I'm out. I closed today

This will sound vague or whoo whoo nonsense… here goes
Getting out of the pizza game crosses my mind alot. However having my own independent store used to be my dream, modern employees have ruined it for me

The biggest bad thing about not having my store, is not having an identity anymore… I swear without my apron on Im invisible.
Idk if it’s because society just looks at restaurant workers as less than, therefore only important enough to remember when theyre at my pizza store and quickly forgotten once they leave or its something else

We are a marginalized industry and nobody cares that we are marginalized.
 
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sorry guys but as much as we bitch and complain about everything, there is part of us that actually thrive on it. The way I look at it is every year that goes by this job is getting more difficult and this will just weed out the bottom of the barrel. Hopefully this will allow us to dictate pricing going forward and charge accordingly as we lag every other sector of foodservice. My view is the strong will get stronger but it will not be easy by any means…you have to deal with all the bullshit but it sure beats working for someone else. I personally refuse to. I have put in 25yrs and when I turn 60 in 10yrs hope to retire but cant right now.
Hang in there!💪
 
I’m 65. If I was still 50, I’d be looking to open another location! Seriously what ruined it for me is labor market, I used to get 8-10 applications a week, at the end I was getting 1-2 per month and they lasted 2-3 days… I can’t count the number I hired during and interview that never even showed up. I just think that, as pizzeria owners, everyone needs to come up with what their value statement is and stand by the quality of food. The bacon I used is more than 2x than 6 years ago, pepperoni up 70%, cheese up almost 100%. Hell flour is up close to 100% in 1.5 years! Labor went up close to 100% from the day the pandemic hit, and that is the hardest thing to factor into pricing. There is a curve out there that you need to discover for your restaurant: if I raise prices to (x) I’ll lose (y) customers in the short term, but they’ll be back.

I can’t count the number of times a customer would say that they can get “that” at Little Caesars for ‘$$’ I would just reach into register and start counting their payment back to them. Never had one that said, no. They would say I buy here because you have the best pizza around. I’m sure the same is true for all of you… I think eventually the middle of the market will be robotic, with good independently owned pizzerias on top and Domino’s, Pizza Hut and Little Caesars on the bottom.
 
This is awesome. The man was watching his inner demons burn that day. Also Marblehead is like 35 min away from my own shop so that’s pretty cool!
 
This is so spot on Tim and Im happy you got out at 65 to enjoy your life and quality time spent with loved ones. The pizza industry has drastically changed in the time I’ve had mine and I’ve only owned my shop for 3.5 years.
 
We sold a couple of months ago too. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be

Just started looking for the next gig
 
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Not yet, my wife was recently diagnosed with a rough disease called Huntington’s disease. I’m trying to find a hybrid or remote job so I can be around to help her with the kids
 
Just an update here: I sold to a person who had business experience in owning apartment buildings. I stressed all through the sale, closing and subsequent 40+ hours of training, that I was an owner operator, shopping, ordering, scheduling, cleaning, and payroll.

He decided that those current employees could take on all the extra work for a few hourly dollars.

He bad mouthed me to the employees (including my daughter who stayed to help transition and train a replacement to do all the prep)

They eventually all quit, with a 1 month notice.

He hired no one until 3 days before everyone’s last day.

They are closed except for 4-5 lunch services

No nights at all.

I helped him set up actual payroll because some employees needed actual paystubs for section 8 housing.

I don’t believe he has a SafeServ certification employee, which health board gave him to last week to get.

He’s not paying his sales taxes, or withholding taxes.

He’ll be totally dead sometime soon.

What a quick end to a 15 year locally praises independently owned family pizzeria.
 
Wow. This is crazy. Random thought here but anyway you could rebuy at pennys on the dollar to save it and just bring it back to where it was? Then maybe resell to someone else a year down the line who would it more seriously? Obviously you already got paid and presumably want to retire/enjoy the next phase of your life but just some food for thought. The pizza business is so hands on–some guy near me bought another local pizzeria near me and lives a state away and comes and visits it on the weekends lol I give him a year before it crashes and burns

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Just saw the newest reviews and man this guy messed it all up in 2-3months? And no one is answering the phone or getting pizzas out? Why did he even bother with this?
 
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Yeah, he did. He just wanted to be a no show owner. When he finally understood that all his experienced employees were leaving, he called me at least a dozen times in one Saturday morning begging me to tell the employees to stay, one of which he told them to stay ‘another year’.

They all explained they were leaving, so he has 2 employees, one of which declared he had pizza making (chef) abilities, because he made microwave pizza at a gas station.

I feel terrible, but he’s treating my old staff and me so poorly, I don’t really care. I did call the broker so he could contact him and maybe get a resell
 
Holy !@#$.

I am sorry to hear about about this.
My current store is two years in (another opening this month) and my brand is everything to me!

I am sure it pains you to read the one star reviews, even though they don’t revolve around you personally.
 
Yeah, was in there a week or so ago, to drop off some stuff that I had store in my garage. The fountain pop machine has an out of order sign, he said because it was out of ‘gas’. It was plugged up with so much sugar the tray was overflowing onto floor. (Ice machine drains there). I showed his staff how to unplug and clean, they had not cleaned in months, nor cleaned the vent hoods or the pizza ovens.

Shame.
 
We closed our full-service location on Thursday after we found a restaurant group wanting to take over the lease and purchase the setup/equipment. We’re back down to our 2 delco locations now.

I’m disappointed we failed to make a go of it, but I’m oh so glad to get back to the relative simplicity of owning stores without dining rooms. I compare running a full-service restaurant to parenting a toddler - it requires your constant attention. Our delcos are like having older high school students - need to check in every now and then but otherwise they pretty much take care of themselves.
 
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