2 Questions. Need some advice.

[Jimmy_D]

1- Frozen pizzas. I am thinking of selling our product frozen. I think it could be some nice additional sales. I do not see it taking away from regular sales much. Does anyone have exp. with this? Is their issues with the health dept. Would I need to get the nutrition info and all that to do this?

2- Closing time. We have been open 13 years until 11 pm. From 8-11 we do 10% of our sales. Most of our competition closes at 10 pm. We are thinking of closing at 9. After everything is figured in we are maybe breaking even in these hours. Obviously my concern is how the early closing time would affect things. would it give a bad perception or possibly affect the rest of the business?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Jim

 

[Wizzle_Wassell]

Hi Jim

1. Use the search box (middle right hand side not the one at the top) to search the Think Tank as this topic has been raised a few times before. Here’s one post I found which may help you:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6812&p=44840&hilit=frozen+pizza#p44840

1. I’m also open till 11pm. Some days the last hours is dead, others we get 4 or 5 deliveries in the last 15 minutes.

I actually extended my hours on Fri/Sat to 12pm. We’ve definately added extra sales in 11-12 AND we’ve seen an increase in 10-11pm orders as well.

The only advice I can give is:

a) to make sure you track your sales so you can be sure for each day are you breaking even/making/losing and can you track that for each day over say 2 months
b) what every you decide be consistent - have you for example got your hours on all marketing materials? does it say 11pm or ‘late’

Hope this helps

Wiz

 

[Pizza_of_the_Month]

I am also getting ready to sell frozen pizza’s. I found my health inspector had all the answers. Each state is different so check with your health inspector or their department if you can’t contact them personally. In all my home baking experiments I did find that the Veggie pizza baked best when thawed first. Thaw it with a couple paper towels on it so the towels soak up the moisture.

I started closing an hour early about 3 years ago and it has not affected my business in a negative way at all. The best thing you can do is talk to the customers that come in later than 9pm and see how they react to your metion of closing at 9pm.

 

[pizzachop]

Your decision should be based on your market and your mission.

Late night operations may be profitable in college towns, etc. but I’ve always imagined it to be difficult to recruit and retain a high caliber staff with with early morning hours. To each his own.

I’ve been closing at 9 pm (9:30 on Fri-Sat) for years with no noticeable adverse effects. I can always stay open later (and often do, as orders come in) but can leave with a clear conscience if the business just isn’t there.