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Dough Question

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gobpile

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Hi all. As you know we have been making our own dough for the last month. Bill seems to remember that he read somewhere that salt kills yeast. Although our dough is good and probably a major factor in why our sales are better, he feels that the dough should rise higher than it is. His question is do you have to put salt in the dough? Will the dough rise higher?

I told him that salt has to be in the dough and that’s why you put the ingredients in a certain way.
 
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Hi there, We use salt in our dough, i have heard also that salt kills yeast or doesnt make the yeast do its thing, we use 1 kilos of flour to one cup of salt, the salt is put in after the yeast and flour so the salt doesnt mix with the yeast. We use the salt so our dough goes a nice golden brown colour. Hope this helps.
P.S if the dough recipe is working they you have it, dont change it. If it aint broke dont fix.
 
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Tom can chime in here and give the best response… but as long as you are giving your yeast a chance to fully hydrate before it comes in contact with the salt, I think you are ok.
 
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whenever i want dough to rise faster… i add a little more yeast. … if the dough is really hard to work with… i usually leave them out @ room temperature for a half hour to soften up and blow up more.

Glad to see you here GOB.
 
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Thanks for the answers and yes, still here, reading, reading, reading. Our dough is good, Bill just wants it puffier. I think it’s fine.

I did want to say that things are really strange at Gob-Pile. Last Friday, we were ready to close our doors because sales were awful all last week. We’ve been in a bind for marketing. Regulars weren’t coming in, but new customers were straggling in.

Friday we only made $400.00 and it’s usually a $1200.00 net day. I cried all night long. Then . . . Saturday was weird. At about 1:15 p.m. we started getting slammed and had to call in the troops. We almost made $2000.00 that day. We had a $300.00 delivery to the Marina at the lake (they have never ordered from us before), Sunday we pushed $1000.00. Monday, wasn’t great but we did hit $600.00 net.

Tuesday . . . really weird. Usually really slow and it was. . . until 7:00p.m. we were standing at $300.00 net and then the doors didn’t shut with an all time high of $917.00 from 7:00p.m. to 9:00pm. 9 deliveries during that time frame and we hardly get any deliveries on a Tuesday.

Today was a typical Wednesday, but again, the sales didn’t start until 6:30 p.m. and we ended up at $567.00 net.

The other odd thing - new people coming in, taking our menus home with them and making a point of telling us that our food was excellent and that they will be back.

Is it the full moon??? I do know the campgrounds opened up last weekend at Rend Lake which is about 2 miles from our shop. The weather has been really beautiful (75 to 80 degrees) up until yesterday when we had severe storms and tornado watches, but yesterday was a huge Tuesday for us. Today it was beautiful but it has turned cold again. Right now it’s 35 degrees and it was about 55 degrees today and is suppose to get colder through the weekend.

I’m not complaining just wondering what happened. It wasn’t due to marketing, I can’t get my employees to door hang for me for some reason so it’s been hit and miss with Bill, me and my kids doing it.
 
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I really like these updates, I know you have a strong following and everyone is rooting for you.

I have to wonder if this is worth it with all the hassle you have gone through. To hear that because of a bad friday you were considering not being open anymore.

You have really committed to a huge ammount of change and I think you need to put these “we are going to close if we dont make X ammt on any one given day” thoughts and see if what you are doing will start an uptrend for you and that things will get better.

I still think you need to take a step back and from a customer perspective see what is wrong, rather than from the inside as you work there so much.

Do you have enough population to support a buffet? If so, what other competitors buffet speaking are out there? And have you visited these places and seen what they charge and what value is given for the price point?

I dont know how far away you live from an area that has either Mr.Gattis or CiCis or Stevi B’s. I am not talking about Pizza Hut or Round Table either, a PURE buffet, including Eatza Pizza. If you live within a few hours of one of these names, I think you or the hubby or both need to go to one of these and sit and watch for a few hours and see how they make it work. I seriously think your buffet is too expensive on a COGS standpoint and your prices are too high for a pizza based buffet.

There is another guy here who charges near your price point, but he is offering a TON more things, and people dont want to pay 8 bucks to hit a pizza buffet and drink, they can go to Old Country etc for that price.

I really think that until you either start driving demand with proper pricing and get a grasp on your GROSS profit of the buffet, it will continue to drag you down…

I dont mean that to sound bad, in fact it might be the correct decision to run delivery and pickup only say M-Th and run buffet on Fr/Sa/Su afternoon only.

Lots to think about and we are all rooting for you.
 
I just looked and there is a CiCis either in Cape or in St.Louis.

I didnt know you were in So.Illinois, I actually visited Carbondale and have friends in Vandalia.

Gatti’s is in Booneville Indiana, that isnt SO far away.

Check out CiCis menu, they offer a ton at 4.49 per person every day.

Buffets are tough to run even for the top of the heap, I hope what you read here helps.

One other thing, I would pay someone to spruce up the website for you guys, pay some high school kid to program it or better. It need a bit of help and can be a marketing tool if it looked better.

😉
 
I know how u feel gobpile, Im still struggling to. Doing alot better than a few months ago but still havent took home a paycheck in 9 months.

plus im working 100 hours a better a week… 😦

But everyday I notice its getting better and then worse and then better and then worse… :cry:
But when I look back I know Im headed in the right direction "Keep UR Head up …
 
Hi Gob… Great to hear from you, I was wondering how things were going for you guys.

I want you to know I think we all go through that this is it moment and think we are going to shut our doors but God has other plans sometimes and he shows us.

I know you don’t think any of this is the marketing you and hubby did the past four weeks but don’t under estimate it…remember we all said about 4-6 weeks for the pay off. The point being you have to make it a priority to continue to door hang and box top. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS.

One way you might get your employees motivated is by one of you going with them. That way you know they are doing it. You may also have a not so fun in store project like cleaning something nasty and telling them either this or door hang. Whoever stays(including you) cleans and does the not so fun indoor project.

I think you can also motivate your drivers by giving the credit of the good sales to door hanging. Since you may not know the real reason for being busy you can always say see the marketing is starting to pay off. On the slow days say to them see we should have door hung.

Just a note we are typically busy Fri and Sat before Easter so you may want to be prepared. (We are always busy the day before a holiday)

I hope you and hubby are closing for Easter and enjoy the rest and time away. Do something fun even if it is nothing. Let the problems of the week worry about themselves for one day.

Take Care and thanks for posting an update we are all cheering for you!
 
Oh yeah…duh… the dough questions… I want you to know I am laughing hysterically because I am such a long winded person I totally forgot the purpose of the post. HaHaHa

Anyway… when in doubt read the yeast instructions…I know sounds easy enough but seriously read em.

If you mix it with water then put the water in and follow directions then flour, salt, sugar and oil on top (and or whatever else you use)

If you don’t mix it put the liquid on the bottom and 1/2 the flour and then yeast then flour and the rest of stuff on top.

That is what we do and it seems to work fine.
 
Anonymous:
I just looked and there is a CiCis either in Cape or in St.Louis.

I didnt know you were in So.Illinois, I actually visited Carbondale and have friends in Vandalia.

Gatti’s is in Booneville Indiana, that isnt SO far away.

Check out CiCis menu, they offer a ton at 4.49 per person every day.

Buffets are tough to run even for the top of the heap, I hope what you read here helps.

One other thing, I would pay someone to spruce up the website for you guys, pay some high school kid to program it or better. It need a bit of help and can be a marketing tool if it looked better.

😉
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Our web site is still under construction and actually my brother-in-law is the one who put it together and just hasn’t had time to fill in the blanks. They are in the midst of moving from Michigan to Texas. He is going to give me access to it so that I can work on it. There is another website floating around of us that one of my son-in-laws friends did - he didn’t finish it either as he wanted $4000.00 to finalize it. I told him NO WAY.

Cici’s is in Cape Girardeau, Missouri about 2 hours from us. St. Louis is 2 hours from us. There are NO BUFFET places in our town, except the Chinese Buffet. The closest buffet is Ryan’s - 26 miles away north and Mackie’s Pizza which is 25 miles south.
 
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“Anonymous” said:
I still think you need to take a step back and from a customer perspective see what is wrong, rather than from the inside as you work there so much.

There is another guy here who charges near your price point, but he is offering a TON more things, and people dont want to pay 8 bucks to hit a pizza buffet and drink, they can go to Old Country etc for that price.

I really think that until you either start driving demand with proper pricing and get a grasp on your GROSS profit of the buffet, it will continue to drag you down…/quote]

Our prices - seems like everyone gets a discount when they walk in. We charge $6.50 for lunch and $7.50 for dinner this includes the drink and is adult price. Kids eat for $4.75 at lunch and $5.50 for dinner (10 and under). Kids 3 and under eat free.

Students get a discount (high school and college) their total with drink and tax is $4.83. Seniors get a 15% discount - their total with drink and tax is $5.92 for lunch and dinner is $6.83.

Are you suggesting that we change our price point to $4.49 and not give any type of discounts? If you add a drink to that, it’s not much cheaper than what we charge for our regular price lunch buffet.

By the way, we are the cheapest priced place in Benton.
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Gobpile,

I haven’t posted too many times with your situation because it seems you’ve developed quite a fan base and they’re giving you all the advice you need. However, I will chime in on this one:
Our prices - seems like everyone gets a discount when they walk in. We charge $6.50 for lunch and $7.50 for dinner this includes the drink and is adult price. Kids eat for $4.75 at lunch and $5.50 for dinner (10 and under). Kids 3 and under eat free.
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Students get a discount (high school and college) their total with drink and tax is $4.83. Seniors get a 15% discount - their total with drink and tax is $5.92 for lunch and dinner is $6.83.

Are you suggesting that we change our price point to $4.49 and not give any type of discounts? If you add a drink to that, it’s not much cheaper than what we charge for our regular price lunch buffet.

By the way, we are the cheapest priced place in Benton.

Though you are the cheapest priced place in Benton, your price points (sorry to say) are bad. I’ll give you a little tip on marketing: It’s not the deep discounting that makes you money. It’s the PERCEIVED VALUE that makes you money.

What I mean is this: Yes, you should change your price point. Change it to $4.99. This $4.99 price does not include a drink. If they want water… fine. You’ll find that most don’t. After you charge the customer $1.50 or so for a drink you’re back up to the $6.50 range. You see… you haven’t changed your prices, you’ve changed the customers perception. They’re no longer looking at $6.50. They’re looking at $4.99, which is certainly better.

Now, to market this:

I’m sure you’ve got windows in front of your establishment. With colored grease pens write:

$4.99 BUFFET EVERYDAY!

across the entire front of your establishment in huge font. Make it professional but also fun and inviting. Also, with every piece of advertising you have from now on should have this somewhere on it. Do NOT sway from this marketing campaign. Yes, you’ll have some initial impact with the perceived value but your biggest impact will be a year from now when you compare this year’s numbers to next. Over the course of the year your business should slowly (but steadily) increase. After this year’s growth, the result should be pretty substantial.

Everyone searches for a niche. $4.99 buffet is yours. Embrace it and roll with it.

Hope this helps. -J_r0kk
 
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Gobpile,

YEP…I think you should take the hike and visit either Cape or St.Louis, make the trip early in the day and have lunch there and observe. I looked on the map and it says it isnt 2 hrs…and you can almost cross half of Illinois from St.Louis in 2 hrs. But yeah, one or both of you take the trip to Cape or St.Louis and watch the operations, you will probably learn a TON about how the bigger players make things work and you could probably even talk with some of the employees or manager on duty and get some insight.

Jrock is right on the money…4.99 is the price point, and should be the focus of ALL marketing. Its almost how Little Caesars is now 5 buck large Pizza, it is their focus and all marketing flows through the price point.

I am still interested in the gross profit you are making off the buffet, I bet it isnt so hot…Benton is a semi small town and I think if you simplified the items a bit and reduced the price point and since you are the ONLY non chinese buffet in town, you SHOULD do very well.

My comment about the dough is are you setting the water/sugar/yeast mixture first, then adding the salt with the flour right before mixing or are you putting all the items in with the water and having them sit? Like others have said I would add salt right before mixing (assuming you are putting the yeast in water for a few minutes before mixing in the first place)
 
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gobpile:
Hi all. As you know we have been making our own dough for the last month. Bill seems to remember that he read somewhere that salt kills yeast. Although our dough is good and probably a major factor in why our sales are better, he feels that the dough should rise higher than it is. His question is do you have to put salt in the dough? Will the dough rise higher?

I told him that salt has to be in the dough and that’s why you put the ingredients in a certain way.
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We also add the salt with the flour first, then the yeast is seperate. Try leaving the dough close to or on top of the oven for 15-20 minutes. This will allow the dough to rise a little more.
 
Benton Ill has a poplulation of 11,000 with 4700 households as of year 2000.

What is Gob’s Marketshare?
 
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Rob T writes:
Benton Ill has a poplulation of 11,000 with 4700 households as of year 2000.
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What is Gob’s Marketshare?

Actually, looking at www.melissadata.com, the total address count has risen since 2000. It’s now 4903 within the zip code of 62812.

4903 x $17.45 (avg. household pizza purchase/month) = $85,557.35 in potential pizza sales per month.

If I’m not mistaken, Gob is averaging around $6k/wk:

$6,000 / 7 x 30 = $25,714.29

$25,714.29 / $85,557.35 = 30.05% marketshare

-J_r0kk
 
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