Drive-Thru slices

[td_VP192]

Here’s the deal.

When we opened, we had no idea that there was such a high demand for slices. We are a franchise and we’re not allowed to add or subtract anything to the menu. After almost 8 months of losing customers that were just looking for a couple of cuts we decided to not follow the rules and start selling slices. We started about 3 months ago and we go through 2-3 pies a day. For as many people that we turned away when we weren’t selling slices, I am surprised that we don’t sell more now that we do.

There are two pizza shops that have drive-thrus here in the city. There are cars in line ALL THE TIME. It drives me nuts. The quality is very poor but people go there for the convienence.

We are in a plaza with three other spaces(video store, bank and chinese place). Between us and the road(8,000+ car count) there is about 350 ft of parking lot. I’m tossing around the idea of setting up a tent and selling slices out by the road. It’d be an easy in/out for cars as they would pulll in the one side of the parking lot, drive along the top of the lot to our tent, and then drive out the other side back onto the road.

I’m interested to see if anyone has ever tried anything like this and hear about the results you may have experienced.

If you’ve never done this before, what do you think about the idea ? What are some challenges we might face ? How would you go about promoting/advertising our drive-thru tent ?

Thanks in advance.

td

 

[Patriot_sPizza]

Chances are you are not allowed 2 sell slices under a tent unless you have a “legal” concession area…that might include an additional annual permit and hand sinks etc…ck w/your local authorities & city codes for outside vending…

 

[j_r0kk]

Back in the day… and I mean wayyy back, there was a Domino’s Pizza store in Denham Springs, La. The store averaged between $10k-$12k/wk. The manager over there decided to sell pizzas (not slices, but actual pizzas) in the Wal-Mart parking lot out of a concession trailer owned by Domino’s with the Domino’s graphics on it. Her store went from $10k-$12k/wk to $18k-$20k and stayed that way the entire summer. Then, of course, she got promoted and the new manager did it for a while and then it somehow got lost in the shuffle. I’m not really sure how or why they ended it to be honest. I was still very young in the business and didn’t pay attention to a lot of advanced sales building techniques back then.

So I’d say, “sure it’s worth a shot”. Put up a Vocelli Pizza Jr. to the side of you. You just have to make sure you’re compliant with the health and city codes in your area and you have a warmer to keep the pizzas hot. They do it all day long in NY with the hot dog stands. Why not pizza?

-J_r0kk

 

[califpizza]

Hi. We don’t do drive thru slices but we are across the street from a high school. During school we sell 20-25 XXLG (18") pies each day! We cut them in 8’s and sell them by the slice. We have everything set up for the kids - they don’t have to get into the soda cooler, we use baskets instead of opening up the register for each sale and they are pretty well organized - believe it or not. We also have chocolate chip cookies for them. Our regulars find it very hard to deal with all the kids so we started a backdoor service for pick up of whole pies only. If they want slices, they do have to wait in line. One regular guest says that waiting in line with the kids makes her feel young again! Good luck!

 

[GT1]

The other obvious question is will you sell enough to suppoet the extra labor to run it? It will take another person to be out there at all times. If you are only selling 2-3 slice pies a day, how many more do you really think you can sell at the tent, and also being in the northeast the weather isn’t always going to cooperate with your tent and the drive thrus will still be busy and you’ll still be driven crazy.

 

[goomba]

Hello td,GT took the words out of my mouth,your health dept. or twnshp.I’m sure won’t allow it.Besides how can you afford to pay someone to sit ALL day and night to sell about 20 slices of pizza?How would you keep it fresh and hot?I think something like this may hurt you instead of help you.If convenience is what you really want have the customer call you when outside in lot and have a curb side system in tack,if this is your heartset.If the customer likes your food they will step out of thier car for a brief moment.
Niccademo

 

[New_York_Charlie]

I hate selling slices!!! One day I would sell three or four pies worth of slices and the next day the slice pie would go to waste. I finally gave up and went with a “personal” or “mini” pizza for the same price and sales for this item have gotten huge, especially with kids. Kids would rather have their own “pizza” instead of a slice and this way each one is made fresh, no warming cabinet or reheating. I sell my mini for $2.00 with 25 cents for toppings and everyone is eating it up COG=$.63(including the cute little 8" box). I think if I went back to slices my customers would kill me. The 31% food cost is worth it because I am selling more minis than I was slices. Sorry the post was off topic but since we were talking about slices, thought I would share.

 

[td_VP192]

New York Charlie:

I hate selling slices!!! One day I would sell three or four pies worth of slices and the next day the slice pie would go to waste. I finally gave up and went with a “personal” or “mini” pizza for the same price and sales for this item have gotten huge, especially with kids. Kids would rather have their own “pizza” instead of a slice and this way each one is made fresh, no warming cabinet or reheating. I sell my mini for $2.00 with 25 cents for toppings and everyone is eating it up COG=$.63(including the cute little 8" box). I think if I went back to slices my customers would kill me. The 31% food cost is worth it because I am selling more minis than I was slices. Sorry the post was off topic but since we were talking about slices, thought I would share.

lol never apologize for voicing your opinion. And we are all guilty of topic tangents from time to time.

There is a demand for slices in our area. For us to ignore it doesn’t make any sense. Especially when the drive-thru slice shops have horrific tasting pizza and a line of cars around their building all day. I want to take a portion of that business aspect from my competitors.

 

[Kris]

Hate to be the negative poster in the bunch but you are part of a franchise and they have rules…you want and expect them to hold up their end of the agreement but you want to make your own rules?

Let’s say you do this and it becomes the biggest and most successful part of your business…then what?

Over the years I have found I sleep much better, have less stress when I follow the rules.

I don’t know a whole lot about franchises and what happens when you go out of the scope of franchise rules but I know there has to be some kind of consequence. Is it really worth it?