The Ekpyrotic Universe

You've obviously been in/ordered from a DP Dough, so you should have some notion of what the price is for a calzone.

Honestly, the cost of inventory (perishable and non-) would be more than made up for in the price of the calzone, if my memory serves at all for the ratio between cost of goods, and sale price... even taking spoilage (not shrinkage) into consideration.

So looking at your numbers, $8 calzones (remembering that I've got no idea what this place is like or what the prices are like) would require 100/day to make up for just the salaries and doesn't take into account rent, utilities, or inventory costs. I don't know how reasonable or un- that kind of estimate is. A $10 calzone would mean 80/day.

If this is like pizza delivery, it seems (based on my experience on the ordering side of things), the minumum order tends to be around the $20 mark. Which would mean 40 orders/day to make salary cost...

And I'm going to stop now becuase you're probably more than capable of doing the math I just did (and that's about as complex as my mental math-processing gets... that and tips).

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Yep that all sounds right. I don't remember how much one is, but if we're saying 40 orders a day, that's 3 an hour from 11AM to midnight. In a college town, that should be reasonable, but how many more to make the rest or the expenses? I wonder if I should call them and ask for a franchisee information packet.

I looked at the company history on their site. Evidently the first store was in Amherst in 1987, so right about when I started going to UMass Amherst!

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Well, the question becomes (given, too, that this is the Boston area): is 1.5 drivers enough during peak hours? If you're trying to locate to maximize starving college students, then you may very well find that evening hours are unreasonably busy, or your poor delivery driver is carrying 25 warm, tastey calzones in the car (which means that, in case of really bad traffic, the driver will never starve to death, but that's beside the point).

I imagine peak hours would actually end up noon-1pm, and then 6pm-8pm (or perhaps 7-10pm on weekends). I'd guess one could expect more than 3 orders/hour in those timeframes.

Rent in Boston is, to my limited knowledge, stab-yourself-in-the-head deadly. I'm not sure how much better, say, Brookline is than Boston-proper. That will play a part in how many more orders you need to get in the black.

I'm certain asking for a franchise info packet couldn't hurt. Though I'm not sure how much useful information (as opposed to marketing fluff) they'll give out in that.

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I'm thinking more near MIT and Harvard or Tufts than Boston Proper. Maybe cheaper there? Maybe not. I have no idea.

The 1.5 drivers is just a minimum. Same with other employees. If business requires more then you're making enough to pay for the extra people.

I'm thinking that by locating it near colleges you get a "normal person" rush from 6-8 and a "college student" rush from 9-11.

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Oh, and now I have an image of that poor driver:
I've been stuck in traffic for 36 hours and I'm starving! I have calzones, but they're all ham and I'm a vegan!
or
I have calzones, but they're all eggplant and I'm allergic!!

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*snickers sadistically*

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Or maybe the driver just subscribes to

aliwings's philosophy that "ham ruins everything."

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Ham is, actually, one of my least-favorite meats. It doesn't quite ruin everything, but it does come really really close.

Which is weird because I love pork chops, and pork roast, and bacon, and pork ribs and.... I just can't handle the texture of ham. That may be why it doesn't ruin everything... I can always pick it out since it isn't the hammy flavor that offends me.

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aliwings will be delighted to hear she has an ally.
And all those foods come from some "magical animal".
I've been enjoying bacon a bit too often lately.

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aliwings.livejournal.com

I'm in! A slong as I don't have to deliver Ham calzones.

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artemis44.livejournal.com

One thing that helps, I think, is that the ingredients for calzone are relatively cheap, and I assume you'd have the home company's buying power to get good deals?

damn, man, you're making me REALLY hungry for calzone!

(praying you open it up near enough to MIT to deliver here... and SOON!)

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See, that's the other thing. I'd want to open it close to several universities to maximise student hunger opportunities. Outside Boston proper is probably cheaper for rent and insurance.
I don't know how the purchsing works.

Sadly, if I do open one, it won't be all that soon. Perehaps you need a trip to Amherst? Or to have someone bring you some from there?

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emmalyon.livejournal.com

1) What types of food do they sell besides calzones? There might be a good profit margin on beverages and sides. Fast food places make a killing on fountain drinks, since the syrup and carbonated water are cheap.
2) What kind of advertising budget are you looking at? At least to start you will definitely need to paper the campus(es) with menus/flyers/coupons, plus the yellow pages, and a web presence would be good too--you can order online from many places out here.
3) Man oh man, am I hungry....

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fountain sodas indeed have the best margin, when I was in college the paper cup cost more then the soda that filled it. I cringe every time I buy a soda at the movies when I think of the profit margin. Pizza and calzones have pretty decent margins as well depending on the toppings/fillings used.

If he is near a campus like Tufts he should try to sign up with their program that allows students to use their ID cards to pay for things. If they aren't paying cash up front they are more likely to buy, and buy often.

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The movie threater concession stand profit margin is absolutely disgusting. Because it has to be. They don't make any money on admission. All of that goes to pay the bid prices (or whatever they are) to get the films. Compared to cost of inventory, the concession stand is about 80% profit (or was 12-ish years ago, and I know prices have gone up since then).

I'll second the suggestion for "pay with ID cards" thing.

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I'd really love to open a second (and older) run theatre and make money off food.

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I agree that the concessions are where they make their money, that is about the only reason I don't take cans of soda in in my coat pockets. I don't want them to go out of business until I have my own giant home theater. :)

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It is good that you are planning on being diverse and hiring .5 of a driver. Will you be providing a specially equipped delivery vehicle for them? :)

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The .5 is considering coverage on a weekly basis. It should probably be 2.

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If you ever seriously look into this I would observe the comings and goings at some of the busier places that are currently in place to figure out your delivery driver needs.

You could also try to work out the limits of the delivery areas of the competition and try to place yourself in the area of least overlap with them. You may end up in a lower populated area, but could make up for that with the lower amount of competition.

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Except then I'd end up in Hopkinton where no-one delivers. I want to be near a university, or several.

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No, you want to be where there are customers. Remember that a lower percent share of a larger crowd may not always be a better share of a smaller crowd.

Unless your motive is to try and score with a college hottie, in which case you want to be in the middle of Boston. :)

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Yes, I want to have my delivery people check out the college chicks and report back to me. How creepy can it get!

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You could have the drivers wear wireless webcams....

You could ask the girls for their measurements when they place their order.....

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ACK!
*squick*

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http://users.livejournal.com/_mathlete/

hey, got here through ~~bloogle glogsearch~~ google blogsearch.

i worked at a dp dough for about a year (newark, DE, supposedly the most popular?). they had about 150 orders on the very slowest days and 800 on nights like homecoming and such. a typical friday or saturday would have about 450 orders - this is probably roughly 600 calzones a day, but we were open until 3am. in fact, it would do you a lot of good to be open that late because that's when the business is.

my boss owned four DP doughs and was doing quite well for himself.

if you're actually thinking of doing this i suggest you pick a mammoth-sized university in a real "college town" kind of place with a lot of similar late-night delivery places (even better in a state with a low minimum wage) and you will rake in the money pretty quickly.

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Thanks.

I wouldn't want to pay a low minimum wage.
And I was considering near Boston.

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http://users.livejournal.com/_mathlete/

i think the biggest problem with massachussets is that there are already like two or three locations there in the best type of towns for it. i know there's one in cambridge even though it's not listed on the site (we had all the locations on our shirts for a while). and one in worcester too.

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