Pizzaria Drive-Thru

Pizza Franchisee Builds Temporary Drive-Thru

One of my hobbies is to take photos of franchise scenes as I travel.  It was on election day that I pulled out my digital camera stored next to the driver's seat and caught this enterprising franchise owner in his make-shift drive-thru tent. The franchisee prepares three stacks of large pizzas for $6 that are cooked and ready to go -- pepperoni, sausage and cheese.

At first glance a franchise insider knows this is against system standards. This chain does not have drive-thrus, yet alone tent drive-thrus. But the franchise owner knows that drive-thru business can be good.

How good, you ask? Bob Frankman shares the stats. Business is good enough that this franchisee every Tuesday erects a tent and has cars sometimes lined a  block down the street for immediate pizza pick-up. And his average transaction time? To my eyes, between 20 to 40 seconds. And those ovens inside with high fixed costs crank out pizzas like clockwork.

Bob and others reasonably ask - why aren't pizzaria chains listening to their more enterprising franchisees and building drive-thrus?

Good question.