Domino’s is testing Nuro’s R2, an autonomous delivery vehicle, in Houston.
The Nuro R2 is a fully autonomous, on-road delivery vehicle that has regulatory approval by the US Department of Transportation. Domino’s will use R2 in a pilot program in Houston.
Customers who place an online prepaid order from the Woodland Heights location may have their pizza delivered by R2. If so, the customer will receive a text message containing a PIN number and will be able to track R2’s progress via GPS. Once the robot rolls up, the customer will input the PIN and R2 will open its door to allow access to the pizza.
“We’re excited to continue innovating the delivery experience for Domino’s customers by testing autonomous delivery with Nuro in Houston,” said Dennis Maloney, Domino’s senior vice president and chief innovation officer. “There is still so much for our brand to learn about the autonomous delivery space. This program will allow us to better understand how customers respond to the deliveries, how they interact with the robot and how it affects store operations. The growing demand for great-tasting pizza creates the need for more deliveries, and we look forward to seeing how autonomous delivery can work along with Domino’s existing delivery experts to better support the customers’ needs.”
“Nuro’s mission is to better everyday life through robotics. Now, for the first time, we’re launching real world, autonomous deliveries with R2 and Domino’s,” said Dave Ferguson, Nuro co-founder and president. “We’re excited to introduce our autonomous delivery bots to a select set of Domino’s customers in Houston. We can’t wait to see what they think.”
Autonomous delivery vehicles are an important step in the transformation of the restaurant industry, and could provide a safe way for restaurants to adapt and expand their operations in the midst of the pandemic.
“Each time we take a look at technology we look at all of the options,” says Domino’s CEO Ritch Allison. “Do we build it? Do we partner? Do we go out and buy something. For the things that are really core to our business like our point-of-sale system and our digital ordering capabilities, we believe we have to own those. But there are other places like new autonomous delivery where we’ll go out and partner with someone, like Nuro for example, because we’re not going to build the car itself. We’re going to build the interface around it for the customer.”
Ritch Allison, CEO of Domino’s, discusses how the company is using technology, innovation, and reimagined stores to drive growth.
We Look At All Technology Options
We’ve had a very strong and profitable delivery business for many years now. So unlike a lot of the other restaurant brands, we don’t have to decide to get in or not or try to figure out which of these third-party aggregators is ultimately going to be the winner at the end of this shakeout. We’re really focused on continuing to build that delivery business with our franchisees and doing it in a profitable way for them. We believe that means doing it on our own.
Each time we take a look at technology we look at all of the options. Do we build it? Do we partner? Do we go out and buy something. For the things that are really core to our business like our point-of-sale system and our digital ordering capabilities, we believe we have to own those. But there are other places like new autonomous delivery where we’ll go out and partner with someone, like Nuro for example, because we’re not going to build the car itself. We’re going to build the interface around it for the customer.
We’ve Got a Terrific 4-Wall Economic Model
Most certainly construction costs have gone up with the combination of tariffs on steel and aluminum. But also we’re in a really robust labor market right now and so wages have risen in construction as well. The good news for us is we’ve got such a terrific 4-wall economic model that even with some of those rising costs we’re still able to deliver to our franchisees a great investment. We are averaging two and a half year average paybacks for Domino’s Pizza today in the US.
We’re not really seeing (much impact) in our business with respect to trade tensions. The great thing about our business model outside the US is we have international master franchisees. They’re locally owned, they employ the local citizens, and we buy almost all of our ingredients locally as well. We’re really building businesses that are benefiting the economies of these international markets that we operate in. So in places where we’re growing rapidly like China, India, and Brazil, we’re an emerging part of the economy in those countries.
85 Percent of Our Global Footprint Reimaged
We have grown our carryout business significantly over the course of the last ten years. A big part of that is having a great value offer for our customers. It’s about having the reimaged stores. We’ve now got 85 plus percent of our global footprint reimaged. Also, it’s about getting more stores on the map closer to our customers. The number one criteria when consumers choose is convenience with carryout. So we’re going to continue to build more units and get closer and closer to them.
How Domino’s Is Using Technology and Innovation To Drive Growth – CEO Ritch Allison
“What we’re going to see here in the near term is that there’s so much investor subsidy into that (delivery) business model right now,” says Domino’s CEO Ritch Allison. “We’re not really sure where it’s going to shake out long term. There’s substantial discounting and over-investment in advertising right now to drive consumer demand. We don’t know how that’s going to shake out once consumers actually have to pay the full cost of that delivery because those fees are quite substantial relative to the cost of the underlying food.”
Ritch Allison, CEO of Domino’s, discusses how investor subsidies of delivery companies like Grubhub and Uber Eats are impacting Domino’s in an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC:
There’s So Much Investor Subsidy In The Delivery Business Model
What we’re going to see here in the near term is that there’s so much investor subsidy into that (delivery) business model right now. We’re not really sure where it’s going to shake out long term. There’s substantial discounting and over-investment in advertising right now to drive consumer demand. We don’t know how that’s going to shake out once consumers actually have to pay the full cost of that delivery because those fees are quite substantial relative to the cost of the underlying food.
We also have not yet seen what’s going to happen with the supply of restaurants on these platforms as well. Over time it’ll be proven out whether or not that business is truly incremental and whether or not that business is actually accretive from a margin standpoint to the operators that are offering that service through the third-party aggregators. So long-term still a lot of questions but short term certainly some pressure.
We’re not going to do foolish things in the short term in reaction. We’re still very focused on our franchisees’ profitability. That’s first and foremost in our minds and we’re still very focused on generating great returns and free cash flow for our investors. We’re generating cash flow now at a pace of about a million dollars a day in the Domino’s business. So some near-term activity here that’s creating some turbulence in the marketplace but we’re going to remain focused on our long-term strategy, great profitability for our franchisees and strong operating cash flow and returns for our investors.
We Still Gained a Significant Amount of Market Share In Q2
When you take a look at our business we still gained a significant amount of market share in the pizza category during the second quarter. Our retail sales were up 6.8 percent which is significantly higher than the growth in the category and frankly much higher than the growth in the restaurant industry in general. So while same-store sales at three percent were at the lower end of our long-term outlook, the overall retail sales growth driven by the combination of that same-store sales and really strong unit growth was still quite positive.
It is a tougher operating environment than it has been in years past. We do have new competition in the marketplace that we’re fighting against every day. There are also labor pressures in the marketplace, certainly, the tight employment environment and some of the rising minimum wages across the country are putting some pressure on. But we are really in a position of strength as we enter into this more turbulent period.
Bringing Data-Driven Decision Making To International Markets
In 2018 our average store in the US had operating cash flow as measured by EBITA of $141,000. Our franchisees are very healthy. Cash on cash returns in the business are really strong. That’s why when you take a look at what’s going on with units, we opened 45 units in the second quarter in the US and only closed three, it’s still a very healthy business model. We’re positioned quite well as we look forward relative to the rest of the restaurant industry to continue to be successful.
We are we’re working hand-in-hand with our master franchisees around the world. As you look from market to market the issues in markets can be different depending upon those specific circumstances. What we’re trying to do is work with the markets to bring some of the same terrific data-driven decision-making that we’ve used to grow the business in the US over a number of years now and help our international markets in that regard.
Broadly, when you take a look at the international business, retail sales were up 9.8 percent in the second quarter. We are gaining share at a significant pace in the international markets as well as having great growth in the international markets this past quarter with a 158 net store openings. It remains a very healthy business despite the comps over the last few quarters being on the lower end.
There’s So Much Investor Subsidy In The Delivery Business Model, Says Domino’s CEO Ritch Allison
“Once your company is no longer small it tends to accumulate bureaucracy and you begin to lose the founder’s mentality,” says Chris Zook, author of “The Founders Mentality.” “That is the paradox of growth. Growth creates complexity and complexity is the silent killer of profitable growth. Complexity is also the silent killer of our lives in some ways. The solution is that every business should go through a sort of housecleaning to get to the core of the core of the core.”
Massive Change Coming As We Shift to a Digital Economy
What are the most predictable barriers to sustaining profitable growth for organizations today? Why is it that some companies age prematurely? Why do others continue to grow? As the global economy has shifted from an industrial economy to a digital economy people see massive change coming. Nearly two out of three people believe their main competition in five years will be a different company and have a different business model than it does today.
Right now will be the slowest pace of change that you will experience going forward. Interestingly, it is also the fastest pace of change that you have ever experienced. The major barriers to growth are internal. Your company’s fate is in your hands.
Starbucks Refocused On the Customer Experience
Anybody could open a coffee shop. So how did Starbucks rise above all the rest to create a massively successful business in the coffee shop industry? For years the company’s trajectory looked like a high tech business. Then the founder Howard Schultz left and he turned the running of the business over to a management team. Then to the surprise of many loyalty scores from customers started going down. Same-store sales went down and this, in turn, caused their stock price to go down.
Starbucks founder Howard Schultz needed to come back as CEO to figure out what went wrong and right the ship. Were people simply sick of Starbucks? Actually, Schultz found that the company was inflicting self-inflicted wounds. It wasn’t any single big decision, it was many decisions made inch by inch that were creating the issue. The stores became cookie cutter and cluttered with big aluminum machines that ruined the experience. Customers didn’t love Starbucks anymore. That changed when Schultz focused the company on the customer experience again.
Maintaining the Founder’s Mentality
This is an example of how even successful companies can lose the founders mentality. The founder’s mentality dies when everyone aspires to be in the front office. Strategic problems outside often reveal deeper challenges and root courses of a breakdown inside companies. Businesses should look at the indicators of internal health. The first of those factors is Insurgency. What are we really about? Are we building something for the long term and not quarterly earnings? What is our core? For example, what is the core of Nike? It’s not the sole of the shoe. It’s Nike’s bold mission of uniqueness.
The second element of the founder’s mentality is what we call Frontline Obsession. When leaders move far from the frontline you lose the innovation engine and you lose talent. You also lose experimentation, frontline empowerment, and customers advocacy. Engagement levels are often lowest for those not interacting with customers. Generally, functions further down in the organization have lower engagement. Many companies erode from the frontline up.
The third element of the founder’s mentality is the Owner Mindset. The founder is the owner. They feel that their company is their baby. But as the years go people move to the main office, away from operations and the customer. Sometimes, as with Michael Dell, this prompts the founder to come back to the company.
Michael Dell Restored the Owner’s Mindset
When Michael Dell of Dell Computers noticed that PCs and company owned and managed servers started to not be as powerful as they once were. At one time they ubiquitous with business. Then AWS and the cloud started replacing servers and this impacted Dell’s business model. By this time Michael had left day to day management of Dell. But just like Starbuck’s founder, Dell brought Michael back to restore the owner’s mindset.
Michael Dell made a lot of bold changes including acquiring EMC, which at the time (2015) was the largest deal in tech history. Many people were openly skeptical. However, Michael Dell had a plan to simplify the company. He was actually going through the founder’s mentality playbook.
He really rebuilt the insurgency from scratch. At one point, he notably said that he wanted to make Dell the largest startup in the history of business. Dell is now wildly successful again, having significantly changed its business model while empowering an entrepreneurial spirit once again.
When I came to Lexington, Kentucky to speak today I asked about the early years of Alltech. Alltech’s founder, Dr. Pearse Lyons story is incredible. It is as incredible as Michale Dell’s. Dr. Pierce Lyons was way ahead of his time. He is is the quintessential expeller of these elements of the founder’s mentality.
Every Business Should Get to the Core of the Core of the Core
It is a fact that founder-led companies consistently outperform. A study by Bain showed that founder-run companies performed over 3.1 times more than others in the S&P 500. But organizations are just like humans in their life cycle. Initially, all founders of successful companies went up against established big companies. These companies often don’t immediately notice or care about your small startup. However, they eventually fight back. This forces you to raise capital and grow and become large yourself.
Once your company is no longer small it tends to accumulate bureaucracy and you begin to lose the founder’s mentality. That is the paradox of growth. Growth creates complexity and complexity is the silent killer of profitable growth. Complexity is also the silent killer of our lives in some ways. The solution is that every business should go through a sort of housecleaning to get to the core of the core of the core.
Renewing the Founder’s Mentality
An example of this is LEGO. Over time, LEGO moved away from being a toy company and created other things like theme parks, watches, retail stores, and much more. At one point this diversification almost caused the company to go bankrupt. All of these ventures sucked out their ability to execute the core. Now realize that there are 71 lego bricks for every person on the planet. LEGO as a brand and a toy product is engrained in people. But LEGO had a serious problem to solve.
They decided to go back to their core. They decided to simplify and they turned the company around. It’s a great example of how companies can over complicate things when they go after bright shiny objects.
A question I’m often asked is can you renew the founder’s mentality? One company that did renew it is Domino’s. The company eventually stalled out when they didn’t invest in the next wave of differentiation. An investment company bought Domino’s and they started to make each franchisee like a mini founder. Their stated goal was to create a company of many founders. They also doubled down on technology and delivery. This strategy worked big time. Their trajectory of growth is like a high tech firm now.
Domino’s software engineers and digital ad team have created a unique AI-powered ‘Piedentifier’ to launch it’s Super Bowl week marketing blitz. Domino’s is encouraging people to send in a photo of any pizza, even if you made it yourself, and it’s system will determine what type of pizza it is and give you ten points toward a free pizza in their rewards program.
‘Piedentifier’ launching for Super Bowl week marketing blitz
We’re going to give Piece of the Pie Rewards points for any pizza. Our customers are going to be able to use our great technology to take a picture of any pizza, send it up to us, and earn ten points toward a free Domino’s Pizza. The great thing about this is our team got together and created something called the ‘Piedentifier.’ What it does is it uses your phone to look for what they have referred to as the open-faced expression of crust sauce and cheese. Anything that looks like a pizza and you’re getting ten points.
Today we’ve got more than 20 million active members of our Piece of the Pie Rewards program. We don’t know the exact number of how many customers will come on board with us, but as the leader in the pizza category, we see this as a great opportunity not only to grow the overall pizza category, but also to invite new customers in to download our app and to try our product. We feel that when customers try our product we’ve got the opportunity to bring them back again and again.
This Sunday is a huge day for us. On Super Bowl Sunday, we’re typically up about 40 percent over a normal Sunday. We’ll sell about 2 million pizzas and about four million chicken wings. Each year, it’s the biggest day of the year for us. It tends to not matter which teams are in the game. Certainly in individual cities maybe it does, but broadly across the US it’s a huge day no matter who’s playing.
Average Franchise Makes $140K Per Year EBITDA
Opening up a Domino’s Pizza store is still a terrific return for our franchisees. Across the globe cash on cash returns are better than three years in our business. Just a few weeks ago at our Investor Day, we released again our unit level average for our franchisees in the US. Once again it went up. We’re expecting it to be somewhere between $137,000 and $140,000 a unit in the US on EBITDA on a Domino’s Pizza store that you can open for $350,000.
Driving is Still a Great Opportunity
Driving for Domino’s is a great opportunity because of the volume that we do out of our stores. In a lot of cases, drivers are able to come in and earn a lot more than they can driving for some of these other businesses. As we continue to tighten down our territories through our fortressing program, it’s giving our drivers the opportunity to get more runs per hour. That means more tips per hour and in turn, higher wages.
In addition to a job that earns a decent wage driving at Domino’s is also an opportunity potentially to be a franchisee in the long term. Over 90 percent of our franchisees today started as drivers or started in as CSRs answering our phones in our stores.
Self-Driving Cars Will be Here Someday
Self-driving cars will be here someday. We don’t exactly know what day but we’re working hard to really try to understand how our customer interface with that car when it pulls up to their curb. They’re used to having a uniformed Domino’s pizza delivery expert bring that pizza to the door. So we’re learning. As the technology evolves we’re going to learn how the customer wants to interact with us and we’ll be ready when it does get here.
Domino’s Pizza continues to implement innovative technology to maintain it’s competitive edge in the pizza business. Domino’s ran ads over the summer promoting Hotspots where you could have pizza delivered to over 150,000 locations.
The company has also been on the cutting edge of technology in its use of autonomous vehicles that are actually delivering pizza in Las Vegas. You can watch a video from a customer of a Domino’s driverless car delivering a pizza below. Domino’s is also testing AI natural voice systems in some of its corporate stores and just recently rolled out a voice inventory app.
Ritch Allison, CEO of Domino’s, recently discussed their strategy of innovation and technology with CNBC’s Jim Cramer:
Pizza is a really fragmented category. We’re the market share leader in pizza but we still only sell about one out of every six pizzas in the US. We’re staying focused on our strategy, and our execution and not really on the short-term up and downs of any one particular competitor (such as Papa John’s). If we stay focused on the things that we’ve been doing then we’re going to continue to take share from competitors small and large across the industry.
The Hotspot ads we ran this summer were terrific. It’s just another great way that we’re engaging our customers. A lot of restaurant players and a lot of players in pizza our constant members in the product of the month club and we got out of that club a long time ago and started focusing on things that were interesting and innovative that we could do to engage our customers.
Hotspots is another one of those because it shows our customers we’re so crazy about pizza that we’re going to take their pizza to them any time, any place, they want to get it.
We’re working on a lot of things, autonomous vehicles are certainly one thing that we’ve been working on. We’ve talked about DOM, our artificial intelligence natural voice system. We’re still piloting that in some of our corporate stores. It’s learning, it’s growing, it’s getting better.
We just recently rolled out within our stores a voice inventory app that our team members can use for one of the most unpleasant tasks they have which are at the end of a shift they’ve got to go count the food that we have in the walk-in cooler and this makes that job easier and faster for them well.
The only thing worse than a hangover is a New Year’s Day hangover, but help is now just a screen tap away for Apple Watch owners.
Domino’s Easy Order App for the wearable lets users order a slice of hangover-banishing goodness faster than ever before.
The work depicts Jobs in his trademark black turtleneck jumper carrying an early model of his Apple computer and with a black bin bag slung over his shoulder.
With today’s announcement, SpaceIL is the first of the 16 Lunar X Prize teams to book a ride off the planet. If the mission succeeds, it will be the first Israeli mission — as well as the first private spaceflight mission — to soft-land a vehicle on the lunar surface. Eran Privman, CEO of SpaceIL, claimed the group isn’t focused on the competition, but they are confident they can win. “I promise you once we land on the Moon, we’ll look around and see we are the first,” he said.
Only three nations have ever landed a spacecraft intact on the Moon: the United States, Russia, and China. Many countries have slammed lunar orbiters or probes into the Moon to study its environment, but gently landing a spacecraft is trickier. The Moon is big enough to have a gravitational pull, but it doesn’t have an atmosphere to slow incoming objects. Spacecraft in lunar orbit must fire retro-rockets, very precisely, in the opposite direction of the Moon. That way they can slowly descend without slamming into the rock. It’s a delicate procedure that usually requires a lot of time and money, which is why only government agencies have been able to do it up until now.
A trait carried over from their debut, luckily for us listeners
Egyptian chest, and was moreover intensified by his delirium, that his mates were forced to lace him fast, even there, as he sailed, raving in his hammock. In a strait-jacket, he swung to the mad rockings of the gales. And, when running into more sufferable latitudes, the ship, with mild stun’sails spread, floated across the tranquil tropics, and, to all appearances.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket during launch. (SpaceX)
That it was only then, on the homeward voyage, after the encounter, that the final monomania seized him, seems all but certain from the fact that, at intervals during the passage, he was a raving lunatic; and, though unlimbed of a leg, yet such vital strength yet lurked in his Egyptian chest, and was moreover intensified by his delirium, that his mates were forced to lace him fast, even there, as he sailed, raving in his hammock. In a strait-jacket, he swung to the mad rockings of the gales. And, when running into more sufferable latitudes, the ship, with mild stun’sails spread, floated across the tranquil tropics, and, to all appearances, the old man’s delirium seemed left behind him with the Cape Horn swells.
Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form. Ahab’s full lunacy subsided not, but deepeningly contracted; like the unabated Hudson, when that noble Northman flows narrowly, but unfathomably through the Highland gorge.
Lauren Mayberry’s lyrics touches on elements of heartbreak
God the direful madness was now gone; even then, Ahab, in his hidden self, raved on. Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form. Ahab’s full lunacy subsided not, but deepeningly contracted; like the unabated Hudson, when that noble Northman flows narrowly, but unfathomably through the Highland gorge.
But, as in his narrow-flowing monomania, not one jot of Ahab’s broad madness had been left behind; so in that broad madness, not one jot of his great natural intellect had perished. That before living agent, now became the living instrument. If such a furious trope may stand, his special lunacy stormed his general sanity, and carried it, and turned all its concentred cannon upon its own mad mark. I knew the Indians would soon discover that they were on the wrong trail and that the search for me would be renewed in the right direction as soon as they located my tracks. I had gone but a short distance further when what seemed to be an excellent trail opened up around the face of a high cliff. The trail was level and quite broad and led upward and in the general direction I wished to go. The cliff arose for several hundred feet on my right, and on my left was an equal and nearly perpendicular drop to the bottom of a rocky ravine.
When making your own pizza became too hard, restaurants began making pizza for you. Then, when going to a restaurant to eat pizza became too much of a hassle, delivery joints popped up to bring pizza right to your door.
Soon, calling in a pizza order became way too stressful, so delivery pizza joints began allowing online orders. But of course, that too became too hard so pizza companies built apps. Now, even apps aren’t convenient enough. In America’s quest to make it as brainless as possible to stuff pizza in its face, Domino’s will soon let you order via a tweet.
And that tweet doesn’t even have to contain any actual words.
Starting May 20, Domino’s Pizza will accept the pizza emoji as a desperate call for pizza.
“It’s the epitome of convenience,” Patrick Doyle, CEO at Domino’s, told USA Today. “We’ve got this down to a five-second exchange.”
All you’ll have to do is set up an “Easy Order” on your Domino’s profile. Once you’ve crafted your go-to pie, all you have to do is tweet the pizza emoji @Dominos.
I don’t really know what to say. I’m both saddened and impressed. It’s basically the same feeling I get after eating an entire delivery pizza.
According to ITNews, a hacker group known as Rex Mundi had attempted to blackmail the Domino’s Pizza operations in France and Belgium with the release the account information of hundreds of thousands of customers.
Allegedly they had the account information from 592,000 French customers and 68,000 Belgian customers.
The customer information being held for ransom by the group includes the person’s name and address along with their telephone number, email address, and account password.
Domino’s French Twitter account admitted that it was likely the hackers had the information and that a breach had occurred.
The group was referred to as “seasoned professionals”. Even though the information was encrypted, Domino’s believes Rex Mundi probably had the ability to decode the information, passwords included.
Rex Mundi’s own Twitter account has since been suspended.
Hackers Stole Your Domino’s Pizza Ordering Info, So Hope You Don’t Order Embarrassing Toppings http://t.co/PcsRXmPZp7
— Web Security News (@WebSecurityNews) June 17, 2014
A spokesman for Domino’s tried to allay their customers’ fears by confirming that no banking or financial information was accessed by the hackers. That is because Domino’s does not hold on to payment information. Due to the way customer data is stored, names, phone numbers, and email addresses are the most vulnerable to hackers.
Despite the ensuing headache, Domino’s Pizza have opted not to give into the blackmail attempt. Instead the company alerted the French authorities.
Not sure why $41,000 is the magic number, but hackers are attempting to blackmail Domino's over stolen data: http://t.co/LTyq2dPsDb
Domino’s Pizza is the latest company targeted by Rex Mundi. The group previously released thousands of customer loan records after Americash Advance refused to pay them $15,000. They also attempted to blackmail a Belgian hosting firm named Alfanet.
Though Domino’s has confirmed that it’s likely these individuals were able to get the information they hold, it’s not known how many customer account details Rex Mundi will release since they are unlikely to get their money.
Ever get sick of the same old food? And do you get disappointed with all the main pizza joints promising cheesy slices of pie, overflowing with toppings and out-of-this-world flavor only to eat a piece of bland dough and sauce? Well, our friends over at Yahoo decided to dig deeper into the sciences of pizza and figure out which brand is true to it’s ads, ultimately crowning the most delicious pizza place around.
The four pizza brands that went under the taste-bud-test included Pizza HutDomino’s, Papa John’s, and Little Caesars.
Fourth Place-Papa John’s. The majority of the za-judgers claimed the pie looked the absolute best in the box, however they were disappointed by the sweet sauce and lack of cheese. “Tastes like the dough mostly. Needs a heavier hand with the cheese,” said a taste-taster.
Third Place-Little Caesars. According to the tasters, the pizza didn’t win because of the lack of freshness the thin pie had to offer. The biggest complaint was the pizza’s similarity to frozen pizza. “Very processed look and flavorless dough, tastes very pre-fab,” said one judge.
Second Place-Pizza Hut. Apparently the sauce was a little too sweet and the doughy crust overwhelmed tasters. “The crust is quite puffy and fluffy, not for a crisp crust lover.” However, the abundance of gooey cheese and a healthy helping of pepperoni helped make up for some of this pie’s shortcomings.
First Place-Domino’s. This delicious pizza won the prize of best pie because of it’s perfect crust, the sauce and spicy pepperoni. “The crispy crust is a nice touch, it has a little chewiness like real pizza,” said one judge.
So there you have it folks, the pizza of the pizzas.
With all of the recent protests about low wages in fast food joints, this has to be the icing on the cake. Dominoes pizza delivery workers make under $6 an hour and rely on tips to meet minimum wage. New York has a minimum wage of $7.25. $6 bucks an hour comes out to about $240 for a 40-hour week.
Because of this low wage, the employees of a Washington Heights, N.Y. Domino’s walked off their jobs, in unity with the country’s underpaid fast food workers who have been striking all over the nation, which included a significant amount of workers in New York City.
After the walkout, delivery workers were asked to work extended hours inside the restaurant but were not offered an increased hourly pay for their time inside the store. After bringing the issue to management’s attention, the 24 employees were fired.
After a nationwide walk-out on Thurs, dominoes on 181st fired those who stood up for themselves and their families. @FastFoodForward@nychange
After the firing, Assembly Member Gabriela Rosa and Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez joined a group of vocal activists in a rally outside the uptown chain, demanding that Domino’s rehire the unjustly terminated employees. “Having all these workers fired, not able to bring the food to their families, in part of a season when we are supposed to be able to give thanks and share with others, is really outrageous,” said Rosa
“This community stands committed to fighting for the rights of workers, particularly low wage workers who face harassment and unjust labor practices,” said Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Northern Manhattan). “This will not end until these workers’ jobs are restored and their rights respected. Nor will we stop fighting along with the hundreds of thousands around the country dedicated to improving their lives with higher wages and the right to unionize. Too many face the grueling struggle of providing for a family on minuscule pay. Workers have spoken and the time for change is now.”
And further – “Domino’s treatment of these workers has been unjust, unethical, and utterly shameless,” said Senator Adriano Espaillat (D-Upper Manhattan/Bronx). “These workers deserve justice for the harassment and exploitation they have faced, and our neighborhood is going to fight for them until that’s achieved. If we allow these workers’ rights to be violated, then all workers’ rights are imperiled. These low-wage employees have families to take care of – we’re not going to let Domino’s leave them out in the cold this holiday season.
It is very likely that after the city officials spoke, Domino’s decided to reinstate the workers jobs.
From the Daily Kos: The 25 Manhattan Domino’s workers who lost their jobs after protesting being forced to work below minimum wage will be back on the job this weekend, thanks to an agreement with New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Jose Sanchez, one of the reinstated Domino’s employees, said, “We are overjoyed by the Attorney General’s fight on our behalf, and are excited to be able to return to work at a legal wage. This was never just about us alone — it was about the 84% of NYC fast-food workers who, like us, are victims of wage theft in our city. My fellow employees and I were so moved by the solidarity and support we received from this community. As we keep up our push for $15/hour and the right to form a union, we know the community has our back.”
The workers will continue to fight for a pay raise. According to data from the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy organization, Domino’s Pizza workers often can’t survive on their wages alone and are forced to sign up for various public assistance programs.
Every kid enjoys watching dominos topple one another and serpentine their way across a room. As I child I would spend upwards of an hour setting up elaborate patterns and then watch in wonder as it all collapsed together in a few a brief moments.
Most people probably have similar memories about the childhood staple, but what one German group recently accomplished was far from child’s play.
Sinners Domino Entertainment broke the world record for most dominos toppled in a spiral with a final count of 55,555. No spiral had ever successfully seen all dominos fall, but not such trouble occurred for the team.
The feat came at the beginning of a much larger display entitled ‘Enjoy Your Life’, which used over 300,000 of the little tiles. The display took the team of 12 eight days to set up and featured sections that payed homage to enjoyable aspects of life such as sports, travel, and celebrations.
The team can add the spiral record to their already prestigious list of domino-related accomplishments which also includes most dominos toppled by a group, most dominos toppled by an individual, largest domino mosaic, and most dominos toppled in a 3D pyramind, a trick which adds a nice visual flair to the ‘Enjoy Your Life’ display.
Domino’s is pretty far out there as far as marketing goes, and that’s what makes the chain so cool. It was one of the first to really embrace online ordering, and now it’s starting to embrace alternative forms of delivery.
NBC News reports that Domino’s and creative agency T + Biscuits recently performed a pizza delivery run via drone. The drone is dubbed the “DomiCopter” and it may one day change pizza delivery. In the test below, the drone traveled four miles in 10 minutes.
Something like this wouldn’t fly in the U.S., but it’s legal in the UK as long as the drone is no more than 126 meters off the ground. The only legal hurdle was that the company had to get permission to fly over the land you see in the video.
This isn’t the first time pizza has been delivered via drone as a German university students pulled the same stunt last year. Pizza isn’t the only food to be delivered via drone either as TacoCopter captured the nation’s imagination last year when a student tested the idea of delivered tacos via drones to hungry customers in the Bay Area.
Unfortunately for all of the above, air space regulations make the wide use of drone based delivery almost impossible. Drones are still a very new technology, and the regulations in place don’t play very nice with them. It will still be a while before we look to the sky, instead of our driveway, for our next pizza delivery.
Domino’s is no stranger to odd and bizarre marketing stunts. It’s latest – a DVD that smells like a pizza – may be one of its strangest (and most brilliant) yet.
Creativity Online reports that Domino’s Brazil has teamed up with ten video retal stores in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to cover popular DVDs with a thermal ink that lets off a pizza smell when heated. When the movie was over, the heated DVD would give off a pizza smell to the consumer. It was also painted to look like a pizza with the message, “Did you enjoy the movie? The next one will be even better with a hot and delicious Domino’s Pizza.”
I have to admit – it’s a pretty brilliant marketing strategy. It’s especially effective in countries like Brazil where streaming services have yet to really take off. Most consumers have to rely on DVD rental stores to check out the latest movies. Making the DVD smell like pizza would definitely make me hungry, and it just might work on hungry Brazilians as well.
Got a hankering for a large extra cheese pizza but you can’t be bothered to navigate away from your Facebook newsfeed? Dominos is currently working on a solution to this distressing problem. The company recently rolled out an application in New Zealand and Australia that will allow social networking junkies to order food through the Dominos Facebook page. In addition to coming with the famous Dominos Tracker — a handy little feature that allows you to track the pizza-making process — the app also connects with Open Graph, allowing you to share your purchase with all of yours friends.
Presently, the service is only available to residents of New Zealand and Australia. Dominos has yet to confirm whether or not the application will be integrated into the American edition of their Facebook page. However, given that nearly 6.6 million people are fans of the restaurant, I’d say it’s only a matter of time before the service is repackaged for consumption here in the States.
Dominos isn’t the only pizza joint to try their hand at allowing users to order food through Facebook. Pizza Hut debuted their own app a while back, though it wasn’t exactly well received. Dominos’ online ordering system is very clean, well-designed, and incredibly easy to use, so unless something goes haywire in the porting process, it should translate very well into an app. Unfortunately, this service isn’t available to those who are using Facebook on their smartphones.
“Our Facebook ordering gives pizza lovers the chance to order from their local store quickly, ‘like’ their favourite pizzas and share both experiences with their friends on Facebook easily – all without leaving the social media environment,” Domino’s Online Marketing Director Michael Gillespie explained.
Considering you can order a Dominos pizza using the company’s website or — heaven forbid — over the phone, is this a waste of everyone’s time and energy? Would you use the Facebook app to order food? Let us know what you think of this service in our comments section.
Domino’s Pizza, the pizza delivery expert, has teamed up with PlayStation to appear in the new MotorStorm: RC game with a Domino’s branded car. MotorStorm: RC, which was launched last week, is the latest version of the classic arcade game. A Domino’s car is among the range of radio controlled vehicles which players can race across dusty deserts, dense jungles, icy terrains and post-apocalyptic cities. Domino’s car can be downloaded and raced on both the brand new PlayStation Vita format and PlayStation3, as well as being available free on the PlayStation Network store.
With its car in Motorstorm: RC, Domino’s is seeking to capitalise on the social aspect of gaming while introducing branded objects that add value to players in game. Nick Dutch, multimedia manager at Domino’s Pizza, said: “We’ve had great success with our in-game activity to date and we are keen to continue reaching our core target audience in innovative ways. We loved the idea of giving PlayStation3 fans a free car to race in Motorstorm: RC and the launch of the much anticipated PlayStation Vita was an ideal to platform to make this happen. Our car is a smart-looking, mini mean machine and we’re looking forward to seeing how it fares on the MotorStorm: RC track.”
Motorstorm: RC is the 5th Motorstorm game across 2 platforms. Previous titles include Motorstorm, Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, Motorstorm: Pacific Rim, and Motorstorm: Apocalypse.
Motorstorm: RC is set for release on the PS3 and PSN on March 6th
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