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Sarasota pizza shop offers toilet paper with purchase
Kimberly Kuizon reports
SARASOTA, Fla. - Nestled in the Gulf Gate community in Sarasota, Solorzano's pizza sales continue.
"It should be crazy popping and it’s not," Phil Solorzano, restaurant owner, explained.
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Social distancing and an executive order to stop dine-in service has hurt restaurants, but Solorzano looks on the bright side.
"Thank God we are a takeout spot, thank God we are open and thank God our customers know us," he said.
In these ever-changing times, Solorzano knows the only way to stay alive is to transform.
He's offered free, hard to find household products with sales of $30 or more. That includes bleach, toilet paper or paper towels. Now he's taking it one step forward.
"We have all these seats and tables and we can’t use them,” Solozano said. “Everybody thought it was going to be two weeks, I knew it would be longer.”
He's working to transform his dining room into an Italian market. They'll sell all the necessities including pasta, Italian staples, flour, sugar and even home goods.
"If you sell food you’re lucky,” he said. “You should take advantage of that no matter how big your place is or what you’re doing.”
The market will be up and running next week. He's hopeful the community surrounding his restaurant will take advantage of his entrepreneurship.
"You have to change, you have to adapt, you have to survive," said Solorzano.
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