Mother, daughter bring pizza chain back to Joplin

So, she did.

Yandell said her store, which opened Sept. 19 at 823 Maiden Lane, is enjoying a tremendous response.

“We ran out of dough five nights straight,” she said.

Before opening the shop, Yandell worked with Little Caesars to find a location. The Detroit, Mich.-based company helped her narrow down the demographics to find an area to suit her best. She chose the Joplin area to be close to her father, who lives in Muskogee, Okla. Yandell says she plans to own and operate 12 restaurants in the tri-state area.

Yandell’s mother, Linda Logan, offered to help with accounting, but soon found herself becoming more involved. After looking at the business plan, Logan said she would help run the chain.

“We’re a good team,” Logan said. “She handles the operations, marketing and personnel and I take care of the business and development side.”

Little Caesars has changed in the 10 years it has been away from Joplin. The chain is now strictly carry-out, which the company says helps keep prices down. It has also created a niche for itself in offering hot-n-ready pizzas: fresh, large-sized pizzas in three varieties always available to pick-up without calling ahead.

“About 75 percent of the sales volume (so far) has been in hot-n-ready pizzas,” Yandell said.

“People remember what was here before, they didn’t have hot-n-ready then. Now, we don’t have to use the old way of pizza.”

Yandell said customers have come to the store from as far as Pittsburg, Kan. and Neosho — several want to know if she has plans of opening a store in their neck of the woods.

“I’ll be looking for more locations soon,” she said.

Yandell says her current focus is to train her crew, then find management within. After she has management in place, she will begin to look for other locations to open a store. She would like to have a location with a drive-thru window, to better serve her customers.

“Little Caesars requires a location show six months of successful operation before expanding,” Logan said. “They want to be sure owners are running the stores according to its plan.”

Yandell says she is looking at Pittsburg, Carthage and Neosho, but would eventually like to have restaurants in Miami, Okla., Webb City and Carl Junction as well.[[In-content Ad]]