A Pizza Hut is moving into a small Como shopping strip right beside an independent pizza shop, according to a local resident, and the news has split the neighbourhood on whether it's fair competition or a low blow.
The resident, who described the post as "more of a whinge", said the chain is opening next door to Heroes / Topitza, with only a bottle shop between the two. They said they knew it was legal in a free market, but felt it was "a dog move" by Pizza Hut, and by the landlord for allowing it.
"I've never seen two pizza stores in the same fast food precinct let alone next door." - Como resident
Everything Perth has not been able to confirm an opening date with Pizza Hut. Another local said the two shops have different landlords.
Pizza Hut has been here before
Longer-term locals were quick to add some history. Several said the strip used to have a Pizza Hut until a few years ago, and that Topitza now trades from what was once the old Pizza Hut site, while Heroes originally sat across the road beside the laundromat.
"Funny how things work out." - Como local
That means, if the opening goes ahead, it's less a newcomer muscling in and more a chain returning to a corner it once had.
Photo: Steelkamp via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Henley Street, Como; file photo, not the shopping strip in question.
Competition or clustering?
Plenty of locals reckoned the independent shop has little to fear if its pizza is good. Pizza Hut, one said, no longer carries the pull it did when families went to its dine-in restaurants decades ago.
"If the established place tries to combat or match Pizza Hut with price, they will lose. If it combats it with quality ingredients and pizzas they will have nothing to worry about." - Perth local
Others pointed to what economists call commercial clustering: similar businesses often do better side by side because they draw more customers to one spot. Locals pointed to Victoria Park, where several pizza chains and independents sit within a short walk of each other and all appear to be doing well.
One local put it this way: a small shop with 1,000 regulars might lose some to a big chain next door, but it can also pick up some of the chain's own customers who notice there's another option.
Not everyone was convinced. One person pointed to a Bassendean shopping centre where a chain sushi outlet opened a few steps from an independent Japanese takeaway, and asked why chains keep doing it.
Leases and non-compete clauses
The thread also turned to how shopping centre leases work. Some leases include exclusivity clauses that stop a landlord leasing to a direct competitor, but they only help a tenant that negotiated one, and they can cut both ways. One local described a mechanic who struggled to sell his business because a later tenant's lease barred another mechanic from the same centre.
Small business owners thinking about this can find guidance on retail leases from the Small Business Development Corporation, which also helps with lease disputes in WA.
Where locals actually go
As with any Perth pizza debate, people had their own picks. Suggestions ranged from wood-fired spots in Como to favourites in Maylands and Victoria Park, and plenty said they'd stick with independents whatever opens next door.
For now, Como diners will get a choice. Whether the strip can carry both is up to them.
Sources: Small Business Development Corporation; comments from Como and Perth locals.
Photo: Orderinchaos via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). A pizza shop at Alkimos Gateway; file photo, not the Como shops.
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