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LAYTON — With less than 10 orders some days and just 58 cents in his bank account, Alex Peterson knew it was time to call it quits on his dream of running One Dude's Pizza Co., a local pizza shop he opened in October.
The entrepreneur began the process to close up shop: He made plans to end his lease and sell equipment, and he informed his lone investor and employees. Lastly, he shared the bad news with customers in a Facebook post on Monday.
"Well guys it comes with a heavy heart to say this, but we had a good run," Peterson wrote. "After days of thought and reflection we have come to the conclusion that it will be best for us to close down the pizza shop at the end of January."
But the community wasn't ready to call it quits just yet — and people came together to ultimately save the business.
Within hours of the announcement, it had circulated around social media and Peterson soon received more than $1,300 in gift card purchases and became overwhelmed with pizza orders. As of Thursday, the shop had completely run out of available ingredients to accept new orders through Saturday, and a new order was going out every seven minutes.
"Having that many people come out to support me when they don't even know me personally, or anything about me, is just crazy — that people would come up and stand behind ourselves like that," Peterson told KSL.com Thursday. "I still can't quite comprehend it."
Before deciding to close down, the pizza shop was facing tough times. Peterson was forced to sell some kitchen equipment including one of the restaurant's refrigerators, which contributed to the limited space available to store ingredients and supplies needed to make more pizzas. The restaurant also lost sales after closing for several days in December in response to an exposure COVID-19.
As part of the outpouring of support he's received, a woman has since offered to donate a fridge as a replacement. Now that the restaurant will no longer be forced to close, Peterson said he's hopeful they can eventually expand their kitchen to accommodate more orders.
"We're kind of just getting back on our feet," he added. After many people had requested a means to donate, Peterson set up a GoFundMe* that has since raised over $1,000 in support of his restaurant.
Using his business' newfound spotlight, Peterson decided he wanted to give back to other struggling businesses. So, he created the One Dude's Small Business Fund, which is made up of 20% of all online gift card sales that will one day serve another business in a tight spot.
"We're able to just take that and donate it directly to them, with no strings attached, that just to helps them get back on their feet to do that," he explained.
Small business owners have been particularly hit hard by the pandemic, especially those in the restaurant industry after COVID-19 restrictions prevented many from allowing dine-in options to slow the spread of the deadly virus.
As costs continue to rise, for many shops sales have dropped. A recent survey by the National Restaurant Association found that nearly 90% of all full-service restaurants experienced decreased revenues of about 36%, and more than 110,000 restaurants closed permanently or long-term. Ten months ago restaurants in Utah employed 109,000 people — a number that's since dropped to around 63,000, according to a December interview with Utah Restaurant Association President Melva Sine.
While just a few days ago, Peterson thought he would be joining the thousands of closed restaurants, his shop's future looks a little different now.
"I'm very very confident we'll be able to stay open, especially even with the amount of response we've had," he said. "We're not expected to be booked out every day and sold out forever, but even if we keep up anywhere around a quarter of what our daily sales has been right now just for pizza orders, that's really where our shop needs to be to stay open and be profitable and allow us to give back to the community."
Even after sharing the story so many times this week, Peterson said he still tears up each time he talks about the support he's gotten from his community.
"When you hit rock bottom and you just have to give up and stop chasing what you dreamed for — I want people to know that if you have a dream, you should chase it," he said. "If you have a good idea, people will support you and you shouldn't give up."
*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisors and otherwise proceed at your own risk.
