We had a lot of discussion week before last during our annual pizza seminar on this very topic. As already mentioned, bundling seems to be the way to go. By doing this you don’t reduce the perceived value of your pizza to your customers as you might with a 2-Fer offer. We discussed offering a free order of breadsticks or dessert breadsticks with any medium or large pizza (a $2-3.00 value for $0.25 your cost); a free dessert pizza with any dine in large pizza; A free pitcher of soft drink with any dine in medium or large pizza; or offer a “special” on that slow night, such Pizza Primavera (hand tossed crust with fresh tomato or tomato filets instead of sauce, hand torn pieces of Mozzarella cheese (order a couple blocks of your regular cheese and hand tear rather than shred or dice) finish with an assortment of fresh vegetable toppings; or offer a special seafood pizza consisting of your regular dough/crust but with Alfredo sauce instead of pizza sauce, sprinkle with dill weed, top with popcorn shrimp, firm flesh fish, clams, or some other type of seafood that strikes your fancy, keep in mind that these “specials” don’t need to be priced with your regular pizzas, they can be priced higher, after all, they are “special”, and only available on Tuesday night. If you don’t offer deep-dish pizzas you can add these to your Tuesday night dine in menu, just be sure to indicate availability subject to the dough we have on hand. This way you can easily plan your deep-dish pizza needs by making only so many pans of deep-dish dough exclusivelt for Tuesday night, then change things around on Tuesday nights to keep them fresh.
Just some ideas that might work for you.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
