Pizza Toppings: What's Right?

Some pizzeria's drive me nuts with their pricing schemes. I ordered a pie tonight from a local joint that offers a 14" pie with one topping as a $10 special. I asked if I could get half sausage and half pepperoni, and the clerk said yes, but I would have to pay $2 extra for the "extra" ingredient. I don't care about $2 but the idea of paying more while not getting more irritated me, so I just said to forget it. Here is a place that obviously wants to sell pies or they wouldn't offer a "special", but then they try to hit you with what I feel is a bogus upcharge.

This falls into the same category as the places that charge say $2 for an extra topping, and $1.50 for the same extra topping on half of the pizza. Most places seem to charge much for for only half-toppings than they do for full toppings. Some places now seem to be charging extra for "premium" toppings; things like shrimp, anchovy, and Italian beef. But they don't charge you less for the ten cents worth of onion topping than they do for sausage or mushrooms.

Am I the only one who feels the need to rant about this practice? I think that most people notice these things and gravitate their business to joints that aren't gouging them. Any observations?

I whole-heartedly agree...if you have two toppings on each side of a pizza, whether they be pepperoni and onion one one side and sausage and mushroom on the other, they should charge for two toppings...is it THAT hard to do?? Ok, hit me a little bit for having to deal with the "special construction", but I know of places that will charge full freight for every one of those toppings no matter what portion of the pizza they go on, b******t! However, I can see charging more for ingredients like shrimp, Italian beef, chicken as long as they are upfront about it...I'm sure some ingredients are past their profit point at 'regular' ingredient price.

I see what you're saying, but disagree. Businesses are about making money. You could also be upset that they charge $5 for a 2-liter of Pepsi. Or maybe that Little Caesars has $5 pepperoni pizzas, but charge nearly the same amount for a few breadsticks with sauce. Aren't the breadsticks with sauce just a pizza without cheese and pepperoni? Or...we could all just buy pizza to make our Sunday games more enjoyable.

Go Lions!

Jayz wrote:I see what you're saying, but disagree. Businesses are about making money. You could also be upset that they charge $5 for a 2-liter of Pepsi. Or maybe that Little Caesars has $5 pepperoni pizzas, but charge nearly the same amount for a few breadsticks with sauce. Aren't the breadsticks with sauce just a pizza without cheese and pepperoni? Or...we could all just buy pizza to make our Sunday games more enjoyable.

Go Lions!

^----
Totally understand all you say, free enterprise and all and let the customer decide...BUT!?!

Jayz wrote:I see what you're saying, but disagree. Businesses are about making money.

Sure. But part of that money-making equation involves keeping the customer coming back and, if the customer feels s/he is being priced unfairly, there's a chance they're going to go somewhere else. I personally have stopped going to places for exactly these sorts of reasons. Making an extra $2 on an order that reasonably should be priced with no up-charge is not worth the possible ill will it would create. Obviously, businesses can use their own calculus to decide what's best for them.

Binko wrote:

Jayz wrote:I see what you're saying, but disagree. Businesses are about making money.

Sure. But part of that money-making equation involves keeping the customer coming back and, if the customer feels s/he is being priced unfairly, there's a chance they're going to go somewhere else. I personally have stopped going to places for exactly these sorts of reasons. Making an extra $2 on an order that reasonably should be priced with no up-charge is not worth the possible ill will it would create. Obviously, businesses can use their own calculus to decide what's best for them.

I wanted to write some will leave and not come back, but 100 others will stay. If they lost a substantial number of customers because of what we disagree on they'd take it back.

scanz wrote:

Jayz wrote:I see what you're saying, but disagree. Businesses are about making money. You could also be upset that they charge $5 for a 2-liter of Pepsi. Or maybe that Little Caesars has $5 pepperoni pizzas, but charge nearly the same amount for a few breadsticks with sauce. Aren't the breadsticks with sauce just a pizza without cheese and pepperoni? Or...we could all just buy pizza to make our Sunday games more enjoyable.

Go Lions!

^----
Totally understand all you say, free enterprise and all and let the customer decide...BUT!?!

Sorry, diehard Lions fan from Chicago that worked for the Bears at one time.

Jayz wrote:I see what you're saying, but disagree. Businesses are about making money. You could also be upset that they charge $5 for a 2-liter of Pepsi. Or maybe that Little Caesars has $5 pepperoni pizzas, but charge nearly the same amount for a few breadsticks with sauce.

Just because you seem to admire the pricing structures that have been foisted upon us by greedy corporations doesn't make them right. Of course it's ridiculous to pay $1.25 for a small drink when you can get a bucket for $1.50, but that's one of the reasons why everyone is getting an ass bigger than a truck tire.

But I don't think the comparison is valid. When somebody is making a pizza, it doesn't cost anymore in labor or ingredients to put 25 pieces of pepperoni and 25 pieces of sausage on a pizza than it does to put 50 pieces of sausage. There is already a huge profit margin built into pizzas, that's why Little Caesars still gets rich selling sausage pizzas for five bucks. So marking up the price for half of an ingredient when there is a huge profit margin built into the price already is just plain greedy IMO. When I find these things going on, I look for a new place to get my pizzas. They are out there, just harder to find nowadays.

I'm with you! You know what really pisses me off? All these frekin' restaurants that do a half price special one day of the damn week. You know, like half price wine on Wednesdays or some bullsh-t like that. I mean, it's not like the wine costs the restaurant more on Wednesdays than it does on Tuesdays! Give me the discounted freakin wine if I'm there on a Tuesday, Mother F-ers.

Along this line why is that I can go into a place get a hot dog plain or loaded for the same price, but my Italian beef or sausage costs me half a buck extra (i just spent 5 minutes looking for the cent sign on my apple laptop) if I ask for hot or sweet peppers, but are free on the hot dog?

2146 north wrote: i just spent 5 minutes looking for the cent sign on my apple laptop

option-4 (¢)

¢
For Windows hold down "alt" and type "0162" on the keypad (just in case anyone was wondering)

2146 north wrote:Along this line why is that I can go into a place get a hot dog plain or loaded for the same price, but my Italian beef or sausage costs me half a buck extra (i just spent 5 minutes looking for the cent sign on my apple laptop) if I ask for hot or sweet peppers, but are free on the hot dog?

Yeah, that upcharge for peppers on a beef is another sore spot. It doesn't make much sense when you see them getting $5 for the damn sandwich, but giving you free toppings on your $2.50 hotdog. I've had a place try to charge .75 for peppers, and they were already getting $5.50 for the beef, so I walked. Why are fries free with a hotdog, but usually extra with a beef?

Kennyz wrote:I'm with you! You know what really pisses me off? All these frekin' restaurants that do a half price special one day of the damn week. You know, like half price wine on Wednesdays or some bullsh-t like that. I mean, it's not like the wine costs the restaurant more on Wednesdays than it does on Tuesdays! Give me the discounted freakin wine if I'm there on a Tuesday, Mother F-ers.

What a remarkably cogent and on-point analogy! I stand in awe of your rhetorical acumen.

Anyhow, where were we?

Jayz wrote:I wanted to write some will leave and not come back, but 100 others will stay. If they lost a substantial number of customers because of what we disagree on they'd take it back.

Of course, I agree with the business's right to make whatever pricing decisions they want. I personally am not convinced nickel-and-diming in this way is the best business decision in the long run to maximize profit, but how are we going to get accurate numbers to do the math? In my own business dealings, which involve pricing for every contract, I always make sure there's a feeling of fairness. If I can't justify to myself why I am upcharging for something, I don't upcharge the customer. But I understand, that's me, that's my business, and not everyone has to run it that way. I feel that in the long run, fair pricing and a little good will go a longer way to maximizing long-term profits than maximizing short-term profits at every opportunity.

I am also irked by the "full price for 1/2 toppings" that most pizza places charge. OK, so it takes the guy an extra 2 sec. to grab into a second bin and sprinkle the second topping... but I'm still getting the same amount of product. I will almost never order 1/2 toppings when places do that -- I either get all on the whole pizza or just order fewer toppings. But I will say only being charged 1/2 for 1/2 ingredients at Tomato Head was one of the reasons they were our standard delivery pizza until they pissed us off for other actions.

As for different pricing, I've wondered what the costs are and how they're averaged. It does cross my mind that the $1.50 for onions cost them 10 cents, but what does that pepperoni cost them (I don't buy pepperoni myself I guess)? Why not 3 tiers for veggies, meats and premium?

Here's my rant about toppings...

Why is it the more toppings you get on a single pizza the less of them there are? It seems like each pizza place has their own topping density. If you just order pepperoni you get a lot but if you order pepperoni, onion, and peppers you seem to get less of everything than if it was just a single order of toppings. I don't care if toppings are all jammed together and on top of each other, I like my pizza like that. More toppings the better. I never bother ordering more than a few toppings on a pizza since else you end up with for example 3 pieces of pineapple, 4 sausages bits, 5 pepperoni, tiny onion slices, a touch of garlic, 2 minuscule chicken pieces, 3 olives, 4 sardines, 1 piece of ham (didn't even order this!), bits of bacon, etc. Such a pizza with many toppings would cost a fortune too. I'd rather just order a single or a few toppings and have a nice pizza loaded with it. You'd think pizza places would have a set quantity to put on each pizza per topping ordered. Instead it seems like they put on about the same amount if it is 1 topping or 10. I understand there is only so much space but you'd be surprised how much room there is on most pizzas.

Pizza Specials - I have always thought of these being a gift from the owner. I have never though about changing the ingredients that are listed on the special and just order it as listed. In the back of my mind I always think they have a stack of these in the fridge or even cycling through the oven waiting for the orders to come in.

I try not to complain about gifts I receive.

Specials on certain days of the week at restaurants - The restaurants have slow nights and they offer the specials on those days to try to get customers in the doors on those days.

Half Price for Half Pizza Toppings - Where will it all stop? Quarter price for a quarter pizza topping? While I agree the price is out of line, if you want something special (half only topping) you might have to live with a full price.

Peppers on a beef - In my mind... The price of a hot dog includes all of the toppings where the price of a beef does not. Also it takes a lot more topping to fill a beef.

$5 for a beef? I used to complain but now I make sure it will be worth my money. Life is way too short to eat a bad beef.

Just MY 2¢ (Yay! for ¢!)