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Small Town Operators - Need Advise

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pizzaduo

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I currently have a store that is doing great in a town of 14K. A small town next to me, population 2500, had their pizza place forclosed by the bank. The town has very little places to eat a Dairy Queen, a mexican food place, and two mom and pop cafes. The bank is ready to make a deal, would probably take 70K for a 4000 square foot building that is in pristine condition, and still has hood, walk-in cooler, walk-in freezer, and sinks. I would like to get input from small town operators, concerning possible sales volume, positives and negatives of small town pizzeria. I should also tell you that the business did good for several years 10+ until the owner died and his wife sold business and property to a gentleman that ran the business into the ground and got forclosed.
 
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I’m looking at a similar sized town, but being the county seat (of a quickly growing county) it may be a bit different.

Variety of offerings, reasonable prices, top-notch service, and be extra nice to the schools. A good presence at the schools and churches will be your best advertising.
 
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Depending on surronding population, you can look ay peaking around 250K with high quality pizza. Nearby apartments, college, commercial/industrial location for lunch traffic and the like could influence this number. Creativity, excellent networking, and effective marketing could also drive a little more stability.

Your number one challenge will be lunch traffic. I would bet that there are scant few emplyment centers actually in town to create lunch traffic. Without open businesses, active tourism trade or some other draw, lunch will be abismal in the shop . . . .makes for catering oportunity though.

We operated in a town of 2500+/- with zero lunch traffic, and it created challenges. Managed food costs, managed debt load and intense involvement in community and county-wide visibility opportunities will be really big assets in the small town market.

Customer cannibalism a possible issue?
 
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