Hi Guys
Newbie here, great site. Managed to waste a whole weekend going through so much.
We have a newish pizza store, open about a year. What is the quietest month in pizza business? I only ask because we have suddenly dropped off a cliff and I hope it’s not something we have done.
Sam
That heavily depends on your market. For me, being in a downtown/college market, it’s January by far. Everyone is broke from the holidays, doing their New Years resolutions for 15 days and the weather is cold so they don’t want to walk over for lunch. Plus the students are on Winter break for the first two or three weeks. There’s another store owner here with a shop in a ski resort town who will do in a week what a good month is to me.
You would really have to tell us more about your place before we could give you a good answer.
Indie is right, a lot depends on your market. May and October are the worst for me because no visitors are in town. Our biggest months are (in typical decending order) March, January, December, July and February. March, December and January have all be the biggest month at one time or another. August has beat July 2 times in 12 years but is generally 10-15% less. April, June, November and September don’t s*ck but are nothing to write home about.
I know a lot of other stores say October is the best month of the year…
Thanks, i guess each shop will be different, i just wondered if there was a general rule. I will see as the years go if there is any pattern but it seems very random from day to day with us at the moment.
Cheers.
The daily fluctuations in business will drive you crazy if you let it. I had my best day of the year followed by the worst day in the history of my store back to back. Look at trends rather than daily sales.
Day to day changes can make you crazy. I track various time periods on a rolling basis. For example a 7 day period, each day’s number the total of that day and the six previous days. With over 12 years history now, I can tell you that the pattern is amazingly consistent from year to year with small changes due to holidays or events like the superbowl moving back and forth by a week or so.
We have a noticeable drop-off this last 2 weeks and if it’s like last year, it’ll stay down about 30% till the 2nd weekend in September. We chalk it up to the A/C bills for the summer coming due, last couple of weeks to cram in that Summer vacation, and worst of all, the dreaded “back-to-school” shopping bills suck all the “extra” bills from the pockets.
Last year,(our first) we saw it all come back about the 2nd paycheck after schools started back up…hoping that’s the case this year too!
Completely agree with Deacon… In addition to last minute vacations (and expenses), high electric bills, and back to school, you have people getting out of the house more and are out and about to get as much summer activity in as possible…not hanging around the house waiting on pizzas. Pizza parties dwindle too, grad parties and what not. I also read something once about “end of summer depression syndrome” not sure if it holds water… although, pretty sure I have it. Agree with all the previous posters about the various variables. Obviously college town shops will be slower in summer. Ski resort shops busier in the ski season, etc. etc. I definitely notice a pickup come football season as I am sure most shops do to. Thank god the NFL billionaires and millionaires got it all squared up. Schools going strong helps to, people get more pressed for time and tend to order more pizza. Good luck to all…enjoy the rest of summer.
The quietest month is always the one we sell the fewest pizzas in 
For us, it is July. Every year. By far. It is vacation month in Grantville, and there is a lingering heritage of the mills being closed for two weeks, and everyone leaving town. So, ghost town buys no pies. March and April and breakout months every year. Even in the lean last two years, March and April bump up a little.
As noted, locations vary for different reasons, but “as a whole” the pizza industry slows during the summer.