Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Barbecue Sales Up Despite Recession
LIVE READ:
The tough economy has businesses and organizations in Central Pennsylvania making changes. WPSU’s Emily Reddy brings you the story of a gas station off I-80 that’s thriving in tough times.
ON TAPE:
From the outside it looks like a typical convenience store…but when you walk into Gio’s Woodland Food and Fuel you smell barbecue. A hot food counter and a few plain booths are wedged in among the chips and sodas.
Business has been good for me here. I have people say, “Oh, we’ve been gone by your place for the last ten years.” “And you finally decided to stop?” “Yup” (:10)
Dave Gio serves me up his most popular dish…
This is the pulled pork sandwich and it has coleslaw on it and the bun is nice and warm they toasted it up.
So I gave it a try…
Mmmm…that’s some good barbecue. It’s very messy.
And I wasn’t the only one enjoying the food. A steady flow of customers ordered sandwiches and pizza at the counter behind me. Dave Gio, the store’s owner, says some folks buy gas too, but he sells a LOT of barbecue.
The pork industry is quite happy with me. Whether it’s the ribs or whether it’s the pulled pork we do a good job with that. And brisket also. Brisket’s a good seller too.(:13)
It’s a good thing people like the food because the store is kind of isolated. It’s five miles from Clearfield (which still only has just over 6-thousand people), and it’s about a mile and a half from the exit for I-80, the major throughway in the area.
It’s a little bit out of the way and it doesn’t have a golden arch above it or anything. And people have told me they’ve purposely stopped for that reason, it’s not a chain. (:11)
Gio says business gets better every year. He says 2009 was his best year and he attributes that to the food…NOT gas sales. Gio says credit cards take all the profit out of gas sales.
When the price of gas goes up to four dollars a gallon we lose money on the credit cards. We lose money on three dollars a gallon. (:11)
Here’s why: if Gio makes 8 cents on each gallon of gas he sells and the credit card company charges him a fee of… say… 2 percent … that means he gives the credit card company four cents a gallon when gas is at 2 dollars a gallon… and 8 cents – his entire profit – when its four dollars. Gio says the impact is especially rough because three out of every four customers who gas up use credit cards.
The credit cards are the evils of this world. The government needs to step into these credit cards and bring them into reality. They take advantage of people, especially small businesses. (:12)
So credit card fees mean gas is less profitable than it used to be. The barbecue, on this other hand, has a much bigger profit margin. And the poor economy has actually made the meat cheaper. Gio says he hasn’t had to raise prices in a while.
Through this whole process with the economy I’ve kept everything the same. In fact, I’ve redone my menu a little bit to make my prices go down. I’ve given less portions in certain things. (:13)
Gio’s prices and food have bought him loyal customers, like John Courtois, who’s finishing up his lunch in one of the booths. Courtois is from Arkansas and hauls campers for a living. Once or twice a month his deliveries take him by here.
Bout every time we come past here now we come in and eat lunch or dinner or something. It’s just an awful good place to eat. The prices are good and the food’s good and they give you awful lots of it. (:10)
The man across from him has just finished a plate of ribs. Courtois introduces him.
This is my cousin and he’s just started and I’ve brought him down to show him the good eating places. (:07)
Another man makes a couple of trips to his car, arms full of pizza boxes. Out in the parking lot, D.J. Beebe explains he’s picking up lunch for a crew of workers at a nearby Marcellus shale oil drilling platform.
We come here every day and get lunch for the guys. <
Looks like the Marcellus Shale is bringing in business. The workers have gotten lunch at Gio’s every day for two and a half weeks. They leave soon, but Beebe says the crew will be back and they’ll probably eat at Gio’s again.
I’m Emily Reddy, WPSU.
