The Little Caesar's that was at 607 E. 79th Street (the strip mall at 79th & St. Lawrence) has suddenly disappeared.In talking with a worker at Captain Hook's 3 doors down, they said that the pizza shop had apparently dropped in business, and then seemed to move out "in the middle of the night".
When that Little Caesars first opened, the workers were friendly, and service was good. My now 5 year old daughter regularly got cookies & ballons from the staff, which was always appreciated.
But over the months, the quality went down. Pizza and crazy bread were often undercooked, the "Hot N Ready" pizzas often werent ready, and the crazy sauce containers were half-filled and cold. The books which listed free pizzas for unhappy customers seemed filled with entries.
And it seems many people weren't accepting this type of service. Otherwise, it seems strange that a place offering a family meal for $5, especially in this economy, went out of business.Chatham survived without Little Ceasar's until 2008, and will be just fine since it left. But at least for our family, it makes the occasional pizza dinner a little less convenient.
But now where is thes best tasting pizza in the Sixth Ward?
But more important (for some) - which place now has the cheapest pizza?
It is sad to see any business close in the neighborhood, but they had a big obstacle to overcome. Several years ago Domino's(82nd Cottage Grove) atempted to come to Chatham and fell flat on their face. Many in this community have said no to the value proposition and are willing to pay a little bit more for perceived "higher" quality.
ReplyDeleteWe have several companies offering pizza at the mid-range price. Reggios, Italian Fiesta, Pizza Hut and Happy's all offer decent pizza. Our newest company offering pizza, Barraco's offers a good pizza, although pricey.
The offering at the value end is limited to the "take and bake" offered at Jewel's which isn't bad.
I think we can take a couple of things away from this store closing.
1. The opening of national chains alone will not attract younger, financially affluent families to our community.
2. Businesses in our community must focus on servicing their markets and not on just marketing their services. The Little Ceasar;s franchisee could have started to offer turkey sausage, BBQ or a tasty vegan/vegetarian pizza versus the traditional pizza.
3 Businesses servicing our community must always offer "legendary" customer service or they will fail.