Echo Apizza’s 15 Weekly Pies Draw More Than 3,500 Buyers

By Daniel Okafor

More than 3,500 people now compete for the 15 New Haven-style pizzas AJ Miller bakes each week in his San Diego apartment, according to the California Post. The California Post reported that the 15-inch pies sell out in less than 30 seconds and cost $25 to $30 each.

That imbalance defines Echo Apizza. Based on the California Post’s figures, buyer interest exceeds weekly capacity by more than 233 to one. The side business has become a tightly rationed market, with a large crowd competing for a very small weekly inventory.

Miller, a Connecticut native, built the business around a pizza he could not find in San Diego after moving there in 2020. The California Post reported that he missed the East Coast-style pizza he grew up on. He taught himself to make New Haven-style “apizza” in his apartment. He did not expect the craft to pay off on that scale, the publication said.

How did a layoff create Echo Apizza?

California Post reported that Miller’s layoff from his marketing job left him to scramble to make ends meet, so he started Echo Apizza from his Ocean Beach apartment with a text list of about 75 customers.

Word spread quickly, the California Post said, and the list expanded with it. From roughly 75 initial customers, the pool seeking a pie grew to more than 3,500 people. Echo Apizza now operates as a weekly allocation: Miller makes a small batch, and the available orders clear almost immediately.

How does Miller make the pies?

Miller sets his home oven to its 550-degree maximum, bakes on a heavy steel plate and finishes the pies under the broiler, according to the California Post.

“It took a couple years to really perfect my craft,” he told the publication. The craft began after he moved to San Diego in 2020, when he could not find the East Coast-style pizza he grew up on.

The offer is specific: a 15-inch New Haven-style pie priced at $25 to $30 and a weekly allocation of 15 orders, according to the California Post.

Why does scarcity drive demand?

The California Post reported that keeping up with demand was Miller’s only obstacle, while his own explanation placed the emphasis on scarcity and the public’s desire for what they could not obtain.

“I think people do like what they can’t get,” Miller said. The report compared the odds of securing a pie with winning the lottery and treated scarcity as Miller’s metaphorical secret sauce.

The California Post’s figures make the mechanism plain. More than 3,500 people pursue 15 weekly orders, and each batch sells out in less than 30 seconds. The scarce input is access to the week’s limited production. Miller’s explanation centers on the appeal of orders that buyers cannot get.

What can the sales figures reveal?

At the reported volume and prices, 15 weekly orders generate $375 to $450 in gross sales, although the California Post disclosed no ingredient, labor, rent, delivery or profit figures.

It establishes top-line demand, not margins. The report also provides no customer-frequency data or acquisition-cost measure.

The customer list grew from about 75 names to more than 3,500 while weekly output remained at 15 orders, a divergence the California Post attributes to spreading demand and Miller’s limited production.

Echo Apizza’s growth constraint sits on the production side because Miller’s apartment kitchen and 15-order weekly output cap supply even as prospective buyers keep joining the list. The California Post did not report an expansion plan or added production capacity.

For now, demand is not Echo Apizza’s problem. The California Post’s figures point to a business constrained by Miller’s apartment kitchen, where every weekly run sells out in less than 30 seconds. The next test is whether he can lift the 15-order ceiling without losing the scarcity that keeps buyers waiting.