Pizza Buffet Without Pizza... "2 Pies in 2 Hours"

Mr. Pizza Stores Prioritize Delivery Orders Over Dine-In
Chef Reduction as Visitors Decline Due to COVID-19

Mr. Pizza's 'Pizza Buffet'.

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] #Last weekend, Kim Jinsu (32), who visited a Mister Pizza branch in downtown Seoul to use the pizza buffet, ended up going home after eating only tteokbokki, yogurt, and fruit during the 2-hour lunch time without actually eating any pizza. While more than 20 delivery orders piled up and delivery drivers frequently picked up pizzas, the 10 or so customers waiting in the store received only 2 pizzas in total over 2 hours. When he complained to the store manager, the response was only an explanation that "due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation, store operations have become difficult, leading to staff reductions, and only one cook is working, causing a shortage of manpower."

The buffet-style store operation method, which led to performance improvement for Mister Pizza, has instead become a headache due to the prolonged COVID-19 crisis. Since delivery sales are more advantageous than in-store sales, franchisees prioritize delivery orders over customers visiting the buffet, causing consumer dissatisfaction to accumulate.

According to the franchise industry on the 16th, the number of Mister Pizza stores operating pizza buffets in the hall nationwide is currently 60 this month, down by half from 118 at the end of last year. Mister Pizza’s buffet stores were regarded as a successful business in the industry. Starting with the Seocho branch in Seoul in June 2018, the number increased to about 40 within a year, and after converting regular stores into buffet stores, the first-month sales growth rate was praised for reaching 100% to 200%.

The reason Mister Pizza was able to increase buffet stores relatively quickly was due to cost-effectiveness. At Mister Pizza buffet stores, customers can enjoy 3 to 6 types of premium pizzas, salad bars, hot dishes, desserts, yogurt, fruit, coffee, and more all unlimited for around 10,000 won. However, after COVID-19, due to social distancing, shortened store operating hours, and expanded delivery orders, franchisees have become reluctant to operate buffets.

A franchisee operating a buffet-style store explained, "As delivery orders continuously increased, the quantity and quality of pizzas that could be provided to customers visiting the hall store have indeed declined compared to before, so we apologized to those customers and eventually issued refunds," adding, "With social distancing policies changing frequently, it has become difficult to estimate the number of visitors, making hall store operations challenging, so we plan to focus solely on delivery."

Mister Pizza, which has been focusing on pizza buffets as a way to return to profitability, is also in a difficult position. The Mister Pizza headquarters stated, "Since the buffet has been an important core business part that led to performance improvement, we are not considering abolishing it," and added, "We plan to continuously monitor consumer complaints received from each branch at the headquarters level and make improvements and enhancements."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.