Delaying delivery when opening new shop

[CaptSammy]

Registered Guest:

I don’t understand.

What’s so hard about delivering starting day 1? Why is it easier to start delivering on day 30? Or day 60?

If you are going to deliver, then deliver. You wouldn’t tell someone that called “Sorry, we don’t cook well done pizzas right now - we will probably start in the next 30 days. Our inexperienced crew doesn’t need the extra trouble.”

If you night not ever start delivery - or you think you might stop it after some time - then don’t start.

It really isn’t that hard. I can’t imagine delivering from day one bringing your operation to its knees. If it does, then you have other problems that should have been worked out before you ever opened the doors.

That’s my point. Work out as much before opening and like Nick said, if your market calls for delivery then do it from Day 1.
Great Line " Sorry we don’t cook well done pizzas right now" ( I wonder if that would work? :?:

 

[Pizzamancer]

You guys are both missing my point though. If you have the staff, the food, and the speed to handle whatever comes, then by all means start from day one. I don’t think it is a good idea, but I also think we aren’t going to convince each other of that.

Would you guys say go with delivery if he doesn’t have a POS? Or even DOOR slips? There are a few pre-requisites that he needs to have nutted first before going on.

 

[Registered_Guest]

Pizzamancer:

Would you guys say go with delivery if he doesn’t have a POS? Or even DOOR slips? There are a few pre-requisites that he needs to have nutted first before going on.

Well, my point of view might be skewed based on that - because I wouldn’t open the doors of a new store without a POS in the first place. And if you don’t have a POS AND don’t have door slips, well - don’t even open the doors even if you don’t do delivery - because you are not prepared.

If you can run your place at all without a POS, you can probably do delivery without a POS. I wouldn’t, be then again I’m taking 75-100 deliveries a day - and at least 75% of that from the opening day.

Maybe we need to know if a POS is there, and how much business is expected. Then we can give a better opinion.

 

[Wizzle_Wassell]

Pizzamancer:

You guys are both missing my point though. If you have the staff, the food, and the speed to handle whatever comes, then by all means start from day one. I don’t think it is a good idea, but I also think we aren’t going to convince each other of that.

Would you guys say go with delivery if he doesn’t have a POS? Or even DOOR slips? There are a few pre-requisites that he needs to have nutted first before going on.

lets look at the initial question again:

Any thoughts on not doing delivery immediately - until things get ironed out? Are people going to be upset by this and will it be ‘too late’ to get them if you add this service later?

Now unless I’m really missing something it was a pretty simple question - nothing about not being able to handle it, nothing about not being prepared or not having POS it was simply should I do it from day one or add it later and will people be upset if its not ready?

There are a million reasons in his shoes that would prevent me not only starting to do delivery but also from opening the shop POS being one of them but listing all the possibilities ain’t the answer.

If the business is going to be c/o, dine-in and delivery then do it from day 1. If it ain’t then don’t. If they ain’t sure about whether delivery is going to be part of the business then thats a pretty poor business plan isn’t it really.

I can’t think of any other business that you would walk into on its opening day to be told ‘oh were not doing that just yet maybe in a month or two’. Can you imagine going into a grocery store to be told the bakery ain’t working ‘just yet’ or ‘we’ve no deli counter until the rest of the shop has been open a few weeks’??

Soft openings are (IMO) key to any new business and this is the time to get things ironed out.

 

[NicksPizza]

WizzWass and the assembled,

I and several others were responding to the 1st question, which was an open ended request for thoughts. I think calling the plan poor may be going a bit far given the stage in development that Patrick is in. I don’t recall him being about to open his doors right yet. But I agree that the key is in the plan and executing that plan. I cannot see the catasrophe of
opening a carry-out/dine-in place with the option open for later expansion into delivery. It’s like adding a new POS module onto the original build. . . . make sure the connection is created/embedded in the very beginning in case it is needed.

Patrick, I can see it working out either way. Starting from the get-go with sufficient resources, trained staff and processes can work out fine (or be a nightmare fora few days). Telling people it is not part of what you do in the beginning can work just fine as well . . . . but will probably demand some extra marketing $$$ later to get word into the marketplace. The processes for managing delivery in our shop (versus the other service types) are definitely different in terms of finished food handling, staging, storage, communications and flow of product through the store.

I can easily imagine a grocery store opening without its bakery operating for a month, and saw it in my town of origin. Worked out fine for them from where I sat.

 

[Wizzle_Wassell]

NicksPizza:

WizzWass and the assembled,

I and several others were responding to the 1st question, which was an open ended request for thoughts. I think calling the plan poor may be going a bit far given the stage in development that Patrick is in.

Nick

Patrick has not shared his business plan with us and I was talking generically as I’ve no knowledge of his plans (other than this post) or business. We were, I believe talking generically and my comment was in answer to pizzamancers comments about does he or doesn’t he have POS and the many other reasons why not to do delivery .

We all know that without a plan business is tough. If Patrick has a plan and delivery is a part of this then go for it. His original posts is certainly worded around him wanting delivery but whether he should ‘delay it’ until the problems are ‘ironed out’ rather than asking whether he adds delivery much later on. I thought that there were several of the ‘assembled’ goving positive comments about getting this part of the business up and running rather than putting it off until another day.

 

[CaptSammy]

Pizzamancer:

You guys are both missing my point though. If you have the staff, the food, and the speed to handle whatever comes, then by all means start from day one. I don’t think it is a good idea, but I also think we aren’t going to convince each other of that.

Would you guys say go with delivery if he doesn’t have a POS? Or even DOOR slips? There are a few pre-requisites that he needs to have nutted first before going on.

I assumed delivery was part of his business plan. I agree with all of you and Nick that it isn’t a catasrophe if doesn’t do it from the start, however adding delivery in a Take out or Carry Out is not quite the same as adding a POS module later. In most cases delivery is a tool you can use to make more money, I simply said that by not doing it, if based on your business plan you have included it, then you are leaving money on the table. You’re making a mistake; not a catasrophe but a mistake

 

[NicksPizza]

CaptSammy:

Pizzamancer:

In most cases delivery is a tool you can use to make more money, I simply said that by not doing it, if based on your business plan you have included it, then you are leaving money on the table. You’re making a mistake; not a catasrophe but a mistake

I think I see your point and have to agree with the premise.

 

[Pizzamancer]

I would say that I have read quite a bit onto the question as well. It comes from years of having people come up and ask me questions about the industry that were just coming out of left field. Years ago, I was giving a talk and the topic of franchise fees came up. I mentioned that there were a few chains you could get into for $10,000, and one guy scoffed, and said that if he had 10k he would open his own shop and didn’t need a franchise. I could only smile and say, “alright franchising probably isn’t for you then”.

Colorful anecdotes aside, there are some things you need in place. I agree that listing them all here would be wasting our time as well, but it would be nice if Patrick came back and gave some details. Discussing delivery before a POS really is putting the carriage before the horse.

 

[CaptSammy]

Well one things for sure. . .Patrick can never say he didn’t get his monies worth. There are some great thoughts on the subject.

Just on last piece of advice for Patrick. Don’t do what I did. Start with delivery then stop it; then restart it. Dumbest thing I ever did. ( Good thing I could blame it on my brother, he lives in Ohio now; hope he doesn’t come back to work anytime soon .)

 

[Piper]

Pizzamancer:

Discussing delivery before a POS really is putting the carriage before the horse.

I must have missed this… where did he say he wasn’t going to have a POS?

 

[Wizzle_Wassell]

Piper:

Pizzamancer:

Discussing delivery before a POS really is putting the carriage before the horse.

I must have missed this… where did he say he wasn’t going to have a POS?

you no missed nothing…he didn’t!

 

[NicksPizza]

CaptSammy:

Well one things for sure. . .Patrick can never say he didn’t get his monies worth. There are some great thoughts on the subject.

You can ALWAYS count on a US dollar’s worth of oppinions for the price of a nickle. That’s 1.12 Canadian and 1.48 Australian. Something like 350,000 Italian Lira.