Just thought I would share a marketing idea I just saw in an issue of “Cooking for Profit”. It is a magazine that we receive, compliments of our local gas company, but it is based out of Wisconsin, so maybe some of you receive it also.
Anyway, they suggested creating a postcard to send to people in your area who are having garage sales (you just have to look at the local newspaper to get the addresses). The postcard mentions how hectic garage sales are and offers a deal for the customer. The sample postcard they showed made the offer good only for the day of the sale, but around here (St. Louis) people usually have their garage sales on Wednesday and then the following Saturday. I am going to send out the cards so that they receive them the day or two before their sale and make the offer good until the following Sunday. That way they could use it the night before when they are busy setting up their stuff, the day of the sale when they don’t want to cook, or the following Sunday when they want to relax after their sale.
I will be starting this the week of July 9th to target garage sales that week. Just thought I would pass along what sounds like a very good idea to possibly target some new customers, plus it is inexpensive to do, especially if you print out your own postcards (which is what I plan to do).
Darned cool sounding project. It is an example of snowball or domino marketing . . . the yard sale people order pizzas for lunch, then the customers see and smell and get first-hand word of mouth feedback and can order later that day.
Do let us know if you get any takers and how it all goes. I got a desktop publishing program, and I’m not affraid to use it . . . for a small project like this.
When you get people ordering from your yard sale postcard I’d ask them if it’d be ok if your driver left them some menus and coupons to lay on the table they’re using as a check-out counter.
If you’re offering them a good deal to help feed them through their busy yard sale they might feel obligated to help you out.
Also, if you find that the yard sale gives you good results maybe you can offer some advertising in your front lobby or on your box toppers. You advertise their sale and they make sure they hand out coupons, a menu and tell each customer how great your pizza is.
Great Idea! There is one draw back in my city. The garages sale ads are only printed in the Friday paper for the weekend which means the postcard could not be mailed in time to be useful.
sarah is this a salary person?
heres what I did
I had the EXACT thing happen to me.
I mean the exact, I printed out a list that was mandatory that he had to fax with check marks and signitures, always got the list but the work wasnt always done…late rushes or what ever the excuse…
so what I did was I sit haim down after the second time and said I need to bring in someone else to close the store. YOU are perfect running the store, but when it came to closing there is a big issue, now we talked how this would effect him. I was going to run a trial week, his salary was cut 65.00 a week to compensate (I had my cousin come in but he didnt know we were related) he was allowed to leave at 9. at the end of the week he wanted to return to closing
since then NO PROBLEMS but its only been 3 months.
In a similar vein, I have been told by a rtired pizza owner that he would take 100 menus and a coupon for a free large pizza to a garage sale 1st thing in the morning. He would offer the free pizza to the garage sale holder if they would simply hand out his flyers. He said that this worked pretty well and almost always the people did in fact hand out the flyers. He got new people to sample his product (albeit free) but also got exposure to many others. He said since he would hit as many sales as he could in a day that sometimes people that were out “garage saling” woudl get 4 or 5 of his flyers and they figured they might as well give it a try. I will be doing this soon with my new store!
i think this would be a great opportunity for kyle.
let me explain…
you see at a garage sale, people are getting rid of all there crap. and others come and bargain with the seller to negotiate a lower price. sort of like kyle selling his pie for 1.99. he let the market dictate his cheap price just to outsell the other whores on the block. in the end, nobody is a winner. the customer gets a lousy purchase, weather it’s a pizza or an old toaster, and the seller gets a few quarters.
only in america
Actually it seems to be “Only in the Detroit area” is more appropo. I see a lot of people selling pies for much more than my market will bear. I say good for them. I may even look at moving somewhere that I can sell a large 1 topping for $12 or $13! That would be great! I could actually make a living at those prices.