I don’t know friend, but now I want it.. :)

I've noticed a premium charged on a lot of online ordering platforms. I have no idea about Sally's but a number of places I frequent, it's cheaper to walk in or call to order.

I would check in person many delivery servuces charge 30% or more and restaurants arent supposwd to change prices to accomodate. Maybe they raised all delivery and online orders to be in line with what they charge on apps.

I've observed similar over time, it appears they are discouraging take out pretty heavily, while leaning into their patio seating and indoor seating.

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For takeout, they raised their prices by about 8-10% in May and they raised them another 8-10% this week. I can't speak to the on-site prices as I don't dine in regularly enough. I'm not sure about the reasoning for the price increases, but on weekends, the wait for a table is in excess of an hour. Additionally, by the early afternoon they literally book up all of the take-out orders their oven can make. The demand is there. I understand why it's a good business decision to raise prices. I don't like seeing prices go up either, but it's not family-owned anymore.

Large pizzas were still available when I dined-in last month. I could be mistaken, but from my recollection of ordering takeout from their website since March, you have only ever been able to order small and medium pizzas online. They increased the maximum order size recently from three pizzas to four. The large pies are an irregular shape and won't fit in standard pizza boxes. When the Consiglio's still owned the place, they said the takeout boxes were pretty expensive. This could contribute to why they won't do takeout for larges.

Welcome to inflation. It not gonna get better any time soon. INCREDIBLY difficult for restaurants right now. We will probably see a lot of closings this year into next.

Nice

They’re owned by a private equity group. This is what they do.

The online prices that use platforms like grub hub, Uber eats ect are priced higher because those companies take around 30%. Unfortunately it became a necessary evil during Covid, and now people are just used to using it.. 90% of my restaurants business is online. Plus inflation.

Tomato season in or out?

Not specific to Sallys but I have seen price bumps on a lot of places that started in October

Ingredients have risen across the board over the past 2.5 years, has nothing to do with inflation. If you blame this on inflation you haven't been paying attention.

Yeah...I mean as of 2 weeks ago....it was slightly higher online than the in-house menu prices. I can understand a slight premium.

But...this is a big premium. I will probably call in an order and see how it goes.

Possible. I mean....the online ordering system is their own thing. It's not like it's Grubhub or Uber Eats or something. It is directly through their own website. So...I am not sure what the reasoning would be.

I am not inherently opposed to price increases. (Although the dangerous thing is....you can't put toothpaste back in the tube, ya know? Eventually prices will regress, and the economy will be back on stable footing.....and will restaurants lower their prices back to pre-inflation levels? Of course not.)

I understand that price increases and inflation have been an issue everywhere, I do. 8-10% is understandable. Although...for two price increases in less than 6 months is a bit much. At my place of work, we have a price increase once a year. But, for a small tomato pie, the price increase was 25%. That is a pretty massive increase, percentage-wise. Especially when the most expensive part of any pizza is the cheese. So, for a cheese-less pizza to have the highest increase of all the pizzas is....strange.

As far as the large pizzas, my mistake. I could have sworn I had seen them on there before. Maybe I was mistaken. I don't order large pies so it doesn't affect me either way. I just happened to notice, so it did make me wonder.

Haha, me too.

True.

What I know of business, though, is that price increases should come incrementally. So much so that people just don't notice it. They just get used to paying 50 cents more for a pizza. When you increase prices so much that it is noticeable, you risk losing customers.

It seems like the equity group is leaning into one-timers or first-timers, people who won't know the difference. People who are traveling to try it, so they are willing to pay whatever.

That is definitely what it feels like to me.

I understand inflation. I understand that prices have been going up everywhere.

And yet, the other pizza places have kept their prices relatively stable.

There is difference in inflation price increases and 25% price increases that feel very much intentional.

I will say that Sally's just went from being slightly higher than Pepe's and Modern to being significantly higher than both. It's just a pretty bold move.

Also Sallys just started up with Goldbelly recently. Makes me wonder if these price increases are subsidizing the Goldbelly business.

Understand. But, their online ordering isn't affiliated with a third-party like Doordash or Uber Eats. Their online ordering is directly through them.

Haha, well....there ya go.

I haven't noticed, but now I'm going to keep my eyes peeled.

Hmmm, that I'm not sure of.

Ok general economic pain.

It’s powered by one of those third party sites.

https://www.olo.com/

So same deal with fees n such.

That’s not true. It’s Olo. It isn’t like they invented their own system.

Why would you think prices will regress? The rate of increase will slow back to norms. Deflation is unlikely overall, though of course certain things may drop.

Sally’s has always been like that. Their ovens were the biggest problem under the original owners, and I imagine they still are now.

It’s through Olo.

I mean, that’s literally the definition of inflation…

We’ll see if they were the first to adjust or if they just price theirs higher. Funny to see how the conversation on this thread is going.

Yeah odd to think that this pizza place is also a software developer.

Oh so you work at another pizza shop.

Yeah although that’s a little unfair too. They could just hire someone to set up a system. You don’t have to go through one of the major offsite systems. But realistically, most everyone does, as you know.

I mean everyone kinda thinks of the top few ordering sites when it comes to food. Sadly it’s hard to compete. Where I work is on one of the smaller online ordering companies and it really doesn’t get much traffic because of it.

Not overall prices.

But....fuel prices will go down eventually. They always do. Which will in turn affect the pricing (one would hope) of many other products on which businesses rely

And, the costs of individual items will settle back into normalcy eventually. Supply and demand. Wendys used to charge for tomatoes when there was a tomato shortage. No shortage now, so they don't. And so on.

So, again, when prices settle back into a more normal non-inflated price range....will restaurants adjust their prices accordingly? No, probably not. Again, toothpaste in the tube.

Fair....but it was with Olo 2 weeks ago, and a month ago and so on. Their prices didn't spike then, so I really don't think it has to do with which online platform they are using.

Earlier this year I couldn’t find a large option while ordering online. When I called they said they only do Large for dine in because people were complaining about the quality of the large pizza by the time they arrived back home with their take out order. Sally’s is definitely a favorite but it’s hard to make an effort to go there with their god awful wait times and poor management.

When the ingredients cost more, the price goes up....restaurants can only eat shit for so long!

So how long are they suppose to eat shit....six months, two years? three years?? When are the prices going to "stabilize?" Wendy's is worth $4B+ While the new owners probably have somewhat deeper pockets than ole Sal did.....nobody goes into business to lose money.....tell me how long I have to eat shit and I'll tell you if I can hold the price on tomato's. If they get too rich for your wallet, you can always buy your toothpaste at Domino's!

Do you work at a pizza place within the new haven area?

I understand that, and I think everyone understands that prices go up.

But, they went up 25% in the spring, and another 25% just recently.

The price of a small tomato pie has more than doubled in less than 4 years. You have to admit that is outpacing most price increases.

Well, that depends on what they paid for it, and their expected rate of return. They did buy it in 2017 before disaster hit in 2020! I'll bet the price didn't move much for the first three years....but that's a different discussion for another post!

Dave Portnoy said it was one of the top pizza restaurants in the US, so that good be a reason

I do not.