Industry, culture and craft for pizzeria owners and operators
Domino's, Little Caesars and Pizza Hut have all put a pizza-for-one on the menu, and the dipping cup has become a product of its own. Both can raise your check average, but only if you price them by the order, not by the inch or by habit.
Oven Scars Editorial, , 7 min read
Delivery fee, service fee, small-order fee and an app menu that costs more than your counter: four charges, mostly set by someone other than you. Here's why they move, which rules reach a pizzeria's own delivery charge, and how to label yours so customers don't walk.
Two published portion charts, one from a cheese consultant and one from the late Tom Lehmann, agree within about an ounce at every size. Here's what each pie costs in cheese at this week's block price, and why the scale beats the hand.
We built the plate cost of a pepperoni pie at three sizes from published restaurant-supply prices and Pizza Today's portioning method. The same catalog, bought by the bundle instead of the bag, takes about a dollar off the 16-inch. That's why your own invoices are the only numbers that count.
Five free calculators built from the same benchmarks our stories use. Bring last week’s POS report.
Food plus labor as a share of sales — the fastest honest read on whether a week worked. Enter three numbers from your POS and see where you land against the published benchmarks.
Marketplace commission is a percentage of your ticket. Your own driver and white-label fulfillment are closer to a flat fee. There is a specific ticket size where the two lines cross — this finds yours.
A weekly labor percentage is an average, and averages absolve. Break one day into blocks and the overstaffed dead hours stop hiding behind the understaffed peak.
The 6% rent benchmark is not a grade, it is a sales quota. Run it backwards and a space tells you how much revenue it demands before it earns its keep — ideally before you sign.
Price every size from one recipe card. Enter what your most common pie costs to make, pick a food-cost target, and get a price ladder for 10" to 18" that holds the same margin on every size.
Every benchmark behind the calculators, with its source, on one page · Pizzeria Cost Tracker: which costs are rising fastest this year
Get our free one-page cheat sheet: 15 benchmarks for prime cost, labor, delivery and rent, each with its source and a blank for your shop’s number. Print it and keep it by the office desk.
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