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tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption
CHAIN -- Little
Caesar's 3-Apr-2003 at Little Caesar's in Clearfield, UT. I haven't been to a Little Caesar's in years because they pulled out of my market and a lot of others. I'm half-surprised to actually find an operating one. I soon get a reminder as to why so many have closed. I go inside and look over the menu board while customers ahead of me are getting their pies. The big special is a "Large one-topping pizza, $5.00 everyday". The menu otherwise is sparse. There are more blank spaces on the board than not. But one thing they DO have are the Little Caesar's Pleasers combo pizzas. So I order a 12-inch meat Pleaser, my favorite Little Caesar's pizza of all time. "We're only doing the 14-inch pizzas now. You can have two 14-inch one-topping pizzas for $10, which would be cheaper". Uh, what?!? Considering the "$2 for $10" she's referring to are single-topping pizzas that have nothing to do with the Pleasers, I am pretty well dumbfounded by what I've just heard. So I ask her to repeat that. She does. Same thing. Bottom line…Even though it's clearly on the menu board, I can't have it. So I just say "Fine". She says "Do you want two then?" "One," I say. She gets a look like she's disappointed by this. I don't care. "What topping would you like?" "Pepperoni". "$5.38". Now let me put this into perspective for you. She had the opportunity to make a $10.99 sale, and she DOWN-sold me to a $5.00 sale. She didn't even offer to sell me the 14-inch Pleaser…assuming THAT was available…either for the regular price or for the 12-inch price, which would still have netted her more than double the money she got out of me for not much more in product cost since they were so insistent on not selling the 12-inchers. This was absolutely ridiculous. Little Caesars is a former powerhouse in the pizza business known for their deep discounting in the form of two pizzas for the price of one at other chains ("pizza pizza"). They had one of the more entertaining advertising campaigns in the business. The chain was started in 1959 in a Detroit suburb by minor league baseball player Mike Ilitch and is still privately held. Ilitch used his pizza fortunes to remain involved in sports…he owns the Detroit Tigers, as well as the NHL's Detroit Red Wings. The chain grew to around 5,000 units by the mid-1990's, then something went wrong. Some stores closed with "Closed for Remodeling" signs but never reopened. Whole markets were abandoned. Today, Little Caesar's claims to have the downward spiral reversed (notwithstanding the K-Mart "pizza station" outlets, which is out of Little Caesar's control). They're privately held and don't talk much, so it's hard to tell exactly what went wrong in the first place or what is so supposedly right now. Whatever the store count is, Little Caesar's claims in their press releases to be "the largest carry-out chain internationally with restaurants on five continents". The pizza is a thick crust with a breadstick-like texture and just a hint of a garlic-like taste. I especially like their sauce which is tangy and sweet. Toppings are extremely skimpy. But the balance is good, so it's fine for what it is…a cheap pizza. Click here to return to tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption |
