Is curbside carryout just an add-on service to pamper lazy customers, or is it something patrons really want?
David Wallace knows it’s at least the latter, and he doesn’t care if it meets the needs of the former. Curbside carryout is boosting business by 3 percent to 5 percent annually at Boston’s The Gourmet Pizza units.
“Focusing on service in this business is more important than ever,” said Wallace, a new-store training manager for the 235-unit casual dining pizza chain. There are 200 units in Canada, where the chain is based, and 35 in the United States, where it will open 25 additional units this year. “People aren’t just requiring service in the restaurant, they want it when they pull up as well. So we give it to them.”Similar casual restaurant/pizzeria peers such as Uno Chicago Grill, California Pizza Kitchen and Green Mill Pizza are doing the same. After seeing curbside carryout lift sales in the casual dining segment, Boston’s considered it a natural step to roll it out in its own company.
“We already deliver and our carryout business was 10 to 12 percent of our total business,” Wallace said. “So taking it outside to a car isn’t that big a deal.”Well, maybe not to him, but it’s apparently a big deal to customers. Wallace said typical curbside patrons are parents who don’t want to unbuckle small children from car seats, or the people hurrying home from work. “I’ve been guilty myself of showing up not perfectly groomed as an excuse for getting my dinner that way,” he said.
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