Grande Cheese Prices

Pizza Shop Talk The Think Tank
21

I’ll never understand it, unless someone can tell me that they actually make more money because they spend twice what I do on cheese.

Drinking the “grande” kool-aid would cost me about $80,000 per year. Maybe that’s why they call it “Grande”.

22

I agree it is a great product,but at those prices highly overated. If we could only market like them to make people pay anything we ask for our pizza , now were on to something.

23

We really like Grande, but are considering alternatives because the price is getting silly. If the customer is not bowled over, it really is not worth it.

24

whole milk loaf 2.26 lb

25

$2.19/lb for Grande WM shredded this week.

26

Pie bar-

Where are you located, and who is your supplier?

27

Whole milk mozz. at 1.97

and provonello at 2.00

I am happy!!!

I have built my business with Grande and switching now would piss off a lot of my customers.

28

Kissimmee, FL…Bari Foods

29

Not to go off topic , but has anyone taken advantage of the marketing offering that Grande offers their hundred percenters. I would think that program alone would help offset the higher prices. Especially with the return percentages they claim. I currently use their provolone and blend it Sorento Mozz. I’m thinking of switching to all Grande and wanted to hear anyones thoughts. Again, sorry if this is off the topic.

Pizzaviking

30

Well I have been using Grade WM Diced
I have been paying $82 a case(whatever the lb cost}
All I can say is that the Best pizza in NYC is Joe and Pats on staten Island.(read about them on the web}
They use loafs of Grande WM and make big chunks to put on their pies.(no dice or shredded}
They charge $19 for a large pizza 8 slice and $16 for a small 6 slice pie.
People have been buying pizza from them since the mid 60s,and very thin pizza.I wish I could copy their sauce…
Place is always packed and on weekends you will wait forever for your pizza.
So to me if you want to stay in business,stick with Grande.If you start changing every other day you will be out of business.
To me Grande is the best and you can taste it.
I used their East Coast Blend for a few months but I am back to the WM from them…JT

31

I just got my first shipment of their promotional material. I’m not really sure what to do with the stuff or how it’s supposed to be any huge boost to my sales. The stickers are nice for box toppers and there were a couple of cases of flyers that I can print a “Special Deal” on the bottom, with the top talking about the better quality of independent stores. But, none of that stuff is actually promoting me that much. We’ll see.

32

Rather than copy their cheese without their ovens, sauce and dough recipe . . . I suggest doing what they have obviously struck on. Find the blance of flavors and textures using YOUR sauce, dough oven and cheese options. Grande does not make a good a pizza in my oven with my sauce. We gotta have the provolone nuttiness to round out our pies the way I want them to taste. The high fat content of the grande cheeses ovepowers my somewhat more subtle sauce, and the color is just wrong coming out of the oven. I can either use a higher spiced sauce concept, or stick with a more subtle cheese. Once we get better with our BP 600 ovens and put them into production line, that may all change.

PS, without knowing the per lb cost, are you sure your cost of food is in line with your pricing?

33

Hummmmm at $82 a case of Grande,guess it cost around 2.70 and somewhat cents a lb…
I am happy selling my pizza at $15 for a large plain pizza.
Yep I see many people selling their pizza 2 for $15.00.
But I think people enjoy my pizza and as the others that have to have SALES will
be out of business soon…
I will not change from Grande WM
As for Joe and Pats pizza in NYC,I feel its the BEST (They were on the food channel}
For the ones that are complaining,just raise your prices.If the people don’t come back then you
know you don’t have the best pizza in the area…JT

34

I’ve used a LMWM from Leprino for 18 years about 3 years ago I started using LMWM Salute block from Roma…I switched to Grande about 4 months ago.

I use the same amount and I like everyone else have been paying the higher price ($2.83+).

But with the economy being as it is we will be going back to using the Salute (pre-shred)…the orginal reason we switched was because our vendor wasn’t moving the Salute block cheese and we were getting cheese 70-90 days old and you just can’t grate block cheese that old.

Salute is as close as you can get to a knock-off of Grande.

35

. . . blink . . . blink . . .

36

This johnnytunials guy is a home pizzamaker, he doesn’t have a shop. He constantly shills for Grande over at pizzamaking.com in the same nutty manner:

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,7590.msg65128.html#msg65128

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,7620.msg65435.html#msg65435

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,7171.0.html

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,7300.msg63151.html#msg63151

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,7264.msg63058.html#msg63058

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,6818.msg58878.html#msg58878

I think it’s safe to say no one is paying him $15 for his pizza.

37

busted

38

So, I called in my rep last Friday to tell him that I wanted him to get me some samples of some of the cheeses you all have suggested and told him that I thought it was unacceptable that my prices for Grande were not adjusting with the market. He said he’d ask about it and would get samples, but it would take some time.

But guess what? All of a sudden :roll:, my cheese price drops $.20/lb this week! (even though it hasn’t changed in the 2+ previous months since I started using it) That gave me a chuckle, then I had a message from the Grande regional guy on my desk today saying he was going to be in the area next week and wanted to stop by and see how we were doing.

39

What a coincidence!

40

Perhaps he is just one of grande’s uputtie reps!