Should we add dine in to my delco

one of my pizza places is a Delco and one is a delco-diner

My landlord came to me offering me 600 feet right next to my pizza place for 1.5 per foot. Currently we are at 2.00 per foot on 800 feet. He said if i take the other 600feet that he would drop my current rent to 1.5 and the new rent to 1.5 a foot to make the total new rent 2100 a month from 1600 a month that it was before

I countered him at 1.25 a foot on both spaces making it 1750 a month. And he said no.

So i think if we meet in the middle at 1.375 a foot on the 1400 total feet that rent would be 1925 total or a increase 325 per month.

I think for 325 a month its a no brainer on the dine-in . I cant imagine it costing us money in the end. I can build the dining room for 5k or so.

I was thinking if i market the new dining room, i could increase sales 15-20% rather easy, if its nice a cute looking like my other one.

Im going to make it look like this one. i dont see how i can go wrong. but im always open for input

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/29951_392393857964_563507964_4236031_6885596_n.jpg

Looks like you’re in the Driver’s seat. Lets look at your current situation. You’re a delco with no requirement for more space. Right? He’s got a small space that, I’m assuming, is very difficult to rent. Right? If those 2 assumptions are correct, he’s got to give some incredible offer to add more overhead to my business. He wants $900 a month for the space. If dine-in traffic was great for your location, you would’ve addressed it already. It might not be. Without knowing more about your location & traffic, I wouldn’t increase my expenses by more than $10K/year just because I could add 4 tables. He’d have to almost ‘give’ it to me for next to nothing. At $1600/mo you’re already paying a pretty stiff rent for a simple delco. If you don’t have a measurable depth of foot traffic, I wouldn’t bother, unless you could use additional storage space.

we currently average about 400k a year at my store with 1600 a month in rent.

I think for 300 bucks a month extra its worth it, we get alot of high school kids that come in for slices and go sit on the grass out side or constrcution workers that go eat in thier truck in the parking lot.

I think that it could easily at least pay for it self if not add alot of sales with big parties and groups and such. So with 300 a month in extra rent and bills its gonna cost me an extra 5000 a year roughly to do dine in.

even if it added 5% to gross it should be worth it i think

I think, to get a proper response, that we need more information about your area.

I’m in the middle of a downtown area with a really nice dinning room section and I can’t say that it’s much of a benefit to me. I feel like I just have no idea how to attract or service a lunch crowd. Dinner customers are pretty much non existent and I can’t really think of a reason to go sit down in a pizza joint instead of pick it up or pay a couple bucks to have it delivered to my house instead. Our lunches were awesome last summer, until they shut off our block for a month to install a new water main and we dropped 50% immediately and haven’t had any increase since the project finished. I’m starting a new campaign this week that I hope will help afternoon sales, but it all just seems so fickle.

Ok… no offense to anyone please… but lets look at your dining rooms. What does it look like? How does it feel? Growing up pizza shops were dark and loud. They had a feel of a heavy metal backstage pass with great pizza and beer. Lots of neon lights and those big red plastic pop cups that never seemed to break no matter what you did to them. The places never looked spotless nor were they. The kitchen probably would not pass current health codes either. Now most of the indie places look nothing more than one of the big guys places. A delco with a few seats. No privacy. No ambience. No character. Looks more like a Subway or something. You want big dine-in traffic… make the place somewhere that I want to come and stay for a while. I know this takes money and space. But if you want that type of customer and business…then you have to make the business to fill the wants of those you want. How many of you go to Subway and eat there? Maybe on an off day or something…but I doubt many of you make plans for a big dinner out at Subway. Why? Crappy cheap mass produced food? Well yeah…but more so because it is not a destination it is a stop on the way to other places. Try this out… go out to dinner at your own place as a customer on your busiest night and time. Act as a customer and not an owner. Get waited on and do not assist…play the role and see how the environment feels to you and your family or friends that are with you. Do you want to stay and talk and eat and drink for a couple of hours or dine and run because you can’t hear yourself think or the fast paced running and constant in and out of the front door? How does it feel…and go from there. :idea:

ours must be a throw back we use dim lighting and we have a dark brick wall adorned with gold and platinum records, OMG we even have the unbreakable red glasses…on that note though I agree whole heartily I walked into a fox den pizza and there are 6 tables a bare white walls on both sides…
both independents in my neighborhood are the same…WHERE IS THE CHARACTER?

well we are having a little meeting today and i will let you know what happens

I had my dad call them today to ask why rent was going for undercover so they would not know what i was up to, and they told him its starts out at 1.25, so why they are offering my 1.5 is beyond me. it really makes me mad to be honest.

will update after meeting