NY/NJ/CT Pizza

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Ed Powers, a Kings Park resident who founded a pizza-delivery service for transplanted New Yorkers, had the knack for sales even at age 12.

When people wanted to negotiate what to pay him to shovel their sidewalks, Powers said he would stand pat on price and instead add services such as removing snow from their cars, "to sweeten the pot."

Now at age 47, he is a salesman twice over. He is the director of strategic sales for a Melville marketing and print-communications firm and has earned the company's highest-grossing salesman award for two years in a row. And Powers is also the owner of Iwantnypizza.com, a Web site that allows transplanted New Yorkers to order the kind of pizza they grew up with.




Powers said he saw an opportunity for such a business when a friend visiting town from Los Angeles told him that he would head over for a visit after stopping for a slice.

"And the idea went pop, pop in my head," Powers said. He did a lot of testing and tried a lot of products before settling on pizzas. He ditched the idea for nostalgic zeppoles.

"By the time they made the trip from here to the West Coast, they looked like a hockey puck," Powers said.

He started with two local pizzerias as suppliers and is now up to four. Before shipping the pies, the pizzerias cook them until they are three-quarters done. Customers complete the cooking. Powers says he ships about 150 of the thin crust pies a week, mostly to Georgia, the Carolinas and the West Coast. The pies sell for $14.99 plus shipping and handling.

After being in sales for so long and selling so many different things, Powers said that being a good salesman in the end comes down to understanding customers' needs.