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CHAIN -- Domino's
Pizza Somebody once e-mailed me complaining about how many different food places I have featured on my site, yet don't have the mother of all pizza delivery chains, which he claimed was a "major oversight". He then went on to complain about the lack of Donato's as well. He was right about Domino's. I haven't had a Domino's pie in years, and it never even occured to me to write them up. Honestly, I don't know why I include pizza chains on this site at all. There's far too many regional chains to keep up with, and unless you do a lunch buffet, I probably don't bother with you anyway. It's either Papa Murphy's or a frozen pizza at home anymore. It wasn't always this way, of course. My very first Domino's experience came in my high school senior year on a band trip. We'd competed in a big high school jazz band competition, then played in the center court of the Seattle Center mall for stray shoppers and mall walkers. It was while staying in Seattle that I called Domino's and had a pie delivered to my motel room. The concept of a pizza delivery in 30 minutes was mythical. In the remote berg my family tragically called home, there were two local pizza joints that you'd be lucky to see delivery from in 90 minutes, let alone an hour. So I call. Ten minutes later they call me back and say "We accidentally baked you a medium when you ordered a large, so we're making a large and we're going to deliver you both for the same price." So I ultimately didn't see the pizza in 30 minutes, but more like 40. But there they were...the two promised pies. My roomates and I donated the spare pie to one of the other rooms and enjoyed what was a perfectly good pizza delivered faster than any we'd seen before. A couple of years later, I escaped the island and ended up living in an apartment directly behind a Domino's. They almost never had to deliver to me. I'd just walk over there, order, walk to the Mini Mart and get a big drink, pick up the pie on the way back, and walk home. Even if I was feeling lazy, I still had to walk over to order...I didn't have a phone. Yes, I did occasionally go over, order, tell them to deliver it, and go home. Ah, youth. Domino's was founded in 1960 when two brothers bought the existing Dominick's Pizza in Ypsilanti, MI. Tom and James Monaghan were partners only briefly. James traded Tom his share of the business for the VW they used to make deliveries. Tom changed the name to Domino's at the suggestion of an employee, partly because the former owner didn't want Monaghan to keep using his name. A sugar company using the Domino brand sued, but apparently the two sides settled. Monaghan had an empire of three stores doing a huge business (the other two stores being near the state's two major universities). He got the franchising bug in the late 1960's and had close to 50 stores going, but inexperience and a lack of support resulted in store closures, lawsuits, and a financial crisis for a time. All of this was overcome, and Domino's took off again. Monaghan sold the company in 1999. Domino's built its business as a delivery chain when nobody else was doing pizza delivery, let alone building their business model around it. The trademark of Domino's was delivery in 30 minutes or less. If they didn't make it, your pizza was free. This was later reduced to some money off the order, and ultimately eliminated after bad press relating to a lawsuit over a driver who struck a woman while running a red light. The pizza is typically available in original hand-tossed (for years, the only option) and thin crust. There's a deep dish and a "Brooklyn-style" as well these days. There's two sizes, a 12" and 14" (there used to be a 16", but pretty much everybody was downsizing coming out of the eighties). There's breadsticks and buffalo wings too. And you can get soda in plastic bottles delivered too if you didn't think to stock your fridge previously. It's not the best pizza in the world, but it's not the most pedestrian pizza either. Your mileage may vary depending on the local franchisee. Most Domino's customers have never visited a store. You CAN do so, but plan on taking the pizza to go. With very rare exceptions, Domino's doesn't have dining rooms. There's just enough space to walk in and look at a spartan menu board. Nearly every pizza chain today does delivery too, which has hurt Domino's. But they're still a significant player in the industry, and that's not likely to change anytime soon. Click here to return to tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption |
