge amount of advertising going on for a market this size, so to be visible, we spend about 30-35K on marketing. I need to keep the ticket average up and maintain the ability to charge premiun prices. To accomplish that I have to both provide a great product and find ways to convey the message that we are different and better.
If you are in a low volume, price sensitive market your reality is different. Hopefully your costs are low too.
adding pints and hard dip ice cream was one of the easiest things that i have done to increase the bottom line.
Who do you use for a supplier and do they provide the freezer?
I get straight from edys-dryers,haagen daz.
they are all nestle products.they will supply the freezer.
i bought my own they fill it for free.
Agreed, in the right market with higher product prices the Ben & Jerry’s promotion positions the store brand correctly (higher quality, value, value, value). The consumer in the fast casual segment who wants premuim pizza will jump all over this promotion.
I’m presently costing family meal combos using HD or B&J and plan to offer regular customers coupons for a free pint with any party pizza purchase. The tourists will not be offered this promotion unless a front desk agent or conceirge passes the promo on through my referral program.
bodegahwy,
Out of curiousity, how many pints do you give away a week and how many do you SELL.
That is a better, more applicable question.