An epic chain reaction has seized the entire planet. This will most likely be the ugliest financial fall-out most people have ever seen. Today alone, 11 pizzerias will slam their doors shut forever. A shake-out like the one gripping the entire world ...

Climbing commodities, fewer diners, eroding economy: does it spell “d-o-o-m” for your pizzeria? Not if you take control of your crucial costs — those that we can control on a daily basis. The total of these controllable costs are termed...

It’s not unusual for pizzeria owners to trademark their store’s names. But some owners are taking their quest for brand originality beyond the store sign and onto the menu by registering trademarks for distinctive offerings. Does registering a me...

Bear Silber co-owns Pizza Party, a one-store operation in Santa Clara, California. Once a Pizza Party customer, Silber, age 26, is in the process of buying the property from the couple that previously owned the pizzeria. At this point, they are equal...

77 percent of pizzerias apply between 4 and 6 ounces of sauce on a 14-inch pizza. In a recent Pizza Today Web poll, 86 percent of respondents said they had a sales increase of at least 10 percent on the day before Thanksgiving. 48 percent of American...

Nobody ever wants to have to file for bankruptcy, but in these tough economic times, more and more pizzeria owners are being forced to do so. “Pizza used to be a bulletproof business,” says attorney Marvin Wolf, the New Jersey State chair...

Expanding your hours into the earlier part of the day can bring in a whole new customer base: the breakfast crowd. Some pizzerias continue to showcase their pizza recipes with a breakfast-style version, while others stick to the basics (like omelets ...

Reality: One out of every 10 of your pizza patrons may have trouble hearing. And those who speak English as a second language want clear communication. With consumers clutching their wallets tightly and burying their credit cards deep in their pocket...

When Gary Cooney opened the first of his four Chicago pizzerias in 1981, local customers craved Waldo Cooney’s pie. His South Side Chicago outfi t set a delivery radius of one mile, plenty to keep the cooks, drivers and phones busy on any given eve...

The pros on ABC’s hit series “Dancing with the Stars” have nothing on managers at wellrun restaurants. Timing a meal is akin to choreographing a dance. If the moves are expertly executed, a guest will give high scores, but just one slop...

Right behind food cost is your second most expensive controllable expense: labor. Labor cost, or L/C, is usually referred to as a percentage of gross sales. I stayed on top of hourly labor like a hawk. My point of sale system served as my time clock ...

When Nancy and Jeff Roskin moved from Connecticut to Scottsdale, Arizona, they felt the pizza in their new home left something to be desired. So they made their own. “We decided to open up because the pizza here was disgusting,” says Nanc...