Tech & Biz

Local Pizza Shops Survive Economic Devastation

by Jordan Yerman | February 24, 2009 at 10:42 am

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As the mighty fall and the US economy continues to unforgivingly lay waste to large companies, a band of plucky survivors wends its way through the recession wasteland... the local pizza shops.

This economic war will be won by the slice. According to the article linked below, New York had 6,117 independent pizza places (not sure if this takes into account that place at 5th Ave and Union in Brooklyn that got shut down for some health-related reason), and Pennsylvania has 5,052.

The titans -- national hawkers of furniture, shoes, clothing, computers, auto parts, electronics, jewelry and embarrassingly themed steakhouses -- are toppling, fatally bloated by mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and roll-ups. But amid the colossal corpses strewn on the corporate battlefield, a ragtag army of small businesses soldiers on: the pizza industry, 76,355 restaurants strong across America.

Big chains -- Pizza Hut, Domino's, Papa John's and a few more -- account for only a third of restaurants, a percentage that's been slipping every year since 2000.

Mergers, product development and expansion only create new opportunities for something to go wrong, so pizzamakers keep it simple and local, and are now positioned to survive this economic downturn. Fitting, then, that pizza is a classic comfort food.

I, for one, will continue to do my part in supporting these bastions of the self-starter ethos.