News

Delivery bags run the gamut from low-tech to high price

July 26, 2004

Better presentation, better tips.

For some drivers, better presentation means a cloud of steam should proceed from the vinyl delivery bag before the pie.

"I like to see the expression on my customers' faces when the steam comes pouring out," said J.W. Callahan, a delivery driver in Warner Robbins, Ga. He said he gets that effect from low-cost vinyl bags.

But Callahan's love of low-tech delivery bags puts him well off the trend toward high-tech heated bags that are engineered to keep the pizza piping hot and dry.

If it's steamy, it's soggy, said Bob Check, owner of Troy, Mich.-based Check Corporation, a manufacturer of heated delivery bags. Driver tips, he believes, come from pizza that's delivered hot, not in a cloud of moisture.

"When it cools down, that means there's moisture in there," said Check. "If you've got a bag that keeps the pizza approximately the temperature it is when it comes out of the oven, then you've got no moisture in there."

Check said the idea for his company's heated bags came from products he manufactures for automotive seat heaters. Lightweight electrical elements run between layers of insulated fabric and distribute heat across the top and bottom of the bag.

"It's very durable," he said. "You can turn the bag inside out to clean it. You can ball it up, sit on it — drive over it if you want."

The average Check Corporation bag costs $79.95, but they're typically sold in "systems," meaning six to 12 bags requiring a holding rack and power units to heat them. A six-bag set-up costs $1,259, and a 12-bag system runs $1,834 — and this isn't the market ceiling.

Typically, to outfit one store with a magnetic induction-heated bag system manufactured by Chicago-based CookTek, the price is $3,500. Further up the ladder is Vesture Corporation's $5,500 system for high-volume stores.

Big bucks, no doubt, but bucks well spent, said some operators.

Liz Hodge, head of purchasing for Johnny's Pizza House, a 26-store chain based in Monroe, La., said her company wouldn't deliver without heated bags.

"They've been worth the investment for sure," Hodge said. "We've used a lot of bags we didn't like, but we've used the heck out of these."

Barry Kennedy, a franchisee of Buck's Pizza in Mocksville, N.C., only uses his heated bags to hold pizzas in the store after they're baked and cut. Once inside the bag, he said they'll remain at optimum quality for 30 minutes.

"But you've got to be careful after that, though, because those bags will cook it," said Kennedy, who uses cloth bags for delivery. "I mostly use them to hold pizzas for the carryout customer who says she'll be there in 20 minutes but isn't there that fast."

Is simpler better?

David Schafer, president of Aurora, Ill.-based Bag Solutions, believes pizza delivery operations don't require bells-and-whistles bags, only good delivery systems.

"Let's face it, if a pie isn't delivered in 20 minutes, it's late no matter what bag you've got it in," said Schafer, whose company manufactures non-heated bags.

Paul Melotte, a Little Caesars franchisee in Spartanburg, S.C., doesn't deliver, but he uses Bag Solutions bags to hold his pizzas when they come out of the oven. Price, he said, motivated him to consider the bags, but their quality sold him.

"A lot of bags are closed with Velcro, which eventually wears out," Melotte said. "But (Schafer's) bags close by zippers. That keeps them closed all the time, unlike Velcro, which leaks (heat) because it isn't totally sealed."