Cashing in the Convenient Store Slice

Filling up the gas tank often requires a quick trip inside of the station where a customer can browse the displays for a snack. Besides the usual candy, chip displays and oversized sodas, more consumers are grabbing hot food items. The latest hot seller is delicious pizza – by the slice or convenient small pie.

Convenience store and gas station pizza may not immediately sound appealing, but consumers are buying them up. According to the market research company the NPD Group, the amount of pizza dough shipped to convenience stores shot up by 27 percent in just one year. Convenient store pizza has become the dark horse of the pizza market, riding past conventional competitors at a speed no one could have anticipated. (more…)

Pizzeria Food Truck Frenzy

If a pizzeria is experiencing success, it is a natural business progression to want to expand the brand by opening a new location. However, committing the time, money, and energy into an entirely new restaurant can be a daunting task. Instead of having a pizzeria’s first expansion be a huge investment, there is another route one could take.  

Food trucks are a simpler alternative to opening another physical location, with added benefits that could take a pizzeria to the next level. (more…)

The Rise of Video Promotion

Establishing and sustaining a presence on social media is vital for pizzerias looking to attract new customers. Self-promotion on various sites, such as Facebook and Instagram, require writing some copy and posting a photo about a new dish or a big sale. While both are effective marketing methods, there is another alluring tool to consider: Creating videos.

YouTube viewership numbers are in the stratosphere … let’s start with one billion. That’s the number of video hours viewed every day of videos on the website. Google still reigns supreme as the largest search engine, but YouTube is quickly catching up as video media overtakes text. The video website recently announced that every day about five billion videos are watched by about 30 million visitors. Video viewing on YouTube has grown by 60 percent in the past year. (more…)

The Rise of Specialty Pizza

Of all the cooking tricks we love, there is nothing like the sight of a Pizzaiolo tossing a ring of unmade pizza dough high in the air with all the agility of a circus juggler. The pizza maker then adds some tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni or sausage and place it in the oven.  Today, that Pizzaiolo is as much a gourmet chef as he is a simple pie maker, catering to more educated and adventurous customers.

The world of pizza has changed. Already among the top foods we eat regularly, pizza has expanded its audience by becoming gourmet and healthy. The emphasis is on top quality ingredients and innovation – urged on by a move into more upscale serving environments.

The trend is spurred on by the burgeoning number of food television shows, celebrity chefs, as well as the desire to cater to an elite group of adventurous diners, health-conscious eaters and those looking to expand their pizza experience. (more…)

The Undeniable Influence of iPhones on the Restaurant Business

A few weeks ago yours, mine and just about everybody’s favorite accessory/necessity celebrated a big birthday: the iPhone turned 10.

There’s no arguing that the iPhone has transformed our lives. Ten years after the first iPhone entered the market surrounded by unprecedented hype, Apple’s seemingly untouchable innovation just keeps steamrolling past barriers. (more…)

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