? For those who do slice sales

[Warren]

This market really hasnt been hit upon to much in my neck of the woods. I am planing on going with a 16 inch pie 6 cut and charging 2.99 a slice. My plan is to make the pizza 1/2 and 1/2 or thirds. Pepperoni, ham and pineapple cheese and combo. What are you all doing? Charging? Also how long do you keep slices before you toss them? At $3 a slice i can afford to have some waste during slow time periods. I would make a fresh pie when someone comes in and hope to sell a few more slices before I have to toss the rest. Or maybe do 2 for 1 slices from 2-4 any thoughts?

 

[paul7979]

We don’t do slices on a regular basis, nor do we offer dine in. We do have a weekend festival that brings thousands walking by our front door multiple times a day for the weekend. We set up a tent and sell slices for this event only. What I find is our pizza is very difficult to handle by the slice fresh out of the oven. If not given a minute or two for the cheese and sauce to “set up” when we grab a slice to serve the cheese has a tendency to separate from the slice. You need to make sure this won’t be a problem on your pies. Also you say you’ll make a fresh pizza when someone comes in but will someone wait for a slice or two? How long of a lead time do you expect from ordering to serving?

 

[d9phoenix]

Do not do slices any more per say. I run a buffet Monday thru Friday, we allow people to buy slices off the buffet. Back when we did just slices (before we moved into a new location and started the buffet) we used 16" pies cut into 8 slices fully cooked and put into a warming cabinet with a humidity controller. Pizza’s would stay fresh for up to 2 hours (rarely did a pizza last more then 15 minutes tho).

As for cost per slice, at 8 slices, 2 slices should pay for the cost of the pizza, the remainder should be profit. This will cover any extra labor costs and anything you throw as a result. This pricing model is what worked in my area, each area is different tho and you may need to change it depending on what your customers will pay.

 

[brad_randall]

We do 14" pizzas cut into 8 slices for $1.49/slice from 11-1 weekdays. We fully cook the pie, wrap each slice with a sheet of wax paper & aluminum foil and set on a hot plate for grab & go sales. Our method steams the slices, but our pan-style crust is supposed to be soft and airy so it works for us… could also just set “open” on a pan in a counter-top display warmer. Benefit: speed. Biggest problem doing it this way is waste.

If I were to take a mulligan on the procedure, I’d par/pre bake the pies, cut and cool. Then I would grab slices to order out of the cooler, throw them on a screen, finish baking in the oven and serve them on a plate for dine in or put into a clamshell for to go. A bit more packing cost but a lot less waste as we could offer slices all day without worrying about the quality of a hot slice quickly deteriorating. Benefit: less (maybe zero if slices hold quality until next day) waste. Biggest problem would be keeping track of & expediting all those separate slice orders.

 

[smiling_with_hope]

Slices are a mixed bag using the deck ovens. They are in my NJ DNA so we offer them during lunch but not during diner hours. We fully cook the pies and reheat slices to order directly on the deck stones. This crisps them up but they take up valuable oven space in the diner hours/clutter the oven area with activity and are a lot of work for little return as we don’t sell many after lunch. Walter

 

[bodegahwy]

I owned a slice store for 10 years. Now we do slices from our delivery store during the middle of the day.

We have Hatco warmers that will keep the slices in good shape for up to an hour. Our slice business tends to be from 11-2 so we will have two 16" pies made 1/2 - 1/2 to start with and make more as needed.

In our slice location we did 16" pies cut in 6 but over time in our delco location we switched to 16" pies cut in 8. We charge $2.50 a slice regardless of what is on it so we are getting $20 for a whole pie but we found a lot more people would go for two slices at $2.50 so it works better for us.

We also run a special of two slices and a 20oz drink for $6.00 which is popular.

 

[GotRocks]

We do a 16" cut into 4 slices for $4.50 each, they get displayed at an uncontrolled temperature with a 4-hour limit (they do not last that long) the only real reason that we do slices in the first place is to tempt our diehard BBQ patrons to try a slice of pie. It offers them an option for something to accompany their meats, and turns our customers on to our other items that they may not have tried.
We slide slices into our deck oven to thermalize them properly before serving, but do see people wanting cold slices often too

 

[Warren]

I owned a slice store for 10 years. Now we do slices from our delivery store during the middle of the day.

We have Hatco warmers that will keep the slices in pretty shape for up to an hour. Our slice business tends to be from 11-2 so we will have two 16" pies made 1/2 - 1/2 to start with and make more as needed.

In our slice location we did 16" pies cut in 6 but over time in our delco location we switched to 16" pies cut in 8. We charge $2.50 a slice regardless of what is on it so we are getting $20 for a whole pie but we found a lot more people would go for two slices at $2.50 so it works better for us.

We also run a special of two slices and a 20oz drink for $6.00 which is popular.

Great Idea on the $2.50 8 cut. That is $1.00 more per pie. but one more slice to sell to get to the $10 price per pie before potential waste. 2 slices and a soda for $5.99 tough is a really good price point that alone Almost makes it worth going 8 cut. I think I will Probably only do Slices during lunch as well to start with, Although I am going to have a drive up window. Anybody have any experience with those?

 

[rgjujitsu]

We do a 14" cut into 4 slices. 1 topping 4, slice and drink 5, slice drink and side salad 7. We sauce and par bake, takes about 3 minutes to cook with cheese and topping 1.7 Oz of cheese

 

[jokergerm]

We do 2 slices of pie and can or fountain soda for 5 bucks with tax.

Average about 15 slices pies a day in slicers 15" cut into 8

we offer about 5 different kinds from 11-3pm. the high school kids love it sometimes there is 30 kids day and we go through like 10 pies in 10min with a line out the door

With waste and taxes we average about 15 bucks a pie for slicers, theres always waste

 

[Preston]

We sell slices for dinner and lunch. We make 25" pies and slices come off of that. They range from 3.00 for cheese to 3.75 for supreme. They take two 9" plates to serve… customers like the wow factor! We use a deck oven and reheat them as necessary. The health department here says we have 4 hours to use slices before tossing them. Usually the slices are used in an hour or less.

 

[GotRocks]

You guys coerced me into doing a “slice & Drink” Combo now.

The only problem I see is it knocking down our typical “Per-Guest Average” sales.
So this may come back to bite me in the butt that way.
But the labor is next to nothing compared to the BBQ end of our menu.

 

[Jen]

Do not do slices any more per say. I run a buffet Monday thru Friday, we allow people to buy slices off the buffet. Back when we did just slices (before we moved into a new location and started the buffet) we used 16" pies cut into 8 slices fully cooked and put into a warming cabinet with a humidity controller. Pizza’s would stay fresh for up to 2 hours (rarely did a pizza last more then 15 minutes tho).

As for cost per slice, at 8 slices, 2 slices should pay for the cost of the pizza, the remainder should be profit. This will cover any extra labor costs and anything you throw as a result. This pricing model is what worked in my area, each area is different tho and you may need to change it depending on what your customers will pay.

I have a buffet also! What do you all do on your buffet?

Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Tapatalk

 

[bodegahwy]

The only problem I see is it knocking down our typical “Per-Guest Average” sales.

Not a problem I spend time worrying about if the offer is bringing you customers you did not have…

In fact, to address it, I eliminate orders under $10 when considering our average ticket.

 

[famousperry]

We offer a 2 slice combo with soda cheese = $4.99 toppings = $5.99…we sell ton and advertise it on our signage and it draws alot of new customers who end up regulars. We offer it all day long (cheese, pepperoni, and the specialty slice of the day…we offer a regular rotation so that if someone likes the Buffalo chicken for example they now it is available every Tuesday all day long). At lunch we start the day with a large pie of cheese, pep, specialty and then do a 1/2 meatball 1/2 sausage and a 1/2 shroom 1/2 onion&pepper. After we sell the 1/2, 1/2 pies we do not do them the rest of the day. We cook our slice pies about a minute less by placing up on our belt and then reheat them to order for 2 minutes in a small electric deck oven that we use just for slices and pies that are well done…many people only order slices since the “double cook” produces a better result in my eyes. We cook more slice pies on the cheese, pep, and specialty pies when we get down to 3 pies. We have a glass display case and our Health Dept requires us to keep a log so we enter all slice pies in our POS (no charge) so it “time stamps” when they are made. They usually go within 30min-hr and any that are longer we move to the side and our drivers/kitchen staff usually eat them like vultures for free.
We use an 18" pie 8 cut and charge $2.00 for cheese and $2.50 for toppings (drinks are usually 1.95).

Been thinking about buffet, but this works for us so I am hesitant since it is practically unheard of in the northeast
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1bzmh3zqe7md327/SLICES.jpg?dl=0

 

[d9phoenix]

What do you all do on your buffet?

We have space for 8 pizza’s breadstix’s and our cinnabread (desert pizza). We just rotate specialty pizza’s and take requests as long as there is room. Some days we have 10 pizza’s racked up to be thrown in the oven and can plow thru 15 pizzas in 10 minutes. Other days it might take us all lunch to sell 10 pizza’s.

Had a lot of construction going on recently and now most of the projects are done or almost done. Expecting to be back down to regular levels here in a month or two.

Been thinking about buffet

With labor going up every year (in CO it is set to the inflation rate) it is getting harder and harder to justify the labor expense required to run a buffet correctly. We have to handle phone’s, walk-in’s, web order’s, and then have to make pizza’s for Delivery, carryouts and keep up on the buffet. Some days it gets very difficult to keep up even with racking pizza’s. There is only so much oven space per time unit.

With the randomness of when people come in for the buffet i am honestly considering stopping the buffet and going back to just selling slices.

 

[durbancic]

We offer a 2 slice combo with soda cheese = $4.99 toppings = $5.99…we sell ton and advertise it on our signage and it draws alot of new customers who end up regulars. We offer it all day long (cheese, pepperoni, and the specialty slice of the day…we offer a regular rotation so that if someone likes the Buffalo chicken for example they now it is available every Tuesday all day long). At lunch we start the day with a large pie of cheese, pep, specialty and then do a 1/2 meatball 1/2 sausage and a 1/2 shroom 1/2 onion&pepper. After we sell the 1/2, 1/2 pies we do not do them the rest of the day. We cook our slice pies about a minute less by placing up on our belt and then reheat them to order for 2 minutes in a small electric deck oven that we use just for slices and pies that are well done…many people only order slices since the “double cook” produces a better result in my eyes. We cook more slice pies on the cheese, pep, and specialty pies when we get down to 3 pies. We have a glass display case and our Health Dept requires us to keep a log so we enter all slice pies in our POS (no charge) so it “time stamps” when they are made. They usually go within 30min-hr and any that are longer we move to the side and our drivers/kitchen staff usually eat them like vultures for free.
We use an 18" pie 8 cut and charge $2.00 for cheese and $2.50 for toppings (drinks are usually 1.95).

Been thinking about buffet, but this works for us so I am hesitant since it is practically unheard of in the northeast
Dropbox - File Deleted - Simplify your life

How long do you keep the pies until you will no longer sell them? How long are you allowed to, per health dept regulations?
What is the deck oven that you use for reheating slices?

 

[famousperry]

How long do you keep the pies until you will no longer sell them? How long are you allowed to, per health dept regulations?
What is the deck oven that you use for reheating slices?

I am not sure of the actual health dept rules, but I use my judgement and rotate them out of our display case as such…luckily we have enough traffic that they rotate prob every 45 min the most. We use an electric Bakers Pride that has 2 stone decks…it is wide enough to also hold 2-18" pies as well. We set at 400 and have a timer that we use to do slices at 1:45 and it works great.

 

[bodegahwy]

We keep ours ready to serve in a Hatco warmer. Health dept wants them kept at 140 degrees or warmer. Not sure how long they allow but it is longer than we would keep them anyway. If they are not sold in 40 minutes or so we dump them. We don’t put slices in until the first customer shows up which is generally around 11:30-11:45 and for the most part we don’t cook any new pies after 1PM unless customers come in and we are out.