Stacked Pickle is More Profitable Than Ever Before Thanks to Third-Party Delivery and Off-Premise Sales

Family-friendly sports restaurant franchise Stacked Pickle has seen a significant increase in its comparative sales by integrating off-premise sales into its business model. Since rebooting its third-party delivery system, Stacked Pickle’s downtown Indiana location has hit double-digit comparative sales year over year with 38% being off-premise.

“When we were first getting started, I told Gary [Brackett, Stacked Pickle’s CEO] that we have to be experts in off-premise sales and embrace it and make it work because it’s growing at an alarming rate,” said Stacked Pickle COO Scott Goodrich. “And now as a system, we are doing 22% off-premise, with that number jumping to 38% at our largest location,” said Goodrich.

Goodrich is a well-known advocate for integrating third-party delivery into business models. “What inspired me to take this approach was more than inspiration,” he said. “I knew from data and looking at client behavior that third-party delivery was continuing to grow, and if we didn’t jump on this now, it would be harder to adapt later on. We decided to put the delivery fees on our direct operating cost line. While that cost has grown, we’re still more profitable than ever even with the higher operating cost.”

Through discussions with colleagues, Goodrich discovered Checkmate, a POS-focused technology system that integrates third-party delivery orders into Stacked Pickle’s kitchen just as if it were an online order. This simplified integrating orders for Stacked Pickle because they were able to cut out all distractions that third-party delivery orders typically cause for fast-casual restaurants.

“When you sign up with a third-party delivery service, you receive a tablet from them,” Goodrich explained. “The problem with that is when you utilize multiple third-party delivery services, that means you have multiple tablets to use and it becomes very disruptive. Luckily for Stacked Pickle, our kitchen is not exposed like most fast-casual restaurants are. Our cooks can then focus on cranking out food orders without being disrupted by customers or delivery services with the help of Checkmate.”

Stacked Pickle has also managed to streamline its process by utilizing the same to-go boxes for in-store orders and third-party delivery orders. This cost-saving technique makes for a more efficient process by eliminating the need to take on extra SKUs. Goodrich’s advice is to make everything as simple as possible, “If it’s complicated, then don’t put it on your online menu. We focus on keeping our online menu quick, easy, simple and delicious by using our portion-controlled items.”

Third-party delivery isn’t the only thing boosting comparative sales for Stacked Pickle. The brand’s robust catering enterprise is also doing its part to increase sales and is now seen as a key form of marketing.

“If you’re catering for 100 people, realistically, over half of those people have never been to a Stacked Pickle. Through catering, we are able to market our products to those people who are experiencing it for the first time and will hopefully become future customers,” explained Goodrich. “That is why our catering menu consists of what we do best: wings, burgers, sliders and salads.”

Stacked Pickle has been partnering with ezCater for all its catering needs. According to ezCater’s website, it is the world’s largest marketplace for corporate catering and has little to no competition. ezCater has essentially created its own marketplace and follows the same footprint as a third-party delivery app.

“On the enterprise level, I can look at a monthly calendar and can oversee the catering for that month using ezCater. We are also able to take advantage of the optimization tools that ezCater offers, as it is similar to Google,” Goodrich said, noting Stacked Pickle is currently listed among the Top 10 options on the app. “Our goal is to always be on the first page of the app in order to increase our presence.”

Stacked Pickle is also taking the opportunity to advance its marketing through ezCater by supplying coupons with every catering order to continue the momentum and improve customer relationships.

All nine of Stacked Pickle’s locations in Indiana are currently engaging third-party delivery, and the brand intends to have each new franchise location follow in these footsteps, beginning with its newest location in Dayton, Ohio.

“We don’t turn on the third-party activation all at once,” Goodrich said. “we first need the training to ensure all systems go and are up to speed on the normal ins and outs of the business prior to them trying to engage in third-party delivery,” added Goodrich.

By prioritizing the implementation of third-party delivery and off-premise sales in both corporate and franchise locations, Stacked Pickle’s business opportunity remains that much more competitive in the crowded restaurant space.