So how was tonight for everybody?
Halloween used to be one of our biggest days in our first few years, but lately the local churches go all out with festivals for the kids including food, rides and entertainment and that has bitten into our party. Having the 31st fall on a Sunday did not help either being here on the right hip area of the Bible Belt. We were about 15-20% above an “average” Sunday, it’s hard to say because our Sundays vary greatly.
Rick
Friday - 20% higher
Saturday- 60% higher
Sunday - 100% higher
totally understaffed. didn’t expect it.
Funny, my wife had just told me about all these church functions going on tonight. We were 19% off from last year. Last Halloween was our biggest day ever period. Considering last year was a Saturday its easy to see that this year would not be as great on a Sunday. Still a really good day but we were definitely over staffed – except for maybe 45 minutes.
today was our busiest day ever. our 4th halloween, it was just nuts. about 400% of a avg sunday. This weekend i basically did in sales what I did the whole week, the same week last year. (if that makes sense)
We open at 4:00 on Sundays and by 5:30 we had hit our average sale for Sunday. We ended up the night with one order more than we had on Saturday night (which are usually about double Sundays sales) .
We were very busy here also(Pennsylvania). Trick or treat night is always on the Thursday before Halloween so we were actually busier that night. I think the Steelers game being on at 8:20 helped us out even more yesterday.
I am amazed by these big numbers you all seem to do for Halloween. Why do you think it is a big day where you are? This was our 11th Halloween and it has never been anything but a below average day. With pretty much the entire town out on the street from 5-7, the regular dinner is DEAD and followed by a later than usual rush after 7PM that takes us back to a lackluster total.
I think it is extrmely busy for delco shops for a couple of reasons. We get a huge rush from 4:00-6:00 pm with parents trying to feed the kids something quick and easy before they go trick or treating. Mom is busy tending to the costumes and doesn’t have time to cook. We then get a small rush at 7:00 or 7:30 with the moms who didn’t feed their kids beforehand scrambling to get them something to eat before they eat all of their candy. Then around midnight, the halloween partys make the phone ring off the hook. Partying + drinking= lots of pizza deliveries. Last year we had one of our best after midnight rushes we have ever had. This year falling on a Sunday, not so much so.
We are a Delco too, but in our town the whole family is out from 5-7 and most of the rest of town is too. Nobody is at home.
We close at 9PM, so no midnight madness for us.
We do not deliver. It was our first Halloween being open. We were down by 50+% from our average Sunday. I’ve got to get delivery up and running…
Really not a big deal for me either here, I do maybe 10% more than daily average (this is my 3rd).
Same here Indie. The only worse holiday for us is Super Bowl Sunday.
Aside from that, its terrific that everyone had a super sales day!!! Perhaps that will carry over for 2011…
We had an unusual Halloween this year. We are located right on the state line so we sevice 2 towns. One town had there trick or treat on Friday night which spiked our normal Friday nights even more. The other town held there’s one Sunday which was another good night for us,so we had double the volume for one holiday.
Located on the state line, how do you handle sales tax? No tax due on the deliveries made in the other state?
Being our first Halloween, but closed on Sundays, we wanted to do something to get “their” attention a bit. We are located just a 1/2 block off our business district and very visible. The local Chamber sponsors a kid’s costume parade so we printed up a handful of “good for 1 8” single topping" dine in/twelve and under" coupons, and used them as our trick or treat offerings.
After handing out only a few in the crowd, our place was stuffed with families getting their coupon. Most of these folks hadn’t been in to visit us yet so it provided a great way to let them get check us out a bit. We rang up over $480 in sales with coupons attached that night alone. We have an expiration date of 11-30-10 on them, and we’ve seen a nice return on each “free” pizza coupon that comes in.
Halloween night 3:30 to 6:30 is always our busiest three hours of the year.
Halloween was on a Sunday here and sales were lower than other Halloween’s but higher than a normal Sunday.
The funny thing is that election day Tuesday sales doubled!
pt