Local pizza shops are surviving economically during the COVID-19 outbreak because of their ability to deliver and fill take out orders.
Most are still figuring out ways to keep their doors open while providing Missoula with pizza -- and keep their employees employed during these trying times.
"That definitely has been a huge consideration in the past well couple of weeks," Bridge Pizza manager Katie Foster said. "Now financially it doesn't always feel like the safest bet to continue to stay open but that's been probably one of the biggest motivators for us."
Keeping their staff employed means getting creative with the distribution of hours, including asking if anyone can make some sacrifices for those who desperately need them.
"We definitely sat down with our crew and more or less kind of created three categories and asked them, so obviously a lot of you guys rely on your check to buy food to pay rent," Pie Hole owner Koby Keene said.
"Who really really needs these hours that definitely helped us with employees sorting into these categories make it possible to keep paying the people who really really need it."
While it's great to keep their employees on the payroll, safety is obviously also a huge priority.
"Our first priority was to keep our employees safe obviously we have implemented contact less delivery and contact less pick up," Foster said.
"So, every interaction is basically happening over the phone whether that's at the delivery drive through window or whether that's at the door of the customers house when delivering food."
Things might continue to change for these local pizza shops staying open so make sure to read their signs to see how they would like you to operate so you can get your slices of pizza and enjoy them.
Pie Hole -- which is well known as a late night spot -- has also scaled back their hours to help keep operational.
Foster said that while their new safety procedures might seem like over kill they would rather be safe then sorry.
