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Anybody else here dead?

W

wiseguy

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I hope I am the only one that is suffering right now. Need to turn this around fast!
 
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We’re down 500-1000/ week since January. Barely keeping the doors open. According to our distributors, everyone in the area is way down.
 
Same here… Our business has turned to crap… Even with the NCAA tournaments going on… I figured we would get good business from it… guess not.
 
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I don’t want to appear to gloat, but to offer hope to those struggling . . . we’re seem to be blowing the doors off and kicking some @ss. This is highest quarter in 4 years for us. Jan, Feb and March 2008 were all 1 or 2 in respective monthly gross sales . . . Feb and March are highest daily average gross sales, and 1 and 3 month totals ever. On pace for our 1st $200K gross year if we don’t mess it up . . . and if we can find a new oven soon enough.

We do appear to be unusual in our area as well. We have an untapped market that we have been capitalizing on with new folks nearby towns being drawn to dine in. It has taken some new marketing spending and lots of moving and shaking in the chamber of commerce, etc. Hard work finally paying off.

We really need it since we closed on our shopping Center Monday. My rent doubles in May now that we own the place, place trip nets added :?
 
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I don’t have anything to compare to b/c we have only been open 6 months but all my distributers are crying the blues cause everyone is dead…thats what they are telling me.
 
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Hi. We’re pretty dead as well. Our distibutor came in today and said it was pretty much the same with everyone he talks to. He said that people with dine in and delivery are doing more delivery than normal. Since everything is going up, it’s hard to think when all these price increases are going to stop - or slow down. It’s pretty rough for us but we’ll keep plugging along because we KNOW we make a better product! We have to fight the big guys! Have faith - it can’t get any worse…can it!!!
 
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Q. Anybody else here dead?

A. Only from the head upwards.

Sorry about that but I couldn’t resist. :lol:

You guys are not the only ones suffering. Here in prosperous Western Australia costs are going through the roof which is impacting on take away food and restuarants.

Housing loan rates have escalated on a monthly basis and food costs have soared on the back of the droughts across Australia and the world wide demand for wheat and dairy products. Housing rentals have gone beserk with 3 bedroom 1 bathroom places in not so good suburbs renting out at mid $300 - $400 and better houses in better areas much more as demand outstrips supply.

As a community we are paying the price for the boom and high wages paid to the mining and resources sector where cashed up workers are investing in real estate and other areas at inflated prices and forcing costs up.

Last week we were lucky enough to record our 6th biggest week after some not so good ones. We still finished 21% up on last year but we have to take into account a 10% price increase last October. The 6 weeks prior were down about 10 -12% on where we were at the end of '07 and the start of '08, which reflects about a $1000 per week reduction. This has impacted drastically on the bottom line when all the cost increases over the last 6 mnths are taken into account.

Hopefully we may have turned the corner from the slow patch but I’m not optimistic when hearing how bad sales are for other food places in our shopping centre where we are located.

Dave
 
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There is a new upscale Italian restaurant that just opened right across the street from us. They sunk 2-3 mill into the place. They just opened 3/11, and they’ve already cut back their hours and closed Mondays. They’ve done extensive advertising, with what looks like no results. There were literally a dozen staff cars, and NO customers all day Sunday. Just when I thought we were having a bad day…
 
Historically last week, and the next 2 weeks should be slow as many folks pay their tax bill.

Just watch your labor, continue to do the things you do best, take care of your customers, look for areas in your place that haven’t been cleaned for a while, and ride it out.

Everyone should be expecting gas prices this summer approaching $4 and a lot a recession talk. So think about what specials you can offer that offer excellent value, but still have an acceptable profit level. If you plan now, you won’t panic and give away the farm in a few months.

Expect some bump in sales when folks get their incentive checks…
Expect a slow period around election time…
 
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Things are good here in Central PA. I have been open for 49 years (I took over the family business), so I know what we have done for a long time.

February was good, about $2080 per day. March was $2360 per day. That is about 25% more than last year but we have added a new line of pizza’s to our menu and raised prices 15% over last year.

I hope all of you can come out of this dead period with better results in the coming months.
 
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The only time we seems to have any problems with business is when they raise gas prices like they did today. It takes a couple of days for people to adjust their finances.Otherwise, we’re also doing good compared to what the previous place was doing in this location.
 
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We did 105K in March which was a record. We will be lucky to do 25K in April. Welcome to the ski resort market… Time to reel in the costs.
 
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Fireside Pizzeria:
The only time we seems to have any problems with business is when they raise gas prices like they did today. It takes a couple of days for people to adjust their finances…
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That could explain things as gas has gone up here every other day for the last 2 weeks. The posted price is now $1.199 per liter or $4.77 a US gallon.
 
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Gas prices are a tiny part of our costs. In our company cars we spend about $6000 a year at an average for the last year of about $3 per gallon. If the price went up by another dollar a gallon that is only another $2000. The price of gas could triple before it equaled the impact of the change in flour prices and quadruple before it matched the increase in cheese. I’ll take the gas price change if I have a choice please.
 
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I think that, due to the overall economy, we’ve all got to get ready for a long, cold winter as far as sales go (maybe not the best analogy, since cold weather means higher sales normally). I think Nick’s success in this climate may be due more to his commitment to marketing than his particular locale.

My own sales are up about 5% over last year’s - I think the increase is due to a couple of factors:
  1. I put up a website with online ordering in December
  2. We finally started using car top signs for our drivers in January
A little over $2k per month is coming in through the online ordering, making the thousand I spent for the website more than a little worthwhile; it’s tougher to track the impact the car toppers have had, but I’m sure it’s been positive as well.

Unless the economy rebounds quickly, there WILL be more pizza places going out of business this year than you’d normally see - the best thing to do is plan to make sure you’re not one of them. Each of us ought to know what marketing item offers the greatest bang for the buck in our own situation - for me it’s getting off my lazy a$$ and going around to businesses with menus & flyers … this actually impacts evening sales almost as much as lunch, since these same people I talk to often live close by. I plan on spending the next few months hitting this hard - the way I figure it, when I’m working in the kitchen, I make around $10 an hour - when I do this, I’m probably making over $100 per hour … it don’t take a math major to figure that one out :?
 
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NY Pizza,

Have you done a price increase in the last year? Was it higher or lower than the 5% sales increase?

I am finding that our sales are up, but when I take out the price increase the gain is only a couple of points. Our price increase when you put in the bump in the delivery charge from 1.50 to 2.00, 50 cents on a pie and 15 cents per topping and increases on sides amounted to about an 8% increase on average. Our sales have been up about 10-12%. At least food and labor are back where they belong though.
 
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bodegahwy:
NY Pizza,

Have you done a price increase in the last year? Was it higher or lower than the 5% sales increase?

I am finding that our sales are up, but when I take out the price increase the gain is only a couple of points. Our price increase when you put in the bump in the delivery charge from 1.50 to 2.00, 50 cents on a pie and 15 cents per topping and increases on sides amounted to about an 8% increase on average. Our sales have been up about 10-12%. At least food and labor are back where they belong though.
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Price increase was just yesterday, in fact. It was kind of a pain to see sales records being set while making less money due to cheese & flour prices. Went up $1.50 on 20" pies, $1 on 16", left 12" the same (9.49 for a cheese pie is plenty) & added a 14" to the mix. Reaction from customers (those who even noticed) was not bad, especially when we explained about the increased costs & that it was only the 2nd increase in 11 years.
 
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Holy Smokes!!! Gas jumped up 15 cents today and everywhere was dead tonight. It’s now $3.55 per gallon here in Michigan. And once again, we’re slow… I hate coming off of great weeks only to start off down due to something out of my control.
 
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Fireside Pizzeria:
Holy Smokes!!! Gas jumped up 15 cents today and everywhere was dead tonight. It’s now $3.55 per gallon here in Michigan. And once again, we’re slow… I hate coming off of great weeks only to start off down due to something out of my control.
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sameee here and my 2 page spread in the main magazine came out too 😦
 
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