Pizza and toilet paper: East Bay eatery offers customers a special on its take-orders

BERKELEY, Calif. - Shelter-in-place orders have crushed business for restaurants in the Bay Area, with many forced to close their doors. Others have looked for ways to stay afloat by truncating operating hours and drastically cutting staff. Another tactic has been to promote specials to attract business.

In the East Bay, popular pizza restaurant Lanesplitters this week started offering customers something a little different to try and boost sales. When you think pizza, not often does the mind conjure up images of toilet paper, but Lanesplitters is offering its take-out customers two free rolls with every order totaling more than $30. It will also throw in a free gallon of water. 

Lanesplitters Pizza and Pub offers customers toilet paper rolls with orders over $30.

TP has oddly become a hot commodity during this pandemic. Store shelves are bare where rolls were once stacked, and folks on social media are admonishing those who decide to hoard large amounts for themselves. So the restaurant found it to be a pretty useful item to give away as part of its promotion. 

(Photo by Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“With the restaurant dining rooms closed, we have enough TP to share, so we thought this special would be a WIN-WIN,” the pizza eatery said in its promotion.

The special appears to be working. 

“It’s been really good so far. I think we’ve tripled our sales from a week ago,” pizza clerk Will Hicks told KTVU. “It’s definitely getting a big reaction."

The promotion is being offered at Lanesplitters’ locations in Emeryville and Berkeley, while toilet paper supplies last. The special is only applicable to pick-up orders of more than $30 and not available through Doordash and Lanesplitters' other deliver service partners.