Is gobpile still around? Wondering how its going?
i was thinking the same thing this week…
give them a call
613 438 pile
What on earth is Gobpile?
You must be new 
Search the archives. This is an owner who was having a really hard time, and we all tried our dead level best for weeks to help them through their hard time and off the bring of closure. Damned fine poeple fighting to make their way in the pizza world . . . with a bad leg and two arms tied behind their backs at one point. Turned a corner and were coming out of the funk.
It’s quite possible they gave up the ghost. I’ll call tomight or tomorrow and see if they are still around.
i called that # its disconnected.
if i remember, a few weeks ago she was locking the doors.
Not what we wanted to hear, but closure was imminent.
Website’s blank, too. HOLD THAT THOUGHT . . . their page came u just now.
Their number is 618
Call (618) 438-PILE (7453)
I spoke to the manager, and they are still at it!! I didn’t ask too much detail about their success level, but I am very happy they answered. I asked the manager to tell Ms. Gobpile we are asking about her on the Think Tank.
(BTW, Ms. Gobpile’s name is Laura White)
Thanks Nick,
My first smile of the day.You guys make me laugh and feel really good!!! Yes we are still holding on.
Nick, Regeanna told me that you called today. Thanks for caring! I wish we had been there to take your call. Bill and I actually get to take some time off today and tomorrow (We were there early this morning though).
We are still struggling, but there has been some interesting developments take place and I’m not sure that I should discuss it on PMQ and if I did, it would be a long blog. We still have a very, very long way to go. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that I now, finally have a great crew. Yes most of them are high school students, but boy are they excited about working for us and have so many good, new ideas. They want to make the tips, they want the place to look clean and fun. They are taking the initiative and working the customers (we were mainly self-service). My new drivers are hauling in the tips (why is it that girls make better tips than guys?). My front-line is pre-bussing, talking to the customers and . . . yes . . . making the tips.
Summer season has started, the campgrounds are full, tourists are in the area. We are about 2 miles from Rend Lake and are getting that business now. Friday night one of my delivery drivers took an order to one of the campgrounds and got a $21.00 tip. People are making certain that before they leave, they tell us how great our pizzas and service are.
We do have great pizza - we finally (thanks to PMQ) got it right. Our dough is wonderful. We haven’t sold a thin crust pizza in over a month because everyone wants our hand tossed. They know our pizzas are made fresh daily.
We always got the high school crowd at lunch because we fed them buffet for $4.83 (that includes the drink). That was the student discount. Now that school is out we thought we would lose them, but noooooooo, we hired a few high school kids and now they are making it the place for the kids to go and they are paying full price for buffet and ordering our subs and pastas too.
We talked with all the campground hosts, told them about us, took them pizza and mentioned that we have free WIFI Internet. They have been passing out our flyers to the campers and campers are coming in to eat and use our internet.
Thanks to my new crew and my manager, Regeanna and my night manager, Lacy, we have changed the seating around, changed the lighting to make it more intimate, added candle lighting to the tables, changed the music format and we are looking at having seasonal themes. They have been working on in store marketing and coming up with some good ideas.
It’s almost like when we first opened and were all excited. This crew is excited, they want to have fun, they want to make money and they all like each other and like working with each other. In the last two weeks, the stress level in the store has gone way down because everyone works well together and has no complaints.
Sales are slowly going up. Holidays have never been good to us, we thought that this weekend would be horrible, but it has been pretty good.
I still need the $60,000.00 but I can honestly say now that it wouldn’t be good money going after bad.
I find this most interesting. You mentioned wanting to make the place more intimate. I don’t see free wi-fi and intimacy going together – an odd combination in my mind.
Having said that, my pipe dream pizza joint would have wired connections to every table and wireless as well. My store would be in a college town and would be promoted for having internet connectivity. However, I’d still want it to be a place where you’d want to take a date. I’m trying to figure out how to make the store work as both a study venue for high school and college kids, family-friendly, and a place for date night all at the same time. Studying and computing would seem to want a lighter environment while intimacy would require a little less light.
I’m trying to think of a restaurant that could make all of that work. Chili’s is the best I can think of, but it’s not really a “date” spot.
Now I’m just thinking out loud.
(sticking with the Chili’s theme…) What about a double-row of booths with a wall in between that’s tall enough so you can’t just “look over” at the booth on the other side of the wall… have the pendant lights overhead like Chili’s does, now add an outlet (GFCI I’m guessing) toward the top of the wall with a dimmer and internet jack there as well. Maybe have the dimmer accessible without standing, but make the outlet and jack pretty high so little kids can’t hurt themselves. The outlet would be for laptops (which all have batteries so not really required and probably more of a safety hazard than anything). The dimmer switch could make the table as light or dark as the people at that table would like. The wattage of the bulb could be adjusted to ensure you’re not getting spotlights.
Again, just thinking out loud as you mentioned internet and intimate.
Knowing that their number one aim is getting customers in the door, I see the connection (pardon the pun). I also have looked at their space, and it is very defintiely large enough to have variations on a theme. WiFi is an inconspicuous connection, and they can very easily corral the users over to one area of another.
Really, it is strange to me for anyone to key on the difference between “WiFi and intimate” rather than “buffet and intimate”. I can see either and both being done . . . . just have to have a plan and an idea for the identity.
We actually have all that you mention. Our lighting was very stark with the pendant lighting over the tables and booths and then flourescent lighting. We shut off the flourescent lights. Computer screens are much easier to see in a muted light. We have 12 booths that are divided and you can’t see over they have pendant lighting. We also have 3 booths by large windows and 3 booths by a wall - all with pendant lighting also. The rest of the front tables have pendant lighting some are by large windows, some aren’t. In the back area, there are 9 tables, some 4 seaters, some six seaters and an 8 seater. This area does not have pendant lighting, however, we keep this closed unless it is booked for a party or we get slammed and need the seating. We did create a seating area in the front by the counter, a 2 seater table and a 4 seater table (our video games were here). These tables have candle lighting.
We are strictly wireless internet. We have outlets everywhere except where the middle section of booths are.
You have to understand that our restaurant is 3000 square feet and can seat up to 120 people.
Sounds to me like we own your “dream restaurant”. We’ll accept an offer . . . lol
I didn’t know Gobpile was a chick! That explains why everyone is so excited to help. Alot of times people get blown off on the boards. I guess if your a chick and ask the pizza guys to jump, they all will say how high.
That was rude and uncalled for
Yeah really. Try and show some class.
That morons post should be taken off by our moderators.
Mostly, she came humbly to the boards telling us that they were at their wits end, answered questions to help give the bigger picture, and was receptive to feedback . . . both positive and negative. She posted an initial contact and introduction that was extremely detailed, provided lots and lots of background that included what they had tried and her assessment of the problems. it was 57 lines . . . 709 words . . . 3,000 characters in length. Read the thread and see how it developed. 5800 views and 70 posts to the thread means LOTS of people were paying attention and pitching in.
No questions like “My place is struggling, so tell me how to fix it”, or any of the other generalized and not as well informed questions that pop in here. She genuinely came across to me as someone asking us to help their ownership team to help themselves. Laura is one person on a team of people working to keep their business alive . . . . who cares what gender, as long as she was open and not some much of a smart @ss as some people have been along the months I’ve been here.
If that chaps somones tender parts or bunches up their boxers, then I am sorry that is the result. Call it collateral damage or unintended consequences.
Gob-Pile Pizza (and their management team) in Southern Illinois is an prime example of what can happen when owners come to the 'Tank with their sleeves rolled up and ready for action . . . . and some of the minds on the 'Tank fire up the engines with some ideas and assessments. sometimes they work out well . . . and sometimes the teamwork gets the owner through another day/week/month to help them fire up their own engines to keep moving up.
Anonymous writes:
I didn’t know Gobpile was a chick! That explains why everyone is so excited to help. Alot of times people get blown off on the boards. I guess if your a chick and ask the pizza guys to jump, they all will say how high.
You MUST be kidding. What a dweeb. That frame of mind is what separates adults from children.
-J_r0kk
Hopefully he shines that attitude to his women customers. We love patronizing meatheads.