Pizza Pizza: The Only Franchise I Would Buy

Oh man. If there’s anything I love in this world it’s pizza. I know that it’s up there on the list of foods that will kill you buy OH MAN is it ever delicious. I don’t have a favourite chain but I do have a least favourite (Canada Unlimited) and I am partial to the chain pizza shops over the independents. Last time I went to an independent pizza shop I ordered a bacon and onion pizza and got no bacon. It was literally a hot circle of garbage. The time before that, the place didn’t have forks or knives OR bacon so I had to eat my pepperoni and onion pizza with my hands.

This doesn’t happen at Pizza Pizza!

Pizza Pizza is a chain after my heart. In college I would but a tiny $4 personal pizza when I finished class at 6pm to eat on the metro on the way home. I didn’t even care that it made everyone hungry because I WAS HUNGRY and I lived two hours from school. In university I discover the Pizza Pizza spicy sausage sandwich. Oh. My. Word. Cover that thing with cheese and you’ve got yourself a little slice of delicious heaven.

Alberta doesn’t have Pizza Pizza — we have Pizza 73, a chain owned by and resembling Pizza Pizza in every way save for the tiny $4 pizzas and spicy sausage sandwiches. Those are the only things you like eating too? Yeah, Pizza 73 doesn’t care. I even tried getting a Pizza Pizza shareholder acquaintance of mine to bring it up at the annual meeting but he didn’t even reply to my tweet.

pizza 73 sandwich

How To Get a Pizza Pizza Franchise

I would LOVE a Pizza Pizza franchise. If there weren’t already five yummy pizza restaurants in town, I might have tried to convince someone to buy a Pizza 73 franchise. But alas, I’ll just have to write about it on the internet.

Pizza Pizza and Pizza 73 have different royalty and advertising fees but the selection process is the same:

Step 1: Pay a $30,000 franchise fee for a 5 year term (so small in the franchise world!) and renewable for $7,500 after the term is up
Step 2: Have at least 25% of the cost as down payment and at least $80,000 in cash
Step 3: Pick a location from selection of available locations
Step 4: Build or buy with an average cost of $300,000
Step 5: Attend an “industry leading” training program of 6-10 weeks

Pizza Pizza is like a happy medium between Subway and McDonalds — a decent training program, adequate support and not too pricey.

Oh wait.

Pizza Pizza charges a combined 12% of gross sales for its royalty and advertising fee. Pizza 73 charges a combined 17%. That literally boggles my mind. Here’s A FIFTH of my gross sales! Please hire a baseball player who can’t even wear his uniform in the ad to sell my pizza! Oh and charge $3.50 for online orders so that people will choose not to order online and come into the store and use MY resources. And don’t let me serve spicy sausage sandwiches because I’m only a Pizza 73 shop, not a Pizza Pizza! Honestly.

All that being said, if Pizza 73 lowered their fees and I didn’t like in a market over-saturated with pizza shops, this would be the franchise for me. Delicious pizza, a steady customer base and a busy time that fits my schedule.