When Vaughan Lazar and Michael Gordon opened their organic pizza joint in 2006, it seemed like a gutsy attempt to snatch a piece of the pie from the top dogs. But the fraternity buddies were just catering to a different set of taste buds. Says Lazar, "We found a huge void in the restaurant industry for people eating organically."
Pizza Fusion not only serves up pizza, but it also delivers passion--starting with organic, gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan toppings and extending to the stores' recycled blue jeans insulation, potato starch utensils and countertops made out of recycled glass soda bottles from other Pizza Fusion stores. "Everything can be reused or recycled, so our stores leave literally zero footprints," says Gordon, who adds that they often buy local products to cut down on transportation waste.
(link)
Go check out their website with its *SAVING THE EARTH one pizza at a time* bull excrement.
Yeah every one of their delivery cars is a Prius; I've already rendered my fact-based opinion on them.
So that means their pizza delivery vehicles are about 20-30 times what the average clunker from Domino's costs. How would you like to be in the highly competitive food business with high operational costs in this lethargic economy???
I wish Pizza Fusion were public so I could short it.
Then again, I'll bet Congress soon enough bans the short-selling of eco-pagan companies!
5 comments:
I'm gonna hope you know this but decided to leave it out of your post:
You are seriously missing the pricing power they have. Bet those pies cost a minimum of 2X a typical chain or even local place. Duuhh. Pricing power is highly underrated. They don't compete with Dominoes, the compete with Whole Foods. Your not shorting Whole Foods cause they are not price competitive with Stop & Shop are you? Do you short Morton's steak house because their burgers cost 10X a McDonalds one?
Slow out
Slow,
I wouldn't *short* them solely on "pricing power".
This organic poop is a fad; it only had legs so long as food was at an all-time pricing low versus incomes. That is no longer the case as commodities have risen and incomes are getting hammered.
Sure, there are a few wealthy *pagan* locales that can support $25 pizzas indefinitely, BUT go read their aspirations. They want to expand all over like Starbucks and Whole Foods. There simply isn't wide demand for ridiculously priced *world saving* food. Punch up the long term stock charts of Starbucks and Wholefoods.
Plus there are an increasing number of people out there - like me - who would never buy this pagan food on principle alone.
Food is a tough business. It's deeply competitive. Restaurants have to compete with each other, brown bags, dieting, and even people who decide to grow their own vegetables.
IMO, the only thing that can make a restaurant, assuming good food and reasonable prices, is ultra-low start-up costs (esp. real estate) and local zoning that keeps the competition at bay (think $700,000 liquor licenses in Boston).
Slow,
Will you register on Google already so I can more easily reference you on the blog?
Fine, I never even considered gettting an account. I'm sure not gonna start a blog though. I get such pleasure getting referred to.
I'll give you this: I had never considered the organic food as a fad related to the all time low price of food. Good point. I don't know if its valid or not but there is something to be said.
As far as veggie/vegan pizza going big: Highly unlikely. Most people prefer sausage and pepperoni to tofu and TVP.
Not only was the market for *premium food* of all sorts enabled by cheap food, I submit that Apple's expensive computers wouldn't be out-selling cheaper Dells if the absolute price of computing power wasn't pummeled so low.
Post a Comment