Home town politics

[daisy1]

Well after 7 yrs of doing the concession stand at the high school for football games we had a new group of boosters take over and have voted us out and went with LC. Received call from good friend who was literally mad at the new people. They claim all because 2 issues one main reason was because I didn’t contribute to a booster fund raiser to a golf outing and 2nd was because I raised the price of our 72pc pan of bread sticks from 25 to 30 at which was done 3 yrs ago. So disappointed in the booster club I am beside my self and truly upset. Now to me the main reason clearly sounds like blackmail or extortion. Guess I will just sit back and keep the anger to myself. How would you handle the situation ???..

 

[URNUTS]

We’ve all been there. You have to make the business aspect work by itself and not connect it to the ass-kissing and extortion. Not sure if that makes any sense. I did a ton of school lunch orders for many years… that has to work because of pricing, service, quality and the relationships with the schools, not the Boosters, PTA clubs and yearbook ads. I never did any of that… I’d donate a pie here/there if asked but the deal has to work regardless of all the other crap. Thank them for the past business and wish them well. It is frustrating but try to bite your tongue and move on. Can you take that focus & energy and grab another school, event…?

 

[Rick_G]

I was told once, several years ago, that in order for me to keep the concession stand business I would have to do two thing, match LC. prices as I was $0.50 a pie higher in price for schools and non profits , and purchase a full page Ad in the football program. ( I dropped my ad from full page to 1/4 page because they raised the price so much that 1/4 page was same price as a full page the year before). I brought up that I was donating a couple of thousand dollars a year to the various organizations at the school and had been doing so since we opened back in 2002 but they did not care. After that exchange, and the position was backed up by the Athletic Booster and Music Booster Clubs, I stopped all donations to organizations at that school with the exception of Drama and the annual blood drive put on by HOSA.

 

[pizzanow]

It’s hypocrisy. ‘Do this for us’ and ‘Do that for us’ because we’re a local school but the second you try to make money off us we’ll go to a chain who wouldn’t pee on us if we were on fire and give them all of our business instead.

 

[famousperry]

if it is a local business, chain or not, you can not be upset but you can adjust your support accordingly.

 

[bodegahwy]

We had a similar story with a very popular non-profit in our area which contacts all the businesses in town several times per year. For years they asked us for donations, pizza for staff, event prizes, gift certificates for silent auctions etc etc… We donated again and again.

Finally one day they called and said that they needed 20 14" one topping pizzas. They were going to buy them and wanted to know what price we could give them. I offered a price which was about 30% off our menu price and they placed the order. Not a profitable transaction but at least not a money loser. Then they called back a day later and said Dominos was $1 cheaper per pizza and could we match it. I said no and they cancelled the order.

So, after maybe a decade of donating hundreds of dollars of pizza per year, when they were finally going to actually BUY pizza, they went with the national competitor to save $20. Fuck them. I never donated to them again. At a couple of points I did get to explain to them when they called for donations why I was not donating. We continue to support many other local efforts and charities.

When the nationals can match my pizza I will match their prices. Until then…