Driver brings Super Bowl party eats to the front door
nberginnbergin
With fat flakes of snow plopping regularly on his windshield Sunday, Floyd Womack drove his 2001 red Mercury Cougar slowly down a slight incline, stepping on the brake as he approached his turn.
The car’s two front tires, both spare donut tires, slid just past the turn. Womack reversed the car a few feet, pulled into the Mapleleaf Apartments complex and parked in the middle of the lot.
“I’m never in here long. I never try to get too professional in a parking job,” Womack said.
Womack was one of the many food delivery employees dashing back and forth across Burlington during the hours before the year’s biggest football game, the Super Bowl.
Typically, 15 percent of all Americans order takeout or delivery food on Super Bowl Sunday. For adults between the ages of 18 and 34 the number jumps to 22 percent, according to statistics released by the National Restaurant Association in 2006.
Of those who ordered takeout or delivery the year of the survey, 58 percent ordered pizza, 50 percent ordered chicken wings and 20 percent ordered sandwiches.
Only 4 percent of Americans watched the big game at a restaurant or bar.
Sporting a hooded sweatshirt with the name of his employer, Mazzio’s Italian Eatery, Womack grabbed a black insulated bag big enough to easily carry a couple boxes of pizza, an order of bread sticks and maybe an order of chicken wings, then jumped out of his car.
Womack exchanged the pizza for some cash at one of the apartments — in plenty of time for some pre-game gluttony — then jumped back in his car, ready for another delivery.
“That was a pretty good tip right there,” Womack said. “It was $21.80. She handed me $30 and said keep the change.”
Tips are a big part of Womack’s income, and the full-time Southeast Iowa Community College student said he needs every penny. He makes minimum wage, but with tips he brings in closer to $12 or $13 an hour, he said.
While conventional wisdom might indicate pizza sales would be up on Super Bowl Sunday, history shows sales do not increase significantly for Mazzio’s Burlington location, said Dann Quam, owner of the local Mazzio’s franchise.
“Sundays are big days for us anyway. We get a pretty good church crowd Sundays at lunch and dinner,” Quam said.
Mazzio’s ended up making 43 deliveries Sunday evening, about average, said evening manager Michelle Crow. Womack made 14, far from his all-time record of 40 set during the summer of 2006.
Mazzio’s business went up 38 percent this year following a remodeling of the restaurant a year ago and the loss of an area competitor, Godfather’s Pizza, Quam said.
However, sales spike the hour before the big game, and again right before half time, then taper off for the night, Quam said.
During those busy hours, Quam ended up leaving a Super Bowl party both last year and this year to deliver food.
Delivery sales are more likely to spike during snowstorms than the Super Bowl. Area residents would rather pick up the phone and have diner delivered than venture out into the bad weather, Quam said.
Womack started work at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, just before the big game and during a snowstorm that dumped between three and five inches of white fluffy stuff on the area, making his deliveries extra treacherous.
“With Burlington being built on all these hills, when it snows, it gets pretty difficult driving up and down on the hills,” Womack said as his car stopped halfway up a hill forcing him to back down it and find an alternative route.
Womack destroyed both his front tires, and a rim, within the last couple weeks while delivering pizza for Mazzio’s.
“Just about all of my flat tires have been delivering pizza,” Womack said. “All delivery guys go though their tires pretty quick.”
Womack has worked for Mazzio’s for about two years. The job has allowed him to work about 30 hours a week around his school schedule.
“It’s a pretty boring job to be truthful. But I don’t see myself putting in my two weeks notice. … The money’s just a little too good,” Womack said.
In the meantime, Womack listened to the Super Bowl on his SIRIUS Satellite Radio while feeding the hungry residents of Burlington. The satellite radio is the one thing that helps him stay sane while driving alone for hours a shift, Womack said.
Tags: cate, Food, franchise, hero, job