I have been away for some time. It’s nice to come back and see the seasoned and newbies. I have been entrenched in my businesses. As most of you know, I have been a grande user for over 20 years along with calling a 16" a large. With the increase in competition and the cost of doing business skyrocketing, I had to have a business soul searching mission.
I now call my 16" a extra large
I switched from grande to sorrento
I raised prices
I removed slow sellers from my menu
I made a idiot proof daily sheet that shift leaders sign…I went as far to have on the daily to do sheet to pick up all lids in the corner of the floor(you know that corner area under the sink that always has a lid/fork etc…)
…and more
Good for you! It takes moxie to make changes like that. If I could be so bold as to ask, I would like a copy of your list. I would like to see what I have missed on my list.
I saw a show on tv tonight about http://www.thegrilledcheesetruck.com and think I would like a change…6 staff at times and selling over 500 sandwiches at a stop…3,000.00 + in sales…Not bad cash for a truck…
Congrats! I have been struggling with calling my 16" pizza a large for the last 5 years. I am thinking about changing it to “extra large” because of all the advertisements from the big three calling a 14" a large. Pizza Hut is about to open in my town it will be the first national chain in the area and I think I need to call my sizes the same as they do so people don’t get confused about my my large cheese pizza is $6.00 more then theirs. Was the switch confusing for customers? I would also love a copy of your list if possible.
I have been dealing with the same problem too. I took over an existing pizza shop that specialized in New York Style pizza. They had a 14" small a 16" medium and an 18" Large. We kept the large and downsized the medium to 14" and the small to 12". No complaints about those size adjustments, not a one.
We added a 10 inch to try to build lunch business. My biggest regret is not calling the 10 a small, 12 a medium, 14 a large and 18 extra large. I mean, I know New York Style is bigger and you want to wow people when they get a large, but the average Midwestern pizza buyer is just comparing you to the big three and every other pizza shop in town. I make sure all ads, coupons promotions, etc… accentuate the diameter not just the size, but people still don’t get it. They hear large unlimited toppings for 10 bucks and they compare your large deal to that. My new thing is trying to call our 18 inch “The Monster” to put the sense of huge in peoples’ heads. It also will eliminate confusion in the heads of my young staff. I will likely bite the bullet one day and change the sizes appropriately, but that will not be easy. i already know my staff will screw things up at least for a little while and secondly our deep regular base will be disappointed when they get a smaller pizza if they weren’t told by staff. It is unfortunate, but has to be done. Until then, we bring you the 18 Inch “Monster”. Good post and I feel all of your collective pains.
working on my new menu now - doing the same things upping prices, deleting slow sellers, and have to many sizes to choose from right now 7" personal, 10" small, 12" medium, 14" large, 18" extra large & 28" MONSTER - deleting the 10" and instead of listing as small medium, ect… just going to have sizes and slices on the menu example 12" 8 slices feeds 2-3 14" 10 slices feeds 3-4 ect. was thinking about getting rid of the 28" but we don’t really make special dough for it i just press to 18" doughballs together and actually they do sell pretty good. so instead of removing the monster just issued a monster pizza eating contest words really buzzing hadn’t had any takers yet but issuing a press release soon. and although haven’t had any takers have seen a rise in monster sales 1 because of all the hype and 2 because i think they are taking it home and seeing if the could do it without embarrssing thereself either way cha-ching!