New Pizza Topping?

According to this newspaper story, a woman in Ohio found a tooth in her pizza! I'm skeptical. I've worked in the pizza business for 4 years, and nobody I've worked with ever would have messed with a customer's pizza.

And if somebody was going to do something, why would they leave something so easily found (and traced) as a tooth!?!?!

Now, if you're a repeat stiffer, you might get your 2-liter well shaken, but foreign objects on the pizza is crossing a line that nobody I know would think of crossing.

Delivery Area

We have a defined delivery area. This is a set of streets and addresses that we will delivery food to. Some of our boundaries lead into other franchises of our chain. To me, the delivery area is kind of an agreement between the drivers and management. We will go here, we won't go here.

Well tonight I drove for 7.5 hours, took 17 deliveries, drove 64 miles, and made $41 in tips.

But 3 of my 17 deliveries were out of the area. All 3 were to locations that should have been serviced by another restaurant in our chain. Two were literally across the street from each other (and I didn't even have a car topper on!

Saturday Night Drive

I drove 7 hours tonight, from 6 PM to 1 AM. During this time I took 13 deliveries, drove 45 miles, and made $35 in tips. Even though we weren't very busy (less than 2 deliveries per hour), tips were above average and my mileage total was low, due in part to 3 doubles.

I delivered to a duplex tonight that had 2 police cars parked in front with the lights flashing. I parked in the driveway next door and called the customer on the phone. He wasn't even aware of the comotion out front, so the problem must have been with the other side of the house.

I got a unique response to one of my favorite lines tonight. The customer handed me $25 for a $20.97 order and said "Keep the change." After I handed him the food and said, "Thanks, you keep the pizza," he replied "And the wings!"

Desiree is continuing to work as a manager. She had been a driver until she got too many points on her license to be able to keep driving. What other job can you get in trouble with the law and have it lead to a promotion!

Good Night

This was my Friday night to work, and it ended up pretty good. The most remarkable thing about the whole night was that out of 14 deliveries I got $2 or more 13 times. Only one stiffer the entire evening!

I really only had 1 interesting delivery. It was to the hospital, where 2 interesting things happened. The first was that I ran into the doctor who will be performing my hernia surgery in a few weeks.

The second interesting thing was that the nurse who ordered the pizza didn't have her money ready and asked me to leave the pizza and walk down with her to the ATM while she got the money. What a waste of my time.

Please, if you order pizza, have the payment ready when the driver arrives!

Totals for the night were 5 1/2 hours driving, 14 deliveries, 45 miles, and $44 in tips.

Papa John's 23 Cent Deal Update

I didn't try to take advantage of the 23 cent deal today at Papa John's and I'm glad. It sounds like it was a madhouse there. People waiting in line for 2 hours to save $12 on a pizza? That doesn't really make sense unless you're unemployed and your time is worth nothing.

Here is a story that ran on ESPN.com that describes lines so long the local police and security forces had to monitor them to keep the peace.

Here is another interesting story about a local woman who inherited the phone number of a Papa John's that closed down. Apparently she gets lots of phone calls already. And now with this promotion, I wouldn't want to be her today!

Tipping Article, Papa Johns 23-cent Deal

This article, originally from the LA Times, was in my local paper on Sunday. It describes how tips are down because of the economy. It doesn't mention pizza drivers specifically, but I can promise you we are feeling the hit.

Last week during the NBA playoffs, Papa Johns sponsored a t-shirt giveaway in Washington that featured Lebron James number 23 and the word crybaby. This Thursday, as an apology to Cleveland fans, Papa Johns in Cleveland will be offering 23 cent large 1-topping pizzas.

One has to wonder if it was a publicity stunt from the start to get some free press.

Selling pizzas for 23 cents is a losing proposition in the short term, for sure, but if those customers buy a 2nd pizza at full price, or breadsticks or some other side item, they may end out ahead.

I think the promotion is for pick-up only. I sure wouldn't want to be the delivery driver passing out 23 cent pizzas!

Read about the shirts and the apology in these links.

Baby Think It Over

I returned from a delivery tonight to find manager Nick in the parking lot, smiling and talking with a police officer who was in his cruiser.

A customer had phoned in to the police that there was an infant locked in a car, alone, so of course the police rushed over to check it out.

The thing was, it wasn't a real baby. It was Baby-Think-It-Over, from cook Adam's school class. Adam has to care for the baby this weekend but didn't want to bring it in to work so he left it in his car and was checking it during breaks.

This story tells more about the computerized Baby and how they are used in school parenting classes.

The only interesting delivery was my last one. The customer told me he was "watching the Sopranos and had to have some pasta."

I drove 4 1/2 hours, took 10 deliveries, drove 39 miles, and made $23 in tips.

Out Of Area (Again)

Last week I wrote about taking an order out of our delivery area. It happened again tonight. This one was a 10 mile round trip, or 2.5 times my normal trip average. They tipped $2 and the change on a $35.95 order. (Nick, since I know you're reading this, it was about a mile past Indian Hollow Road).

Also unique about this delivery was that the check was subdivided into 2 subtotals, for 2 separate paying customers at the same address. But one kid gave me all the money (and then the $2 tip).

I had a pretty crummy night, with 5 stiffs and 5 $1 tips out of 17 deliveries in all. If I didn't get a $6 tip on my final delivery (to the apartment complex next to my house), it would have been much worse! And the fact that I had 5 doubles helped keep my delivery count high and my mileage low.

A pleasant surprise was the return of Cori B as a driver. Cori was a driver / manager with us a couple years ago but overslept and missed a few manager meetings and lost her job. She later went to work for Marco's and has also worked at another pizza place, as well as several other jobs in the meantime. Now she's back as a part-time driver.

Totals for the night were 8 hours worked, 17 deliveries, 64 miles, and $33 in tips.