May
6
Domino’s Strength in April Looks Muted
Filed Under Restaurants | Leave a Comment
In April, we surveyed 23 Domino’s Pizza locations to store employees about sales trends, top selling pizza specials, and competitors to Domino’s. The survey asked the following questions:
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What is the most popular pizza deal right now?
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Are you busier, slower, the same as last month?
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Who is your primary competition?
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65%% of respondents said that the two medium pizzas with 2 toppings for $5.99 deal was the top deal at Domino’s in April. 9% cited the older 5-5-5 deal.
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48% of respondents reported that their location was busier in April than in March. However, 43% reported having the same level of activity while 9% said business was slower in April.
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48% of respondents felt that Pizza Hut was their primary competitor. This is a similar result to what we saw with our recent Papa John’s survey. 22% view Papa John’s as its primary competitor while 17% viewed local pizza operators as their primary competition.
Conclusion of Channel Check: Domino’s shows solid demand trends and consistent competitive viewpoints to that of Papa John’s. However compared to casual dining where an uptick in demand is clearly discernible it appears that the consumer is not ramping its delivery pizza deliveries in April.
For access to the underlying survey or for more information, please contact Jason Katz at 415.867.0959 or jason@thechannelcheckers.com
May
5
True Religion Brand Strong, Overall Denim Market Looks Less Robust Then General Retail
Filed Under Retail | 21 Comments
In April, we surveyed 22 department stores and jean stores to survey the store employees about sales trends, top selling brands and challenges in the high end denim market. The survey asked the following questions.
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How well are high end jeans selling right now?
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What brand of jeans would you NOT recommend, why?
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What is the best selling brand of high end jeans?
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What is your opinion of True Religion jeans?
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36% of respondents said that sales of high end denim jeans was “above average” in April. 14% said sales were below average and another 32% said sales were simply average, a response we view as a negative trend point.
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Levi’s and Lee’s were cited as brands that the store employees we spoke with would not recommend. These brands were cited as being “plain”, not having enough fit options and store employees noted that other brands were simply superior to these two main line brands.
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7 for All Mankind was seen as the top selling brand of jeans by 27% of respondents. 18% saw True Religion as the top selling brand.
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23% of respondents saw True Religion jeans as being too expensive on the negative side while many others talked up the brands durability, high fashion image and fit options.
Conclusion of Channel Check: True Religion jeans were recommended well in our survey as they have been in many of our efforts in the high end denim space. The one element of potential concern is that overall the perception of high end jean sales is lagging the broader retail space we cover. Additionally the concern on price of True Religion jeans suggests the competing brands may be offering similar value at lower price points in the department store sales channel.
For access to the underlying survey or for more information, please contact Jason Katz at 415.867.0959 or jason@thechannelcheckers.com