menu changes

[Piff]

Hello,
working on new menus and considering making big changes. I want to refocus my business and focus more on pizza speed.
1 to eliminate hoagies and moSt of my fried food (except wings)
2 in the case of call offs from the fry side or hoagie line having all cooks focused on pizzas…
pizzas are 75% of my sales. I know my #s will drop alittle but I think I can get more business by getting pizzas out faster…
any thoughts on this?

 

[johnmorrison]

Dropped my fryer 2 years ago (fried zuccini, fried mushrooms, fried mozz, french fries, fried wings ) Glad i did, it worked,send wings through oven, also mozz stix, dropped other items ,no more oil cost, no cleaning fryer and surrounding area , cooks more focused on pizza ,our overall numbers are better,kitchen a lot less greasy,we sell more salads, when taking a phone order with no tickets on wheel,i say that 'll be ready in 10 minutes,

 

[Pizza_of_the_Month]

If you want to keep your #'s up, focus on making a new menu item that uses your dough. Breadsticks or maybe a Stromboli or Calzone. Any menu item made from scratch has more profit potential.
The breadsticks can used to raise ticket averages.
Strombolis and Calzones are great for a personal size meal (lunch or dinner). It depends what type of business you have…Eat-In?? We sell about 140 bolis each day, that’s 25% of our sales.
BTW, We are about 90 miles east of you. I should stop in someday.

 

[GotRocks]

If you want to keep your #'s up, focus on making a new menu item that uses your dough. Breadsticks or maybe a Stromboli or Calzone. Any menu item made from scratch has more profit potential.
The breadsticks can used to raise ticket averages.
Strombolis and Calzones are great for a personal size meal (lunch or dinner). It depends what type of business you have…Eat-In?? We sell about 140 bolis each day, that’s 25% of our sales.
BTW, We are about 90 miles east of you. I should stop in someday.

I guess Stromboli is a regional thing…
Because I have stromboli on our menu, and we sell less than 3/week. I’ve actually gone a month without selling one.

People do not understand what a stromboli is in my area,
and OMFG, we dare not try anything new because we might like it

 

[d9phoenix]

People do not understand what a stromboli is in my area,
and OMFG, we dare not try anything new because we might like it

What’s stromboli ?

 

[Piff]

Dropped my fryer 2 years ago (fried zuccini, fried mushrooms, fried mozz, french fries, fried wings ) Glad i did, it worked,send wings through oven, also mozz stix, dropped other items ,no more oil cost, no cleaning fryer and surrounding area , cooks more focused on pizza ,our overall numbers are better,kitchen a lot less greasy,we sell more salads, when taking a phone order with no tickets on wheel,i say that 'll be ready in 10 minutes,

Thank you

 

[Joe]

Dropped my fryer 2 years ago (fried zuccini, fried mushrooms, fried mozz, french fries, fried wings ) Glad i did, it worked,send wings through oven, also mozz stix, dropped other items ,no more oil cost, no cleaning fryer and surrounding area , cooks more focused on pizza ,our overall numbers are better,kitchen a lot less greasy,we sell more salads, when taking a phone order with no tickets on wheel,i say that 'll be ready in 10 minutes,

How are the mozz sticks turning out via the oven? I’ve always done wings in my conveyor oven. If you cook them right, they get really crispy and make a good product for delivery too. Delivery wings have always been a rough patch for alot of pieholes. Nothing worse than soggy wings! We keep it simple and I’m glad to see a lot of other operators going with smaller menus now.

 

[Joe]

Hello,
working on new menus and considering making big changes. I want to refocus my business and focus more on pizza speed.
1 to eliminate hoagies and moSt of my fried food (except wings)
2 in the case of call offs from the fry side or hoagie line having all cooks focused on pizzas…
pizzas are 75% of my sales. I know my #s will drop alittle but I think I can get more business by getting pizzas out faster…
any thoughts on this?

I have a background from Jimmy John’s. I used what I learned there to deliver and be speedy. We market our delivery times and even on our busiest nights, a customer rarely waits longer than 45 mins. Keep a smaller delivery area and dominate that region. If you do well, open another location on the other side of town with a different delivery zone and dominate that region too.

 

[pizzapiratespp]

I have a background from Jimmy John’s. I used what I learned there to deliver and be speedy. We market our delivery times and even on our busiest nights, a customer rarely waits longer than 45 mins. Keep a smaller delivery area and dominate that region. If you do well, open another location on the other side of town with a different delivery zone and dominate that region too.

Give us all the details on Jimmy Johns delivery systems. I heard that they only deliver 1 mile out. No exceptions.

 

[bodegahwy]

They deliver for about 5 miles here.

 

[pizzapiratespp]

There are many web pages devoted to consumer complaints regarding their small delivery area. From what I can tell they are allowed to deliver somewhere in the .5 to 1.5 mile radius and or 5 minutes from their store.

 

[johnmorrison]

no complaints on oven baked mozz stix

 

[Joe]

There are many web pages devoted to consumer complaints regarding their small delivery area. From what I can tell they are allowed to deliver somewhere in the .5 to 1.5 mile radius and or 5 minutes from their store.

You’re partly correct on delivery radius. When opening a new location we establish the delivery area by setting each corner( NW, SW, NE, SE) as 5 mins from the store. All areas are different however. Some towns one JJ’s covers the entire town. In cities, you’ll see 4-5 JJ’s opened up to handle all the residents/business with 5 delivery areas. And in large cities like SF and Chicago, the downtown areas only deliver by bike or skateboard due to lack of parking like The Loop in Chicago for example. A delivery area for a store in The Loop is 3-4 blocks in each direction. In this case, all the people are upwards in huge 40-75 story office buildings rather than spread out over miles. All orders are to be out of the store in less than 4 mins. You’re literally eating your food in less than 10 mins after you placed your order and with little effort from your own self.

With pizza, I made my delivery area small as well and only go where my drivers can get to in 10 mins or less. There’s 88,000 people in my delivery area. Having faster delivery with a good product will leave you with zero competition. People don’t want to wait 60-90 mins for their pizzas, if they can get a similar or better product from someone else in 30-45 mins They’re hungry now! My competitors in SF are terrible at delivery management. I’ve researched each place on Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat/Sun nights for delivery times. I called each one every day for a month and simply asked how long the delivery time is. During the week the avg wait time was an hour, with the fastest time quote being 45 mins. On weekend nights, avg wait time was 1 hour 20 mins with the fastest time quote being 1 hour and one place was even 2-2.5 hour wait on Fri AND Sat.

Speed is a big deal and a great niche market. Takes a lot of time, effort, proper execution, and disciplined employees. Everyone wants faster everything. Internet, phone service, shipping, speed limits, cars, you know name it. Own that small delivery area and run it like a well-oiled machine. Before you know it, you’ll have everyone in that area calling and you’ll be flush to open up another location.

 

[RobT]

my pizza sales are about 55-60% of my overall sales.

I have people who buy pizza only and kitchen food only… Its there for the customer.

I run alot of bundled specials to increase ticket averages.
If you get rid of it, then just be prepared for complaints.

 

[pizzapiratespp]

You’re partly correct on delivery radius. When opening a new location we establish the delivery area by setting each corner( NW, SW, NE, SE) as 5 mins from the store. All areas are different however. Some towns one JJ’s covers the entire town. In cities, you’ll see 4-5 JJ’s opened up to handle all the residents/business with 5 delivery areas. And in large cities like SF and Chicago, the downtown areas only deliver by bike or skateboard due to lack of parking like The Loop in Chicago for example. A delivery area for a store in The Loop is 3-4 blocks in each direction. In this case, all the people are upwards in huge 40-75 story office buildings rather than spread out over miles. All orders are to be out of the store in less than 4 mins. You’re literally eating your food in less than 10 mins after you placed your order and with little effort from your own self.

With pizza, I made my delivery area small as well and only go where my drivers can get to in 10 mins or less. There’s 88,000 people in my delivery area. Having faster delivery with a good product will leave you with zero competition. People don’t want to wait 60-90 mins for their pizzas, if they can get a similar or better product from someone else in 30-45 mins They’re hungry now! My competitors in SF are terrible at delivery management. I’ve researched each place on Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat/Sun nights for delivery times. I called each one every day for a month and simply asked how long the delivery time is. During the week the avg wait time was an hour, with the fastest time quote being 45 mins. On weekend nights, avg wait time was 1 hour 20 mins with the fastest time quote being 1 hour and one place was even 2-2.5 hour wait on Fri AND Sat.

Speed is a big deal and a great niche market. Takes a lot of time, effort, proper execution, and disciplined employees. Everyone wants faster everything. Internet, phone service, shipping, speed limits, cars, you know name it. Own that small delivery area and run it like a well-oiled machine. Before you know it, you’ll have everyone in that area calling and you’ll be flush to open up another location.

Thanks for the info. Between you and Dale the 314 man I am convinced that this is future direction of our company. Dale has pretty much doubled his sales in the last few years using this concept.

 

[Joe]

Thanks for the info. Between you and Dale the 314 man I am convinced that this is future direction of our company. Dale has pretty much doubled his sales in the last few years using this concept.

That’s great! It’s best for long-term. You’ll have some struggles at first short-term while educating customers on your new systems & procedures updates. You’ll have better labor efficiency and an even fresher product on delivery. One problem you may incur…customers will expect their pies freaky fast everytime so if it’s not there in 20 mins or whatever, they’ll be calling you. I have people at JJ’s order 10-12 sandwiches for delivery and if it’s not there in 10 mins, they call and say “um yeah hiiiii I ordered a delivery 10 mins ago and it’s not here yet”.

I’m planning on opening another location in a year in SF, then two more to take up the nice parts of SF completely then either keep doing Bay Area locations or open in a new market. Someday I hope to be all up and down the left coast, perhaps we’ll cross paths at some point . Thanks for all your feedback as well over the past few months, take care my man!

 

[pizzapiratespp]

That’s great! It’s best for long-term. You’ll have some struggles at first short-term while educating customers on your new systems & procedures updates. You’ll have better labor efficiency and an even fresher product on delivery. One problem you may incur…customers will expect their pies freaky fast everytime so if it’s not there in 20 mins or whatever, they’ll be calling you. I have people at JJ’s order 10-12 sandwiches for delivery and if it’s not there in 10 mins, they call and say “um yeah hiiiii I ordered a delivery 10 mins ago and it’s not here yet”.

I’m planning on opening another location in a year in SF, then two more to take up the nice parts of SF completely then either keep doing Bay Area locations or open in a new market. Someday I hope to be all up and down the left coast, perhaps we’ll cross paths at some point . Thanks for all your feedback as well over the past few months, take care my man!

Yes I know all about the expecting it fast calls. Back when I first started out in the 80’s we were part a small franchise that was mimicking Domino’s. We had the 30 minute guarantee or $2 off your order. When we got backed up and started running lates the phones would explode with the “wheres my pizza calls”. This would cause us to get even more backed up because now we were stuck on the phones handling these calls. It was a total nightmare.

I don’t expect to start running lightning speed service times overnight. Just gradually improve them over time. We have set a goal to decrease delivery times 1 minute a month for 12 months straight. Resulting in customers getting their order 12 minutes faster by this time next year.

Tell us how you deal with the SF government mandates. What min wage now? $30 an hour? How do you adjust your business model to account for all the extra expense. I feel all of California will be moving in that direction, so I need to plan on doing things like you do them.

 

[Joe]

Yes I know all about the expecting it fast calls. Back when I first started out in the 80’s we were part a small franchise that was mimicking Domino’s. We had the 30 minute guarantee or $2 off your order. When we got backed up and started running lates the phones would explode with the “wheres my pizza calls”. This would cause us to get even more backed up because now we were stuck on the phones handling these calls. It was a total nightmare.

I don’t expect to start running lightning speed service times overnight. Just gradually improve them over time. We have set a goal to decrease delivery times 1 minute a month for 12 months straight. Resulting in customers getting their order 12 minutes faster by this time next year.

Tell us how you deal with the SF government mandates. What min wage now? $30 an hour? How do you adjust your business model to account for all the extra expense. I feel all of California will be moving in that direction, so I need to plan on doing things like you do them.

Two major things are Paid Sick Leave and high min wage. Each employee nets 1 hour of PSL per 30 hours worked. Min wage is currently $11.07/hr and will rise to $12.25/hr on May 1st. Simply raise prices. This wage increase is 10.66% so quite substantial compared to the typical 3% or so raise annually SF used to do that coincided with CPI increases. SF is one of the top GLOBAL economies with lots of money and tourism so CPI is always increasing big time sans a major recession. I’m going to raise my prices 10% and blame the new min wage for the increase when explaining to customers.

 

[pizzapiratespp]

Two major things are Paid Sick Leave and high min wage. Each employee nets 1 hour of PSL per 30 hours worked. Min wage is currently $11.07/hr and will rise to $12.25/hr on May 1st. Simply raise prices. This wage increase is 10.66% so quite substantial compared to the typical 3% or so raise annually SF used to do that coincided with CPI increases. SF is one of the top GLOBAL economies with lots of money and tourism so CPI is always increasing big time sans a major recession. I’m going to raise my prices 10% and blame the new min wage for the increase when explaining to customers.

We are planning price increases also. I already have it planned our over the next few years. One thing I noticed when reading articles about restaurants raising prices, is that the smart ones never seem state that they are raising them from a result of higher wages. They always say its from increased food cost. I think they know that the public feels that business should absorb all the cost of higher wages. Its just not PC. Especially in California.