Gino's East begins delivery truck sales

Nation's Restaurant News, Feb 3, 1986 by Walkup. Carolyn

Gino's East begins delivery truck sales

CHICAGO -- Original Gino's East of Chicago is bringings Chicago-style deep dish pizza to more customers through oven-equipped delivery trucks. And on the East Coast, owner Collins Foods International is opening four new Gino's East units.

Delivery truck sales from the Rolling Meadows unit west of Chicago, franchised by Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc., have been four to six times higher than expected, accordin to John Buchanan, vice president of Lettuce Entertain You's Original Gino's East Division.

Another truck is about to start serving Chicago's lake-front neighborhoods from a delivery-only location at Lettuce Entertain You's corporate headquarters.

So far the trucks serve five northwester suburbs. Drivers stop for anyone who hails them on the street and also seek out potentially profitable locations including construction sites, small strip shopping centers and commuter train stations.

The company has recruited customers by visiting businesses where employees have short lunch hours or prefer to eat in. Gino's has even given away pizzas as a promotion, Buchanan said.

Pizza by the slice is sold at lunchtime. The attention-getting trucks also carry salads and soft drinks.

"We are trying to get people to buy what we have the truck stocked with," Buchanan said. "If you can sell items on the truck, you do it faster and cheaper."

Traditional delivery methods of having a driver carry two or three customer orders at a time in a car are less efficient, Buchanan noted, because the driver spends so much time in driving back and forth to the restaurant.

Meanwhile, on the East Coast, Collins Foods plans to open four Gino's East units in the next six months, said Bob Henkel, a Collins vice president. The company is converting former Rustlerhs Steak Houses to Gino's Easts in Eden Town and East Brunswick, N.J., and in Huntington, N.Y.

Each unit will seat about 200 and will resemble the Chicago restaurants, complete with graffiti on the walls. "We even provide the pens. "We even provide the pens," Henkel said. The stores will have full-service restaurants and bars as well as delivery.