Papa John’s Creative Approach To Out-of-Stocks
Written by Evan SchumanOctober 9th, 2008
It's 9 PM on a Saturday and Bill hits the E-Commerce site of his local pizza parlor to order a pie with pineapple and anchovy toppings. The site knows his favorite orders, and his payment data and his order are quickly processed. Then it flashes a message that they just ran out of pineapple and asks would he care for an alternative topping?
With the new Web site that $1 billion Papa John's launched this week, restaurant workers update the site with topping out-of-stocks by calling a headquarters' call center, which sends a message to have the site updated for that specific restaurant. But the chain is preparing for a much faster system, where employees at each store could tell its POS system about running out of pineapple as easily as ringing up a cheesesteak to go.
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4 Comments | Read Papa John’s Creative Approach To Out-of-Stocks
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Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
-Ed
October 9th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Did they consider tying the default menu to IP address then confirming or switching when someone logs in? That might get them a lot closer to the immediately personalized content that would work for them.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
having been in the pizza business for 4 decades, i think it is a better use of time to hire people who are not so stupid that they run out of toppings.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Editor’s Note: We asked about that during the interview. They had opted to not go that route but it was apparently considered.
October 16th, 2008 at 8:12 am
To eliminate
1 – many toppings, like pineappple mentioned in the article, come in cans or jars with shelf life of 6 months – keep a day/s worth in a back corner, and rotate it with new product every first of the month. other toppings are frozen (use the same idea as above, but bi weekly, storing in a small freezer for that purpose), or refrigerated, with weeks of shelf life – so always keep an extra day/s on hand.
2 – many toppings, like pineapple mentioned in the article, are nonproprietary and available at grocery stores (many of the large chains use Dole pineapple tidbits), especially fresh produce – send an employee to the grocery store BEFORE you run out
3 – attitude and committment to your customers – never think for one second, and profess to all employees, that there is no option of ‘we are out’.
My friend, Stew Leonard, has a sign in front of his dairy store
Rule #1 – the customer is always right
Rule #2 – if you think the customer is wrong, read Rule #1
Same applies here
Rule #1 – we will never run out of product
Rule #2 – if you think it can happen, or if you think that would be OK, read Rule #1
Don Vlcek
VP Marco’s Franchising LLC
Toledo, OH