Pizza Today - July 2022 - 3

COMMENTARY
JEREMY WHITE
Contributors
Yielding Gains
CHRIS DECKER
R
ight around the year 1600, William
Shakespeare penned one of
his most famous plays. " Hamlet "
is one of the great literary tragedies, and one
of its most-quoted lines remains oft-used
today: " To thine own self be true. "
When distilled to its essence, that's more
or less what I was saying in my May Commentary
when I wrote about the need for
YOU, dear reader, to raise prices. Since that
time I've received scores of e-mails, social
media messages and text messages essentially
saying " You are absolutely right. Th ings are
crazy and we have to raise prices. "
Turn to page 12 of this very issue and
you're going to read Mike Bausch, one of the
pizza business minds I most highly regard,
saying that right now, today, you need to set
aside some time to take a deep-dive into
pricing, food costs, portion sizes and combination
packages designed to up ticket prices.
He referred to it as " the quantity game for
yield gains. "
In order to be true to yourself, you must
fi rst be able to sustain your business model.
You can't take care of anyone else if you don't
fi rst take care of yourself, right?
Th is is a critical summer in many ways.
Our nation could possibly be heading into
a recession. Commodities prices are insane.
Supply chain issues still linger. Th e labor
pool is cold and shallow. Yet you know from
experience that your sales are about to spike.
It's summer, and consumers are getting out and
spending money. Your revenue is coming ... but
what about profi ts?
If you ignored the May plea to raise prices out
of fear or for any other reason, read it again at
PizzaToday.com after you read Bausch's article
on page 12 of this issue. Sit down today and
develop a pricing strategy that will carry you
through summer, fall and winter. Make sure at
the end of the year you aren't sitting with your
accountant and being told " your sales were up,
but you didn't make any profi t. "
Lastly, speaking of Bausch, he's leading a
seminar on " Dealing with Infl ation " at the 2022
Pizza & Pasta Northeast Show in Atlantic City
that you aren't going to want to miss. I know it's
early, but as you start planning your itinerary for
the event, make sure you include this one in your
list of pit stops.
Best,
Jeremy White
Managing Partner, Metro Pizza
(On Deck, pp. 18)
Keep an open mind, it's the only
way things can get in.
DENISE GREER
Executive Editor
(Food Quality, pp. 30-32)
It's no time to let your food quality
suffer amidst turnover. Get out
those recipe binders, training
manuals and visual aids to make sure
they are sufficiently assisting new
kitchen workers.
VOLUME 40 * NUMBER 7
JULY 2022
JEREMY WHITE
Editor In Chief
jwhite@pizzatoday.com
Design: Josh Keown
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