Studies can be skewed to show any possible result. The only way to evaluate this is to know who paid for it. It’s fairly obvious that chains are better able to develop or incorporate technology into advertising. That means nothing, and the numbers show it. The biggest still control only 51%. So what? A better product and better service will win out. Don’t let articles like this scare you, it’s exactly what “the industry” wants. The fewer indies the more Big Pizza can sell, potentially. Make your product the best it can be and you’ll have no worries.
The article is spot on.
Order convenience is HUGE! If your pizza is great but it’s a pain the ass to order from you ( poor customer service, loud background, constant mess-ups) you can be assured someone will think twice and order somewhere easier
All this may be true for the chains and shops trying to compete with them but we are finding the complete opposite. We are so busy we can’t answer the phone much of the time, have no POS, 1 phone line, no delivery, no online ordering, no alcohol, no TVs, customers come from an hour or more away regularly, no music playing in the background, waits of an hour not uncommon, do a split shift schedule, no specials, no coupons, no wings, no sandwiches, very limited toppings, 2 sizes of pizzas. We are succeeding beyond our wildest dreams and have nothing but 5 star ratings on yelp and facebook. Mom and pop shops can make a killing today if one is willing to use only the best ingredients and have a deep knowledge of pizza making. What I have seen over and over again are shops that really don’t know much about pizza making and do not care to learn the art side of it. The art of dough, balance, ingredients, makes one rise way above the chains and they are no competition so to speak and these studies have no effect other than to polarize the customer base of what is considered a great pizza and that is great news for shops like ours. Walter
if one is willing to use only the best ingredients and have a deep knowledge of pizza making. What I have seen over and over again are shops that really don’t know much about pizza making and do not care to learn the art side of it. The art of dough, balance, ingredients, makes one rise way above the chains and they are no competition so to speak and these studies have no effect other than to polarize the customer base of what is considered a great pizza and that is great news for shops like ours. Walter
Walter - glad to hear it is working for you.
Quality, consistency, and passion can truly differentiate little guys.
I always wonder about studies which lump everyone together.
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I assume anything I see on Fox News is made up.
Thanks. I was raised in dough since birth. My mother and her family came from Italy and were experts with dough and meats. I got lucky to be born right outside Manhattan and work under some great old school pizza makers from Italy. We have been able to attract an audience that loves food and cares about our social cause but often they are 2 different types of personalities. Often the ones that care about our social cause don’t know dominos from artisan but most all go on and on about how different, in a good way, our pizza is, and have become regulars. The foodies often are not tuned in to our social cause but love the pizza and while in the shop learn about it. It is a win win for all of us. Walter
Interesting, thanks for the post, but nothing surprising. Anyone in or out of the industry can see it happening. If you’re in a region not affected much by this, seems like only a matter of time before it becomes a concern.
Which is exactly why we started our service… (hint, hint) To allow the smaller guys to hang with the big guys w/o paying the insane rates of some services. We’re relatively new, but are currently offering specials that equate to less than a third of competitor service pricing. There’s no reason to be paying 12-15+% per order fees. The end result being an easy and cost effective way to compete with the big guys w/o losing features/usability.
Regardless, good luck with business all. From a guy who loves the small pizza shops here in Jersey. (Perhaps a bit too much as judged from my waistline.) The big pizza chains are like fast food burger places compared to a quality steak restaurant.
I just sat in on Aaron Allen’s Pizzeria Concept Development session. He’'s the source of the stats quoted in the news.com article. It’s easy to be critical of Industry Reports and just who has paid to generate the information and to ensure how skewed it has to be, but I’d say it’s fair to say that independents generally are not on top their game when it comes to using mobile ordering technology to benefit their businesses. The trend in Australia is that most independents are letting the likes of Menulog & Delivery Hero “manage” their online presence by providing “freely” microsites with menu management, online ordering, emarketing tools, etc. What they don’t realise is that online orders are growing very, very rapidly especially as aggressive advertising campaigns are driving consumers to Menulog, etc which in the short term means increased pizza sales, but longer term your local customer base is becoming more & more tuned into using digital platforms for just about everything.
It’s the millenium generation that will shape our future and that’s our target market.
I run a small independent pizzeria in Sydney moreso as as our"laboratory" as we’ve been testing our own mobile app that we have developed. Our statistics absolutely verify how strongly the online ordering side of our business is growing. We’ve invested heavily in developing our digital platform too with enough simple tools for even a non-savvy techo-phobic operator to handle. Our purpose is to rally a common voice among the independents and hopefully encourage enough of them to get behind us. It would be great to become financial enough as a group of independents to - at minimum - fund campaigns to promote support for local independent pizzerais over the big chains. And yes, most independents worth their weight produce a quality pizza that is superior to the chain products, that we also charge a premium for. But I do wonder for how much longer we will be able to do this if we don’t embrace what’s happening to the fast food market. Especially in terms of online ordering.
In the Netherlands they have a couple of these type of businesses as well that go around delivering food from various restaurants. The other day I used one to order from a pizzeria which didn’t have delivery before. That was a sale for them they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
I wonder how these types of businesses may help the independent as well. From what I’ve seen in the Think Tank delivery insurance can get pricy. Would it be a relief for independents to just contract out all their delivery to someone else?
You give up all quality control of the delivery aspect then, you have no control over when the food gets picked up to be delivered. When the driver decided to actually deliver it (ie they are picking up multiple orders from multiple restaurants etc).
I am sure there are situations out there where even that would be beneficial, but 60% to 80% of my business sales are delivery and that is what keeps me in business.
I could imagine a scenario where it could work. For example if a delivery contractor would assign drivers to my business for the evening and those drivers were not delivering other products it could work just fine.
Outstanding Walter!!
I hope to visit you in the near future, I am trying to implement a relocation of myself to the las vegas area, and Reno is a nice 6.5 hour motorcycle trip with a great destination for me.
Reno is a wonderful place and I look forward to meeting you. Thanks. Walter