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California Pizza Huts lay off all delivery drivers ahead of minimum wage increas

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Re: California Pizza Huts lay off all delivery drivers ahead of minimum wage increas

#51

Post by morkalork »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #31
doctornoble wrote: post #17

Perhaps Yum Brands has the data to back this up, but it seems quite a silly response that feels more political/ideological than based on sound economics. BIL was COO of a pizza chain. The cost for a large pizza was around $1.50 - even for pricey toppings and gluten free bread. Labor is cheap at ~60 seconds per pie. Biggest costs was rent. A $5 raise could be absorbed across and then some with a 10¢ increase in price…

If rent is the predominate cost, why do pizza delivery only ghost kitchens not take off? Doesn’t matter where it’s made, just where the customer is. You could make them in a shipping container dropped in a big box parking lot with a roll up door for delivery drivers to load their trunk, like Spirit Halloween for pizza. What am I missing? You don't need a robot pizza machine, you need an operating model where rent doe…

This is what pizza hut has become where I live. All the large locations with their iconic hat-shaped roofs have closed. Instead, they're all operating out of hole-in-the-wall sized locations in strip malls. Barely more than a pickup counter and some bar stool seating by the window.

Re: California Pizza Huts lay off all delivery drivers ahead of minimum wage increas

#52

Post by downrightmike »

caycep wrote: post #22

Pizza Hut here seems to be on its last legs too...the last time I saw one was at some rest stop on a trip to Arizona...

I stopped eating it years ago because they changed something that always made me sick

Re: California Pizza Huts lay off all delivery drivers ahead of minimum wage increas

#53

Post by giantrobot »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #31
doctornoble wrote: post #17

Perhaps Yum Brands has the data to back this up, but it seems quite a silly response that feels more political/ideological than based on sound economics. BIL was COO of a pizza chain. The cost for a large pizza was around $1.50 - even for pricey toppings and gluten free bread. Labor is cheap at ~60 seconds per pie. Biggest costs was rent. A $5 raise could be absorbed across and then some with a 10¢ increase in price…

If rent is the predominate cost, why do pizza delivery only ghost kitchens not take off? Doesn’t matter where it’s made, just where the customer is. You could make them in a shipping container dropped in a big box parking lot with a roll up door for delivery drivers to load their trunk, like Spirit Halloween for pizza. What am I missing? You don't need a robot pizza machine, you need an operating model where rent doe…

If you exist on real estate you're going to pay rent to someone. Even if you manage to find some parcel of public land to operate from you're still paying a lease/mortgage on your shipping container kitchen and all of its contents. You're going to have to pay insurance on the operation.

The best bet would be to pool resources to operate a single kitchen with multiple individual pizza companies as tenants. Each could run their own prep stations but use shared ovens. But you're back to rent dominating costs even if it's lower than having your own kitchen and oven(s).

Re: California Pizza Huts lay off all delivery drivers ahead of minimum wage increas

#54

Post by JoyfulTurkey »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #30
Larrikin wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Delivery used to be free, especially at chain pizza places

It was never free, it was subsidized by pick up or eat in. Now that prices are high and margins are tightened (blame practical downstream or “greedy corporations” or just MBAs, I don’t care) that subsidy isn’t bearable. So you pay for delivery.

I think “free” in the sense that it was the same price whether you picked it up or had the place deliver. You only had to tip the driver. This was for delivery only places like Dominos/local chains near me.

The couple of dollars extra for delivery fees started maybe in the mid/late 2000s where I am (midwest USA).

Re: California Pizza Huts lay off all delivery drivers ahead of minimum wage increas

#55

Post by oivey »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #31
doctornoble wrote: post #17

Perhaps Yum Brands has the data to back this up, but it seems quite a silly response that feels more political/ideological than based on sound economics. BIL was COO of a pizza chain. The cost for a large pizza was around $1.50 - even for pricey toppings and gluten free bread. Labor is cheap at ~60 seconds per pie. Biggest costs was rent. A $5 raise could be absorbed across and then some with a 10¢ increase in price…

If rent is the predominate cost, why do pizza delivery only ghost kitchens not take off? Doesn’t matter where it’s made, just where the customer is. You could make them in a shipping container dropped in a big box parking lot with a roll up door for delivery drivers to load their trunk, like Spirit Halloween for pizza. What am I missing? You don't need a robot pizza machine, you need an operating model where rent doe…

They basically are ghost kitchens already. Who eats at a pizzeria? The last time I can remember doing so in like 2 decades was in NYC. They have the store fronts so people can pick up rather than deliver.

Re: California Pizza Huts lay off all delivery drivers ahead of minimum wage increas

#56

Post by sparcpile »

jimbob45 wrote: post #40
toomuchtodo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If rent is the predominate cost, why do pizza delivery only ghost kitchens not take off? Doesn’t matter where it’s made, just where the customer is. You could make them in a shipping container dropped in a big box parking lot with a roll up door for delivery drivers to load their trunk, like Spirit Halloween for pizza. What am I missing? You don't need a robot pizza machine, you need an operating model where rent doe…

That's what Chuck E Cheese should be doing. They've got the playground/arcade business to be able to subsidize their pizza business to out-compete every other pizza chain out there. Instead, they're cutting costs on both fronts to have...two bad businesses.

Chuck E Cheese runs a virtual brand for their pizza called Pasqually's Pizza

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OTpHqq6bFg # Comparing Chuck E Cheese pizza and a rebranded CEC frozen pizza

https://www.lastsqueaktonight.com/ # Last Week Tonight's alternative episode when they discussed HOAs. it's a full and funny history of the pizza chain and includes the virtual brand

Re: California Pizza Huts lay off all delivery drivers ahead of minimum wage increas

#57

Post by coredog64 »

doctornoble wrote: post #17

Perhaps Yum Brands has the data to back this up, but it seems quite a silly response that feels more political/ideological than based on sound economics. BIL was COO of a pizza chain. The cost for a large pizza was around $1.50 - even for pricey toppings and gluten free bread. Labor is cheap at ~60 seconds per pie. Biggest costs was rent. A $5 raise could be absorbed across and then some with a 10¢ increase in price…

Having been a pizza delivery driver, the $1 delivery fee doesn’t track. That assumes 5 deliveries per hour, or only 12 minutes per delivery. There’s transit time to and from the store plus handoff at both ends. If you live more than 5 minutes from the store, no pizza for you.

When I was delivering pizza, it was usually 30 minutes allotted for delivery: 15 minutes to make the pizza, and 15 minutes to get it into the customer’s hands. With transit time, I would have been doing good to get 2 deliveries an hour.

Re: California Pizza Huts lay off all delivery drivers ahead of minimum wage increas

#59

Post by manymatter »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #31
doctornoble wrote: post #17

Perhaps Yum Brands has the data to back this up, but it seems quite a silly response that feels more political/ideological than based on sound economics. BIL was COO of a pizza chain. The cost for a large pizza was around $1.50 - even for pricey toppings and gluten free bread. Labor is cheap at ~60 seconds per pie. Biggest costs was rent. A $5 raise could be absorbed across and then some with a 10¢ increase in price…

If rent is the predominate cost, why do pizza delivery only ghost kitchens not take off? Doesn’t matter where it’s made, just where the customer is. You could make them in a shipping container dropped in a big box parking lot with a roll up door for delivery drivers to load their trunk, like Spirit Halloween for pizza. What am I missing? You don't need a robot pizza machine, you need an operating model where rent doe…

I worked in such a ghost kitchen in the 1990s (we didn't have a license to sell food on premises.)

You want a gas conveyor oven which actually takes a lot of space and needs ~3 meters in front for assembly and 2 meters behind it. Walk in fridge and freezer are at least another shipping container in size. Then there's clean up and other prep space..

For us, wages were more than rent and probably our competitors rents. 2/3rds of wages would be drivers at slow times going to something like 4/5ths during the Superbowl.

Re: California Pizza Huts lay off all delivery drivers ahead of minimum wage increas

#60

Post by jimbob45 »

sparcpile wrote: post #56
jimbob45 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what Chuck E Cheese should be doing. They've got the playground/arcade business to be able to subsidize their pizza business to out-compete every other pizza chain out there. Instead, they're cutting costs on both fronts to have...two bad businesses.

Chuck E Cheese runs a virtual brand for their pizza called Pasqually's Pizza https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OTpHqq6bFg # Comparing Chuck E Cheese pizza and a rebranded CEC frozen pizza https://www.lastsqueaktonight.com/ # Last Week Tonight's alternative episode when they discussed HOAs. it's a full and funny history of the pizza chain and includes the virtual brand

Yeah but it's lousy pizza and underadvertised. You get the feeling it was an employee passion project that management didn't care to nurture because they couldn't stick it on their resumes.
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