The Halloween-themed Spooky Pizookie has also been a hit for BJ’s. | Photo courtesy of BJ’s Restaurants
The Pizookie Meal Deal has become a bonafide star for BJ’s Restaurants.
Same-store sales at the casual-dining chain rose 0.5% for the period from July through September. After a rocky first month, they stabilized at 1.5%. And that trend has continued into the current quarter. Over the past six weeks, BJ’s traffic was up 3.5% year over year, despite signals from other restaurant chains that consumers are flagging. It continues to expect same-store sales growth of 2% for the full year.
BJ’s stock soared on the optimistic report and was up 20% on Friday morning.
On an earnings call Thursday, the chain largely credited the Pizookie Meal Deal, which offers a choice of entree, side and Pizookie dessert starting at $13.99, Monday through Friday. It was launched last September, and the value-priced offer continues to entice more customers to visit more often.
“We’re actually seeing an increase in frequency beginning to emerge across all of our age cohorts as well as all of our income cohorts,” CEO Lyle Tick said during the call. These customers are spending less per visit, because of the lower-priced meal deal, “but the frequency is more than making up for that,” Tick said.
BJ’s has helped add momentum to the deal, as well as its seasonal Pizookie flavors, by ramping up marketing on social media. The brand’s organic media impressions are up 300% year over year, a trend driven in part by the new Spooky Pizookie, a Halloween-themed version of the dessert with orange-colored vanilla ice cream and crackable chocolate topping.
“The Spooky Pizookie was really a phenomenon this year and the team leaned in and it really gained a lot of traction on social,” Tick said. “I think that resonated and we saw it coming through obviously in traffic, but we also see that in the rise and in Spooky Pizookie incidents.”
While it uses value and marketing to bring customers in, BJ’s has also been working to improve its operations to provide a better experience while they are there. It has taken steps to simplify employees’ jobs, removing over 500,000 unnecessary clicks in the POS, for instance. This has resulted in a double-digit improvement in the number of complimentary food and drinks BJ’s hands out to make up for errors.
The totality of these improvements helped the chain expand its profit margins. Restaurant-level margins rose by 80 basis points in the quarter, to 12.5%.
Next up is a refresh of BJ’s pizza, one of its core products. The chain reformulated its pizza to improve quality and will launch the new version Thursday. In test locations, BJ’s is selling about 10% more pizzas, which is helping to boost average check, said Daniel Duran, SVP of strategy and financial planning and analysis.
On the development front, BJ’s is continuing to remodel many of its restaurants, and by the end of the year will have completed 72 remodels since 2022. It’s also planning to start opening new locations again in the second half of 2026, and will take the opportunity to pilot a new prototype.
Tick said the chain wants the new restaurant design to feel both familiar to existing customers while also contemporary enough to excite new guests. “I do think there’s an opportunity to probably lighten things up a little bit with BJ’s,” he said.
Huntington Beach, California-based BJ’s currently has more than 200 locations in 31 states.
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