4 ms·

it depends a lot on the kind of food. I once asked the owner about this when I worked at a pizza place. the "house salad" was almost straight profit; lettuce, t

it depends a lot on the kind of food. I once asked the owner about this when I worked at a pizza place. the "house salad" was almost straight profit; lettuce, tomatoes, onions, etc. cost basically nothing when purchased in bulk. the salads that included cheese were more like a 300% markup over the material inputs. interestingly, wings were sold at a slight loss. I guess you don't want a whole group to pick a different pizza place just because one person wanted wings.

gruez 5y ago
>interestingly, wings were sold at a slight loss. I guess you don't want a whole group to pick a different pizza place just because one person wanted wings. Shouldn't this logic work in reverse as well? In other words, "they were able to charge more for wings because people wouldn't order from a different place just to save a few bucks on wings"?
- leetcrew 5y ago
  to some extent I'm just regurgitating what the owner told me. the guy was a bit neurotic. he would obsessively compare his prices with all the other local takeout places. there wasn't really a cohesive business strategy in the pricing other than "match or beat everyone else". for high volume items like pizza, this meant playing around with the inputs until they were profitable, but he just accepted that he would take a loss on a few infrequently sold items (although he would absolutely lose his shit if you didn't charge someone for an extra side of ranch with wings). I'm not sure he was completely wrong though. the bulk of the customers were teenagers and working class families, two extremely price conscious demographics. I'm sure a fair chunk of them would actually go somewhere else to save a few bucks on a routine dinner. getting pizza isn't necessarily "going out" to the working families; sometimes it's just the most cost effective way to feed the family that one night that neither parent has time to cook.
Mountain_Skies 5y ago
Used to have a neighbor who owned several Domino's Pizza locations. He said the cheese pizzas were a loss for him. Not only because the price is so low but also because cheese is one of the most expensive toppings. When you order other toppings, they can put a lot less cheese on the pizza but for the plain cheese pizza, they can't get away with skimping on the cheese.
- 6510 5y ago
  Its not nessasrly skimping. To much cheese makes other things soggy.

gruez 5y ago

>interestingly, wings were sold at a slight loss. I guess you don't want a whole group to pick a different pizza place just because one person wanted wings. Shouldn't this logic work in reverse as well? In other words, "they were able to charge more for wings because people wouldn't order from a different place just to save a few bucks on wings"?

leetcrew 5y ago
to some extent I'm just regurgitating what the owner told me. the guy was a bit neurotic. he would obsessively compare his prices with all the other local takeout places. there wasn't really a cohesive business strategy in the pricing other than "match or beat everyone else". for high volume items like pizza, this meant playing around with the inputs until they were profitable, but he just accepted that he would take a loss on a few infrequently sold items (although he would absolutely lose his shit if you didn't charge someone for an extra side of ranch with wings). I'm not sure he was completely wrong though. the bulk of the customers were teenagers and working class families, two extremely price conscious demographics. I'm sure a fair chunk of them would actually go somewhere else to save a few bucks on a routine dinner. getting pizza isn't necessarily "going out" to the working families; sometimes it's just the most cost effective way to feed the family that one night that neither parent has time to cook.

Mountain_Skies 5y ago

Used to have a neighbor who owned several Domino's Pizza locations. He said the cheese pizzas were a loss for him. Not only because the price is so low but also because cheese is one of the most expensive toppings. When you order other toppings, they can put a lot less cheese on the pizza but for the plain cheese pizza, they can't get away with skimping on the cheese.

6510 5y ago
Its not nessasrly skimping. To much cheese makes other things soggy.