SHOULD I CHARGE FOR EXTRA CONDIMENTS?

JTMiller09: We charge customers for extra condiments, such as salad dressing, Buffalo sauce, etc. My philosophy, which may or may not be right, is that I base our menu pricing on our food and paper costs. So if somebody wants something extra, they pay for it—same as I do. Some customers get it, and some don’t. I’m curious as to how others handle such requests.

grassospizza1993: We charge for those items, too. We don’t get a lot of customer complaints, but, of course, there’s always one or two. In a joking manner, I say, “Yeah, I don’t get it for free, either.” sparrowspizza: I give away free red pepper and Parmesan packets. I also offer extra sauce on the pizza for free. But I charge for everything else, except when a customer has already paid and then asks for a ranch dressing cup. Then I’ll just give it to them.

Daddio [replying to sparrowspizza]: And the customer knows this, so they will always wait until after they have paid to ask for the extras!

Little things add up:

Think Tankers disagree on how to handle customer requests for additional cups of dressing or sauce.

December: We charge for extra sauces. We definitely have customers who always ask after they’ve paid, as if they actually forgot—they just don’t want to pay for it. On the positive side, a few years ago customers always asked for blue cheese dressing—our most expensive dressing by far—after paying for their order. Now ranch is the most requested dressing, and it’s my least expensive one.

NicksNYPizza: We don’t charge for them. We ask everybody who purchases a slice if they want a side of ranch or blue cheese for free. We are in a mall food court, and it’s pretty competitive. This is one way that we build customer loyalty. It only costs maybe 10 cents, and we fill the cups ourselves. We want customers to eat our food every day, so we’d rather make a little less profit than see our customers go somewhere else for lunch the next day. I figure we will make the profit back when they place a larger order.

Mike: We charge for extras if the requested item already comes with the order, such as salad dressing. But if someone asks for a side of ranch or blue cheese with something else, we just give it to them. In my opinion, it’s not really worth making a customer angry to save 50 cents.

FROM FIGHTING FIRES TO WOOD-FIRED PIES

Lighting a fire in a fire truck might sound counterintuitive, but it’s worked out beautifully for Christopher and Janene Murray, owners of Murray’s Rustic Pie in College Place, Washington. Christopher, a former firefighter, used to drive old Engine 72, a 1979 Ford Pierce model, to put out blazes around North Olympia. When it was time to retire the vehicle, he bought it and eventually turned it into a mobile pizza truck with a wood-fired oven. Nooks and compartments designed to hold firefighting equipment now serve as storage space for firewood and pizza topping containers. Best of all, the Murrays don’t have to travel far to get to work: When they’re not visiting farmers markets and community events, they usually park the truck outside their home and serve about 30 pies a day in their driveway.

ART FOR ART’S SAKE

How do you get away with charging $100,000 for a Margherita pizza? Call it art. Michael Ayoub, owner of a pair of Fornino Pizza stores in Brooklyn, New York, taped a small pizza to the wall at his restaurant and slapped a $100,000 price tag on it. He jokingly presented it as an art installation in an Instagram post, much to the amusement of his followers. “I have had a few people shopping it, but there are no buyers as of yet,” Ayoub tells PMQ. “I am now offering a bottle of wine to go with that pizza.” He said he replaces the pizza daily, adding, “I use the perfect balance of sauce and cheese so that, when it gets cold, it doesn’t slide off the wall.” Ayoub really does know a thing or two about art: In addition to creating masterpieces in the kitchen, he’s an expert glass blower, and some of his glass sculptures hang from the ceilings in his restaurants. And he’s not shy about taking chances: In 2018, he unveiled the New York CBD/Hemp Pizza, featuring CBD-infused olive oil baked into the pizza crust and drizzled atop the pie. “Food is art,” Ayoub says. “Be an artist!”

Pizza Delivery Flies High In Alaska

Alaska is truly a land of wonder, where polar bears roam, caribou graze and take-and-bake pizzas fly, thanks to Tyler Williams, owner of a Papa Murphy’s store in Anchorage. Williams earned coverage in numerous media outlets nationwide for offering bush delivery by air to remote communities across the vast, sparsely populated state. He told Alaska Public Media that he sends out an average of 150 frozen pies per week, typically larger orders for parties and events. He worked out deals with airlines throughout Alaska to keep expenses down. “Our profit per pizza is a little bit less,” he said, “but…because we’re covering the shipping cost in most cases, since we’re doing orders of 10 or more, there’s enough margin to make it work.” One customer told Alaska Public Media that the wait is worth it, since there are no pizza shops anywhere near his home on St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea: “You have to buy it frozen from the store. And it’s DiGiorno’s, and it’s way smaller for about the same price—$20.”

Fall In Love With Your Sweetie Pie

Oath Pizza, a chain with restaurants in 11 states and Washington, D.C., developed a limited-time dessert pie for Valentine’s Day and donated 20% of its proceeds to the Kind Campaign, an anti-bullying nonprofit. The personal-sized Sweetie Pie featured ricotta, chocolate chunk cookie dough, Valentine M&Ms, powdered sugar and a drizzle of chocolate. It sold for $6 and was available throughout February. According to its website, Oath Pizza, founded on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, in 2015, is a “socially conscious, purpose-driven pizza company working to make a lasting positive impact on the world.” The Kind Campaign, founded by a pair of Pepperdine University students in 2009, works to raise awareness of girl-against-girl bullying. Last year, Oath Pizza added three new menu items featuring plant-based meatballs in a partnership with Beyond Meat.

Mod Pizza Named Emerging Brand Of The Year

As the fastest-growing restaurant chain in the country, Seattlebased MOD Pizza has proven that doing good really is good for business. Restaurant Dive, a national digital magazine covering the restaurant industry, chose MOD as “Emerging Brand of the Year” for 2019. The publication noted that MOD Pizza “has leveraged savvy tech investments and off-premise optimization to win a hefty—and growing—slice of market share.” MOD’s 2018 sales grew by nearly 45% to $397 million while adding 102 stores, an increase of 34%.

Solidifying its credentials as a mission-driven business committed to addressing social issues as well as turning a profit, MOD continued its annual Spreading MODness celebration in November. The company donated a portion of every pizza sold to help create meals for kids struggling with food insecurity. MOD partners with Generosity Feeds and other nonprofits to distribute compact, nutritionally dense meals through school backpack programs and food banks in MOD markets around the country. “We have built MOD with the intention to positively impact as many lives as possible,” Svenson said in a press release about Spreading MODness. “For our customers, it’s simple—when they enjoy a pizza, they’ll also be helping to feed a child.”

They’re helping fuel MOD’s rapid growth and innovation, too. The company is aiming for 1,000 locations in the next five years, thanks to an infusion of $160 million in new equity financing. MOD will use the new funding to bolster its digital ordering channels, which experienced 100% growth in 2019. “The vast majority of our sales are coming from experiences customers have in-store with us, [but] an increasing percentage of those are coming through various digital channels, whether it’s our website, mobile app or call center,” MOD CEO Scott Svenson told Restaurant Dive. “Many of those [channels] still lead to customers coming into the store to pick up their food or dine in.” MOD has also opened its first drivethrough operation and has more planned for 2020. “We’re trying to figure out how to execute a drive-through so that we can deliver a fantastic customer experience,” Svenson added. “I would say right now it’s really in a test-and-learn phase.”

Little Caesars Partners With Doordash

Little Caesars, the world’s third-largest pizza chain, finally took the plunge into delivery in January. The company announced that it has partnered with DoorDash to deliver its pies from 3,600 stores in the United States and Canada. The full menu will be available for delivery orders, with no minimum purchases required for deals or discounts, David Scrivano, president and CEO of Little Caesars, said in a statement. “We’ve seen such expensive and complex pricings throughout the pizza industry, and we think it’s crazy,” Scrivano said. “Some chains require a minimum purchase to get their deals, or the discount pricing is only available on carryout orders. We’re excited to bring much-needed affordability to delivered pizza.” Among the top four national pizza chains, Domino’s is now the only third-party delivery holdout, still preferring to deliver food exclusively through its own drivers. Pizza Hut and Papa John’s already work with DoorDash and GrubHub, while smaller but fast-growing chains like MOD Pizza and Blaze Pizza have also forged alliances with multiple national third-party delivery companies.

DOMINO’S: CUSTOMERS “LOVE” GPS DELIVERY TRACKING SYSTEM

Domino’s locations across the United States have begun adding the chain’s new GPS delivery tracking technology, making it easier for customers to keep up with the progress of their pizza orders on their smartphones. Domino’s tested the new system for much of 2019, and, the company said in a press release, “Everyone loved it!” Customers can see the location of their delivery drivers on an interactive map and receive an estimated delivery time. They can also opt in to receive text notifications that let them know when their order is on the way, when it’s about two minutes away and when it has arrived. Additionally, the technology allows store managers to see where drivers are on the road, making in-store logistics easier to manage. And drivers can benefit from the system’s optional navigation and one-touch customer callback capabilities, while customers can be better prepared to meet them at the door when they arrive.