The Market Works

My favorite pizza place (a block from my house) recently changed their closing hours. This, after a shrinking of their menu (sandwiches went bye-bye), seems odd. If you are struggling for business, being open less often merely reduces your payroll. And your revenue.

So, I know it takes 30 minutes to make a stuffed pizza, and 15-20 for an unstuffed. I conscientiously try to call with enough lead time to allow them to clean up before they close. But they didn't tell me the new hours. A few weeks back, I showed up late for a pizza only to find the employees EATING it. When I ordered the pizza, they asked for my phone number - the same one I've used for years - but never called to find out if I was on my way. Why ask for a phone number if you are not going to use it in that situation? When would they use it?

I was miffed, but got over it. Tonight, I was in the mood for a stuffed pizza, but was still ignorant of the closing time change. I called at 1:10 for a 30-minute pizza at a place that I thought closes at 2:30am, but in reality closes at 2am. I thought I was safe. Wrong. Only unstuffed was available. I groused a little, but ordered the thin stuff.

The more I thought about it, the more I was beyond miffed. I stroll in at 1:30:
Me: why I could I not get a 30-minute pizza at 1:10?
Stoner: we stop making stuffed at 1am (fully 1.5 hours before bar time).
Me: why?
Stoner: cuz we stop making them at 1am.
Me: I heard you, but that's not a why answer.
2nd Stoner: We need time to clean up.
Me: Then list your closing time as 1:30 so people know when you actually stop. Or 1.
2nd Stoner: You need to talk to Jim about that - he sets the hours.
Me: Should I call here during the day?
2nd Stoner: You won't get hold of him.
Me: Why?
2nd Stoner: He's never here.
Me: How would I get hold of him?
2nd Stoner (with Stoner's agreement): Don't know.

So, how nice of them to recommend that I talk to a person that, for all I know, doesn't exist. At best, he's just not reachable ever.

I'm just guessing, from all my previous experience, that as you get closer to bar time, drunks think more about that last unneeded meal of the day. Staying open until just before the drunks are loosed on the town seems odd. Might as well close at midnight.

This reminds me of a deli (also near my house) that had a nice selection of hot items for lunch. They kept them around until 5pm and then put them away. This bewildered me: the slowest time for food is between lunch and dinner. If you are going to not have food available for dinner, why have it available between 1 and 5pm? Or, if you have food still available at 5, why put it away? People on their way home might actually give you currency in exchange for food items in a semi-warm state. That place closed shortly after making that policy.

I wonder how long my pizza place will be there. Reducing access to the product seems like an odd way to stay in business.

In the day of 24-hour everything, these visionaries foresee a day when you can never find their product available. I guess that's one way of creating artificial demand: give the perception that your product is rare and hard to get.