Delightful Delivery Dealings
Rachel Stokes
Pizza, calzones, chicken wings and sandwiches speed up and down South Hill, zoom over to West Hill and satisfy the growling hunger of Ithaca residents. Dining venues are successful in Ithaca, but the restaurants that offer delivery options set themselves apart from the rest.
Open late into the night, DP Dough employees stuff assortments of ingredients into dough pockets, and send the warm, tasty results to eager customers around the Ithaca community. At the same time, fresh ingredients are piled onto sub rolls and rushed out of the door of Jimmy John’s. According to their respective managers, both DP Dough and Jimmy John’s rely on college students for a majority of their customer base. Having long hours works well to keep the constantly hungry students happy.
DP Dough Manager Tammy Cornell says that business is heaviest in the late night hours. “Usually midnight to close, which is between 2 and 4 AM” is the busiest, she says. Jimmy John’s also implements late hours, which has added to competition. “We used to be the only ones open that late, but now we’re one of at least five others,” says Cornell.
The ravenous customers appreciate these extended hours, and having a wide range of time to order their favorites keeps them coming back for more.
“I like that I can order food late at night,” current Ithaca resident Elena Rombalski says. “It’s nice not to have to worry that the restaurant I want to order from will be closed or that they’ll stop delivering early.”
“Most of our deliveries go to the college campuses,” Jimmy John’s Manager Troy Legg says. “We do have a small area to the east and west, but mainly it’s colleges.” He also says that their late night hours are the busiest, followed by afternoon lunch orders.
DP Dough works on having a loyal customer base in the community, according to Cornell. She says that the calzone creators offer loyalty specials for orders that are placed for pick up. According to Cornell these specials have worked well.
“You buy 11 calzones, you get one free. That’s only for pick up so that has definitely helped to increase the pick-up business,” Cornell says.
Despite the loyalty programs, delivery is still the most popular way for customers to indulge in their “pizza alternative.”
“One the weekends, typically, we’ll start out with three drivers at five o’clock, then we usually have at least five, sometimes six for late night,” Cornell says.
Delivery time is a big factor for customers, so having the right amount of drivers is crucial.
“My worst delivery experience is when I ordered food…and the food never came because they forgot,” Rombalski said. “I never ordered from that place again.”
Legg says that customers who are drawn in to speedy delivery times often begin to take the quickness for granted.
“Normally what we hear is the typical ‘Wow that was so fast!’” Legg says. “But we kind of spoiled our customers. When they’re used to getting their sandwich in ten minutes, if it takes 20 or 25 minutes they don’t like it.”
Both managers say that the most customer traffic is seen in the spring semester. By that time, students are well aware of which establishments are the best and which leave more to be desired.
By second semester, “people are aware that we’re here, so we get a lot of repeat business,” says Cornell. Legg also says that the spring is normally busier, but offers other explanations for heavier traffic.
“The weather is nicer, customers have more money to spend in the spring, at the end of the semester,” says Legg. “Even if it’s not the end, after spring break people are no longer saving for break so they are able to spend and order more often.”
As the ravenous students leave Ithaca’s hills in the warm summer months, both eateries lose not only a percentage of their customers, but lose employees as well. Cornell and Legg both say the majority of their employees are college students.
“It does work out because when college students leave we have less customers so we need less employees, and they’re leaving for the summer too,” Legg says.
In order to keep the word flowing through town after the talkative college students leave, both restaurants try to stimulate interest and bring in new customers.
“We do a lot of flyer-ing, handing out menus,” Cornell says. Jimmy John’s takes a more active approach, handing out samples of their scrumptious sandwiches.
“If I send out coupons maybe some people will pay attention, but if I give out samples I know that every person I meet is going to taste my sandwich,” Legg says.
Even though some customers leave town, DP Dough and Jimmy John’s still successfully deliver the goods to hungry customers year-round, regardless of weather or late night hours.
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South Hill Accent 