Hey fairly new to this board but I was wondering is asking a about Take and Bake shops here a no no? I been resarching this pizza industry and was wondering do any og you do take and bake shops? do they work. I am from the south and we do not have them here…
Heck no. Pizza is pizza. Several owners offer take and bake in addition to full bake. We plan to.
we call it half-bake. we cook it half way put it in a box(do not cut) and sell it. its not hugely popular but the customers that use this service are very pleased. Thay take it home put it right in their oven and have a hot pie in 15 min.
thanks for the info. What about a full fledge take and bake no cooking the pizza at all. I hava had a conversation with BIg Dave Ostrander and he believes that is a good market.
We have done take and bake for 10 years. It is not a big part of our business.
Is there some kind of liability issues with that? What if someone undercooks a pizza at home and they get sick? Or if something odd (user error) happens where they end up disliking the pizza immensely and complains about it?
I’m sure its the same as if you bought raw chicken from a grocer but still. I’d be worried about situations like that. But maybe I’m too much of a worrier.
Isnt papa murphy a total take and bake.
Yes, Papa Murphy is all Take-n-Bake and quite sucessful. We offer Take-N-Bakes, but is not a huge part of our sales (but it is increasing). I belive you have to be in a market that is already exopsed to it, or you have the money to market the heck out of it. The customer has to be educated to Take-n-Bakes (so let the big guys do it)
I just looked at the Papa Murphs site and menue, and other than some salads its pretty much all take and back pizza. So what is the huge part of your sales?
Im guessing cooked pizzas lol.
Although, Papa Murhpys doesn’t deliver, there is a possible competitive advantage.
Keep in mind, I believe one of the keys to their success is their locations. At least here in St Louis, they are located directly next door to the supermarket. That implies their target customer is not necessarily the typical pizzeria customer. Its Mom (or Dad) who’s going to the market with no idea what she’s making for dinner, and probably doesn’t want to cook anyway… Or is picking up a frozen pizza, and wants to try something different. Maybe they associate fresher with healthier and better for their family.
At any rate, the point is there is more involved with take n bake than just not cooking the pizza. Since you are asking the customer to finish the product, your location, service, cleanliness and marketing become exponentially more important.
Most of our sales are cooked pizzas along with the standard wings, pastas, subs, etc. Take-n-Bake only accounts for not even 5% of sales, but it is nice to have that option and I think it will become more popular.
Papa Murphys and Figaros are the two biggies in take and bake pizza. Actually, t7b has been around for a long time now, it was just marketed under a different name (Deli Pizza) you got it from your local supermarket and it was sold by the pound. Then too, many of us were selling a version of it, we called it “partially baked pizza” sound familiar? Take and bake seems to do very well outside of the major metro areas where carry-out and delivery pizza is not ranked amongst the most popular type of pizza. The consumer has come to the conclusion that if they buy it unbaked, and take it home and bake it themselves, it will be better than a delivered pizza…I’ll let you be the judge of that, but keep in mind that there are an awful lot of t&b pizzas sold, plus, add to that the bake to rise type of pizza (Kraft’s DiGiorno) available from the local supermarket frozen food case, which, is designed to be a take and bake, but available from the supermarket, and you have one heck of a lot of pizzas. The Kraft, DiGiorno pizza accounts for almost 25% of all th efrozen pizzas sold in this country, that is a lot of pizza! Point is, carry-out and delivery pizzas are not always as good as we might think they are, or want them to be, and the consumer is looking for alternatives, take & bake and bake to rise are two that they have found.
As for food safety issues, just make sure all of the meat toppings are pre-cooked, label the pizza “KEEP REFRIGERATED” have use by date, and provide good baking directions. We also suggest that you might want to consider selling such things as pizza stones, pizza cutters, aprons, etc. anything to enhance the experience of baking your own pizza at home as this can add to the appeal of a take and bake pizza. One thing that seems to work well goes something like this; Buy a pizza stone and have your own pizzeria pizza in the comfort of your own home any time you want it. Buy a pizza stone for $10.00 and get $1.00 off on each your next ten pizza purchases. You can do this with all of the goodies you have to sell. Yes, take and bake can be a viable way to sell pizza, you will have to decide if it is right in your area. If you research some of my back articles you should find some that I’ve written on take and bake, plus we have an AIB Technical Bulletin on Take & Bake Pizza (October 2002) Call 800-633-5137 (ask for registrations and orders) to order a copy.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor