Pizza Today - July 2021 - 36

said that it was the same thing, since the
second numbers were just doubled. I was
shocked that no one chose the
50 percent food cost scenario. I said,
" Let's do some basic math. In the first
example, 25 percent of $5,000 is $1,250,
which is what you would spend on your
food, with $3,750 remaining for other
costs. In the second example, 50 percent
of $10,000 is $5,000 which would be
spent on food, with $5,000 left for other
costs. So, would you rather have $3,750 or
$5,000? " . Even with the numbers staring
right at them, they could not accept that a
higher food cost is not necessarily bad.
Over time I came to the realization
that customer satisfaction and customer
retention was more valuable than a few
percentage points in food cost. What
does it cost to keep a customer happy?
Are you hoping to satisfy your customer,
or trying to wow them with the product
you are selling? How much do you spend
in advertising trying to gain new customers
when you really should just focus on
retaining the ones you have?
In 1995, I bought my first Domino's
store on Long Island in New
York. There were 34 stores on Long
Island, and the store I bought was
doing an AWUS of $4,600. My store
was around 30th in sales of the 34. I
made some big changes to the store, and
with the help of my new wife Jessica,
within five months our AWUS went to
over $20,000 with a record week of over
$25,000. Our store went from 30th to
4th. Some of the franchisees came to my
store to see what I had done to increase
my sales in this manner. I told them what
I did, which primarily was increasing the
cheese and toppings on the pizza. Yes, I
did some other things, but the primary
thing was simply putting more cheese
and toppings on my pizzas and charged
a reasonable price for the pizza. They
saw the pizzas I was putting out and
asked what my food cost was. I said I was
running about 7-10 percent above the
Domino's food cost goal. Again,
they could not believe I was still
in business with such a high food
cost. I asked them how much each
of them spent on local advertising
over the past month. It was
about eight percent of their sales.
I said that I spent nothing on
local advertising, so my combined
food and advertising costs were
the same as theirs, but my sales
were double to triple theirs. It was
proof that I had done the right
thing by running a higher food
cost.
In 2000, my wife and I had a
great offer for our two stores,
so we sold them. I became a New
York City EMT and Paramedic. I
loved the job, but my family and
I decided to move to Tampa in
2005, and I tried being a Paramedic
down in Florida, but the
pay was just above the poverty
level. So we decided to give the
pizza business another try!
On August 8, 2006, we opened
our pizzeria in Downtown Tampa,
and our sales were huge from day
one. In our first year, we did over
$1 million. Over the next few
years, our sales continued to climb
with little to no advertising. When
you put out a great product, give
great service, and do everything
right to retain customers, word of
mouth is about all of the advertising
you will need.
Things were going well, but one
day I came to work and saw my
manager and one of my cooks
arguing over a half piece of
chicken breast. Our chicken
parmigiana hero recipe called for
1 ½ pieces of chicken breast, and
the cook used two whole pieces.
The Manager saw it and was irate,
saying that it would kill our food
cost. The cook said the two pieces
were smaller than usual, so he
decided to use the two pieces in
their entirety. I stood there for an
hour, listening to the two of them
36 / PIZZATODAY.COM / JULY 2021
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Pizza Today - July 2021

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