June 3, 2026 • 58 mins
This international quick-service restaurant chain is the largest purveyor of pizza in the world. Anney and Lauren toss together the tech-driven science and history behind Domino's.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I'm Annie Reason and I'm Lauren vogel Baum, and today
we have an episode for you about Domino's.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yes, like the pizza chain. Yes. Uh and not a
sponsor Nope. But wow, what an episode. So many side
quests I had to chop off the tree. Yeah. One
at a certain point.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I mean, like like in our Pizza Huad episode, there's
a certain point where you're like, well, there's more to
read about, and I can't keep doing this forever. I
have I have to stop, like I have to feed
myself and sleep.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
At some point.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yes, perhaps do other activities yeah, mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Well was there any particular reason this was this was
on your mind? Lord?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
This is one of the ones that has been on
the list for a long time, especially after we did
the Pizza Huad episode and realized how completely ridiculous these
companies really are. So yeah, I just wanted to wanted
to squeak it in here.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yes, And it was my favorite fast delivery pizza in
college and doing this research, I have to say I
was in college around the time a lot of the
innovations Domino's had were happening. So it was fun to
read back over this research and be like, oh, yes,
I did really love that pizza track. Or I would
(01:38):
be like, ah, this is the stage my pizza is in.
Uh huh uh huh. Yes, and it was when they
changed the recipe. But we'll talk about all of that
more in the history section.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, and they are my favorite fast food
pizza as well. This was a surprisingly craving heavy day. Yeah,
because it's not it's not a category it is, it is,
it is. It's not a category that I like indulge
in very often. But yeah, I was like, oh man,
(02:11):
oh man, I want that kind of mediocre pizza.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yes, yes, yes, And I was remembering me and my
college roommate. We used to order two mediums because I
believe it was cheaper somehow we perceived it to be
cheaper somehow. We would eat both of them in one night.
And that's just such a difference from now. That was
(02:38):
like such a college anything I could not accomplish anymore.
But we would get two pizzas I think every Friday night,
well that we didn't have somewhere else to be and
devour them. Delightful. What a nice time we recognize the
names the people on the pizza treck are really today
(02:59):
all right? Oh my goodness. Yeah, yes, So past episodes
we have done pizza delivery and takeout. I think we
mentioned Dominoes in that one, probably, yeah, yes, and then
pizza hut right, so I'm glad to hear we have
actually done. I put a lot of question marks after it,
(03:21):
but I was pretty sure we did. Definitely excellent news,
all right, So I guess that brings us to our
question Dominoes. What is it?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, Dominoes is a huge international fast food pizza takeout
slash delivery chain. They serve foods like pizzas, breadsticks, pastas,
and salads, all in a quick service style, so there's
a lot of preparation on the back end, and in
order to get their foods out quickly, they have corporate
(03:59):
recipes and suppliers to standardize their products and keep costs
to the customer low.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
In the United States, I think.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
They're exclusively carry out shops uh with no customer seeding
to cut down on overhead. As well, they deal heavily
in online ordering and delivery coordination, like to the point
that the not joking joke told by Dominoes itself is
that really they're they're a tech company that happens to
(04:27):
make its money selling pizzas. Of sensibly, we're a food show.
Their foods are just fine. Uh you know they're they're
They're designed to be pleasing and craveable. You know, there's
saltiness in the cheese and the toppings, and sweetness from
the sauce and the dough, and like tanginess and savoriness
from the toppings and the sauce, richness from the cheese.
(04:47):
It's made to hit all of your senses and like
keep you entertained while you are eating it. Dominoes is
like a glimpse into the incredible future where our robot
overlords want to keep us fed and happy.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yes, they've developed the technology to do so. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Okay, but but let's let's run through the menu. The
menu here in the US currently includes, Yes, pizzas, you've
got your choice of crust, hand tossed crust, pan pizza type, crust,
crunchy thin crust, New York style, which is floppy thin crust,
Parmesan stuffed crust, or gluten free. Their standard cheese is
(05:41):
a combo of provolone mozzarella and other love that the
mozzarella is not technically mozzarella. It is and I quote
cheese made with one hundred percent real mozzarella, and I'm
not entirely sure what that means. At any rate, You've
(06:03):
got your choice of sauce, tomato, honey, barbecue, garlic, palm alfretto,
or ranch. Yes, you can just put ranch on the
whole pizza. Your choice of toppings, including proteins like ham, beef, pepperoni,
Italian sausage, bacon, philly steak, chicken or anchovies, vegetables like
sliced heli, panos, onions, banana peppers, olives, mushrooms or green peppers, spinach,
(06:28):
diced tomato or pineapple, and then other and or like
additional cheeses like shredded parmesan, aciago or a cheddar blend
or feta. If that is too many potentials for you,
never fear. They do have several like pre set combinations
in the form of their specialty pizzas, including the meatza
(06:52):
with those first four meats I mentioned, and then a
bunch of like regionally based combos is apparently what's right now,
like Honolulu Hawaiian with ham, bacon, pineapple and peppers, Philly
Cheese steak with steak, onions, peppers and mushrooms, Pacific veggie
with spinach, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, olives, and fetta, and Memphis
barbecue with chicken, honey, barbecue, sauce, onions and cheddar. They've
(07:17):
also got you could call them sides or other entrees.
I don't know, it depends on what you're up to.
I guess they've got chicken wings or tenders, which are
breaded and baked plain or with sauces. Or you can
get the tenders like chopped up and topped with cheese
and stuff. They also do tater tots topped with cheese
and stuff. You can also get baked mac and cheese
(07:39):
or a baked Alfredo pasta with optional sliced chicken. They
also have oven baked substyle sandwiches and then like salads
in garden or Caesar varieties, and cheesy bread which is
like an extra small oblong pizza with no sauce, and
bite sized breadsticks in garlic or palm or sweet cinnamon flavors.
(08:03):
Other dessert options include brownies and lava cakes. Chocolate lava
cakes you can also get any of their sauces, plus
things like a buffalo sauce or blue cheese dressing, and
like a cup for dipping and soft drinks from Coca Cola.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
I have to admit I do have some cravings. I
wasn't expecting. Yeah, I so hard.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
It's real, it's real. Those mini breadsticks are so good.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I don't know. I'm just like yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I mean, of course, like bread is good, like dough
is amazing, But I don't know how they're so good.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yes, And I told you, I have a friend who
loves the chocolate lava cake. And I would see the
look on her face when she would get it, and
it was just pure joy about what she was about
to eat. Oh my goodness. So happy for her.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I don't think kind of her ordered those, but happy
for her. And I do think like it is really
tickling me right now that the chocolate lava cake, like
the late eighties to early nineties it dessert of like
kind of high end restaurants, has become a thing that
you can order from Domino's.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yes, beautiful, Oh heck, okay.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
All of this is just in the United States, though
other markets have different toppings and products available. I read
about a Durian and Laichi pizza in China that also
has a stuffed crust, a spicy plantain pizza in Nigeria,
and asparagus and kim embert pizza in Japan. Toppings like cream,
(09:42):
cheese and dates in Iceland, donaor kabab pizza in Norway,
Penniartica pizza in the UAE, and a bunch of different countries.
Corn chips or like boiled corn in general are like
pretty popular toppings, and not just for dominoes, Like, that's
a pretty common thing for American style pizzas outside the US,
(10:06):
I guess because they associate like people associate corn with
the United States, so they're like, oh, yeah, sure, probably
that's what goes on there.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I've always enjoyed that. I've been like, I've never had
this before, and I love that it's Yeah, the US
style pizza literally would not occur to us, but sure, no,
I legitimately am like, okay, which again, listeners, please write
in my goodness, yes, yes, we still we haven't done.
We never did our stuffed crust around the world.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, yeah, there's definitely. Oh I don't remember where I
saw this on a menu. I looked at a lot
of different Dominoes menus today and somewhere they had a
it was called like a volcano pizza because it has
like built into the center of the crust is like
(11:00):
a little dipping bowl with melted cheese in it. All right,
and you like pull apart the entire thing and like,
I don't know, I like dip the pizza that you're
eating in the center of the pizza. I seems amazing,
seems honestly terrific.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I'm on board, Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
These restaurants are operated or franchised out by the Domino's
Company in the United States and by several franchise groups internationally,
and as a large company that owns and franchises hundreds
and thousands of stores. They're they're not just a pizza company,
(11:43):
right Like, they're in manufacturing, they're in supply chain, they're
in cold logistics, they're in real estate.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
They do also partner with schools to deliver fresh cooked
pizzas in line with National School Lunch Program requirements, including
ingredients with whole eat, reduced sodium, and reduced fat. As
with many large companies that are publicly traded, they do
believe that climate change is real. Doing episodes about these
corporations always cracks me up given the current political climate,
(12:14):
because like politics is like, no, that's ridiculous, and every
single company is like, we love talking about what we're
doing to combat climate change.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Please invest in us there.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
But you know, it's it's on the good side. They
seem to be using their massive footprint and massive data
banks to really nudge their net emissions lower across like
foods and other goods and utilities and aforementioned logistics. They
patented their online pizza tracker that is Domino's Tracker, reserved
US patent number one zero two six two eight, which
(12:53):
lets you check in on your order throughout the cooking
and delivery process. They have a wedding registry. It's just
like e gift cards and varying amounts. Okay, I love
that they I love that they did it, you know beautiful.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Oh yeah, and yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
On on their corporate page about like company purpose and values,
their headline is feed the power of Possible, one pizza
at a time.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Very intense.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, that's how I feel. I feel like that's the
voice that they want it to be perceived in.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Well, yeah, I think so. And they nailed it. Yeah, yeah,
well what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Do not eat international corporations even if you could, they
would probably give you a terrible indigestion.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yes, especially with their mascot, their past mascot, which we
will be talking about. Oh my goodness, we will. Yes,
we have some numbers for you. We do, we certainly
can do. Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So, Dominoes is the largest pizza retailer in the world
by revenue. As of twenty twenty. Harvard Business School called
Dominoes the world's leading international fast food retailer in general.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Not I didn't I didn't check their work, but yeah, certainly.
They run some twenty two thousand stores in over ninety country.
About sixty eight percent of that business is outside the US. Globally,
(14:54):
they deliver over one point five million pizzas every day,
or over one million I read. I read a couple
different numbers in a couple different places. Either way, it's
about a billion pizzas a year.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
A billion pieces.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I don't know, man, Yeah, yep. Across North America. They
have a supply chain of thirty like dough manufacturing and
food distribution centers which supply two hundred different products to
the seven than two hundred stores in the United States.
(15:36):
Their aforementioned pizza tracker has tracked over two point five
billion orders since two thousand and eight. Total revenue in
the US as of twenty twenty five was four point
nine billion dollars, and as of twenty twenty one, they
(15:56):
were doing fourteen billion dollars in global sale every year.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah, so a big deal. Yeah, that is a.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Scale of pizza that I don't It doesn't mean anything
to me anymore.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I'm like, oh, okay, how am I meant to comprehend? No,
I don't think we are. Well, there are other things
we're not meant to comprehend. In my opinion, in this.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Story, Annie is so upset about the noid. I can't
wait to get into it.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Oh heck.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
But yes, before we get into the history including that,
we are going to take a quick break to get
into a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
And we're back. Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you. Okay, So,
as we've been kind of alluding to here, what I
want to say at the outset of this is what
I person find the most fascinating about Dominoes is that
they were, and arguably are at the forefront of a
lot of innovations in the fast food pizza industry and
(17:11):
delivery in general. Yeah. Yes, And a lot of those
innovations are tech related, some more surprising than others. Some
we won't be mentioning because they've really got involved in
a lot of stuff. Yep, yep, yep, yep yep. Also,
there is a lot of myth building around how Dominoes
came to be and the longtime owner. He has a
(17:35):
personal history that I There are a lot of stories
I wanted to include, but eventually again had to be like,
this is a food show. But he was an interesting character,
so if you want to look up what he got
up to, you can. But the popular story goes that
in nineteen sixty in ipsil Ante, Michigan, a postman by
the name of Jim Monaghan Armanaghan, but I think it's
(17:59):
Manahan saw a pizza takeout store called Dominick's Capital Inn
and Nix Pizza for sale, which was named after owner
Dominic Devardi. Jim approached his brother Tom, who was an entrepreneur,
about the opportunity, and the pair purchased the store, in part,
relying on Jim's credit Union to make the payment. Dominic
(18:22):
even threw in an abbreviated pizza making class in the deal.
I think it was like fifteen minutes, but he still
was like, here's the basics. Good luck, good luck, all
the best. Tom and Jim's dad died when they were young,
and they were briefly placed in foster care while their
mother figured things out. Allegedly to help the family. Tom
(18:46):
started selling produce at a young age and that helped
him build a foundation of food knowledge, so he was
kind of coming from that space. At the outset. The
intention was for the brothers to split the fifty to fifty. However,
with Jim's job as a postman, it just wasn't tenable,
(19:06):
and within eight months something had to change. To buy
his brother out, Tom gave him the used Volkswagen Beetle
that had been serving as their delivery vehicle. Okay, yeah, hey,
all right yeah. Tom continued to grow the business, opening
(19:27):
two more locations in the early sixties, though all under
different names. Soon though, Tom decided that it would be
smart for marketing and growth to come up with a
unified name like Join Forces. So Tom asked his employees
to brainstorm, and the story goes that a pizza delivery
driver named Jim Kennedy came up with the winner, Domino's Pizza.
(19:52):
I love how often this is It's like a contest. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It was a name that didn't require too much when
it came to changing the logo, and it wasn't too
far off from the original name of domin Nicks, the
original location. The three dots on the logo the Domino
represented the three original locations. Yes, despite the consolidation of
(20:17):
the stores under one name, the first three struggled in
their early days. A lot of their mainstay customers were
college students. The original location was in a college town,
so the company decided to focus their energy on appealing
to these college students. This entailed a few steps. Firstly,
(20:38):
everything that wasn't pizza was pretty much cut from the menu,
and the pizzas only came in two sizes and only
one crust style. Not only that, but the focus honed
in on how to deliver hot pizza quickly. Through this,
the company came up with a foldable cardboard pizza box
(21:00):
that could withstand the weight of other pizza boxes on
top of it, and also had enough room in size
that the cheese and toppings didn't stick to the top.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, apparently that was them. Like we have pizza boxes
today because of Dominoes. Yes, not saying no one else
would have figured it out, just saying tech innovation.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
I'm telling you. The Amstar Corporation kind of side quest here.
The owner of Domino Sugar sued Dominoes in nineteen seventy one.
Domino Sugar, the brand, had been around since nineteen oh one.
Amstar sent a letter to Dominoes pushing them to change
their name, but Dominoes did not back down. Did not respond.
(21:41):
The US Patent Office granted trademark protection for the name
Domino's Pizza soon after that an Amstar. They kept pursuing this,
suing Dominoes in nineteen seventy five over trademark infringement. In
nineteen eighty, the US Court of Appeals for the Circuit
decreed that both entities could keep operating under the same name,
(22:05):
so essentially Domino's Pizza one yeah, yeah yeah. One of
the things Dominoes did to differentiate itself from its competitors
was with the thirty minute or less guarantee, first introduced
in nineteen seventy nine. The idea was on its face
simple the pizza would arrive in thirty minutes or less,
(22:28):
or it was free. This went on to be a
hugely influential campaign. It's been embedded in pop culture with
the help of things like the nineteen ninety film Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was appeared in things recently too,
though I was thinking about it. Some examples still around.
(22:49):
Thirty minutes or less became a whole thing over the years,
and after a few incidents, the guarantee evolved to a
three dollars refund if the pizza was late, and they
changed their sloganto you got thirty minutes in two thousand
and seven, so the guarantee was kind of removed. It
was just like, ooh, yeah, hopefully it'll get there. If
(23:11):
it doesn't, here's your three dollars. There was a lawsuit.
I think there was a couple of lawsuits, but there
was a big one where the person suing Dominoes won
and there was pressure from the AFLCIO. They claimed that
over three hundred Dominoes delivery drivers were involved in accidents
(23:31):
due to this campaign.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yes, yeah, yeah, always safety first, always, safety first, your pizza.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Your pizza can wait another four minutes. It really can,
It really really can. In nineteen eighty three, the one
thousandth store domino Store opened in the US. That same year,
they went international, opening stores in Canada and Australia. The
number of locations ballooned to over five thousand. As the
(24:05):
eighties came to a close. The international locations struggled to
find their footing. At first, though, Yes, but they were
not stopping, no, sir. Now, well, this brings us to
what I feared all along. So something else Domino's did.
(24:29):
They were pioneers in the fast food pizza mascot game
in a couple of ways. I won't give them this.
In the eighties, they hired an advertising company to help
them stand out, and stand out they did when ad
agency Group two four to three came up with something
(24:50):
that I'm going to say is difficult to describe. Lauren,
you can jump in here. Here's my attempt. I think
you've got yeah, yeah, I'll add if I need to. Okay,
here's my It's like a rabbit eared grimlin with red
spandex that has a letter in on it inside of
white circle and just wild eyes. And his whole goal
(25:15):
was chaos and stopping your Domino's pizza from arriving.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, dude in red spandex suit with like, right,
like kind of weird bunny ears looks looks a lot
like I don't know, like a character from the Tick
kind of like he does. Yeah, or you know, like
like that kind of genre of like satire adventure shows,
you know, like Adventure Brothers, that kind of thing. Yeah,
(25:44):
and Thenoid was presented in clamation, which really didn't make
it look less weird.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yes, correct, correct, Yeah, I'm also thenoid the name in general. Anyway,
Dominos came up with this slogan that their pizza Wasnoyd
Proof Survivenoid and get to you. Yeahause other pizza would
(26:15):
not right avoid the Nooid, as I said, Despite his
unsettling appearance in my opinion, a line of merchandise and
two video games about his character launched in nineteen eighty six,
hold where I think they were kind of pioneering. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, at least one of the video games was called
Yo Noid, which is just so late eighties early nineties.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
The entire thing.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Is really just a like era appropriate fever dream like
something born out of only that period of time could
really give you.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yes, greed. Yep.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I have truly neutral feelings about Thenoid, as I was
telling Annie before, but I understand that this agent of
pizza chaos.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Could be upsetting. He instills feared within for me anyway,
And I really don't mean to make light of this
at all, but that is an unfortunate zegue. Oh gosh, yeah,
oh yeah, Okay, and to what we're talking about. Yes,
(27:33):
In nineteen eighty nine, a twenty two year old man
engaged in a standoff with police after taking two employees
hostage at an Atlanta area Dominoes with demands that included
a car, pizza, and a lot of money. Five hours
passed before the police managed to arrest the man, who
turned out to be someone with paranoid schizophrenia with the
(27:55):
last name Nooid, and he believed that the Nooid ads
were taunting him.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah. Really really tragic incident. I didn't realize until we
were doing this reading that that was here in Atlanta.
At the time, I did not Atlanta wasn't really on
my radar because I didn't love here. But yeah, I'm
pretty sure that this incident is why the Noid was retired.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I believe so. So they retired the campaign after this,
I think, and they brought it back briefly in the
two thousands, but yeah, yeah, the noid is sort of
a figment of this fever dream. Yes, Domino started expanding
(28:41):
re expanding because they used to offer these things before,
some of them in nineteen eighty nine, putting more things
on their menu with pan pizza and thick crust, breadsticks
and thin crust soon followed, then buffalo wings and nineteen
ninety four, and sandwiches. In two thousand and eight, I
read that they had an ad campaign where if your
(29:03):
name was Jared and you ordered a sandwich, it was
on the house as a jabbed as subways then spokesperson.
I read it several places, but amazingly petty okay, yeah
into it. That fits their energy, I think. Yes. Soon
(29:26):
after that, pasta dishes and chocolate cake came along.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Meanwhile, they launched a website in nineteen ninety six, and
this I know, looking at it from like thirty years later,
that that's like, oh, yeah, it's a company. It has
a website, but this was not a thing that all
companies had at this point in time.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Yeah. Yeah. Tom retired in nineteen ninety eight and Bain
Capital took control of Domino's. Reportedly, Tom sold his family's
steak for one billion dollars billion with a billion Well Well.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Its new corporate overlords took the company public publicly traded
with IPO in two thousand and four.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Then in two thousand and seven, Dominoes changed the game
once again when they launched internet orders through their website,
something that again wasn't always the case we take for
granted these days. This was the same year that the
iPhone launched, so it was a really fortuitous tech or
a very forward thinking move. Yeah. Within a year, they
(30:34):
debuted their pizza tracker technology, so yeah, basically see your
order going from being placed, being repaired, it's in the oven,
it's ready. Sometimes they were webcams involved so you could
watch the process, which I'd like, h I think give
employees their privacy.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Man.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Yeah, their tech innovations didn't end there. They made sure
to make sure folks could order via increasingly popular devices
like Alexa, Integrating with all kinds of platforms. They later
introduced an AI ordering assistant bot called dom Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Less than a decade later, by twenty sixteen, they were
getting fifty five percent of their orders from online systems.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Who Well, the tech wasn't the only thing changing the
company at this time. There was some negative breasts in
the two thousands about Dominoes, including a consumer report placing
Dominoes at the bottom of fast food pizzas.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Oh ouch, yeah, Yeah, it was kind of a cultural moment,
like it was a pretty it was a pretty common joke,
Like they were shedding millions in profits year over year.
In two thousand and eight, The Onion put out the
satirical news report about Dominos scientists testing the limits of
what human beings.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Will eat to quote.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Despite ethical concerns about testing on humans, researchers say their
work was necessary to determine the boundary between garbage and food.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Oh dear Well. In response to this, Domino's was actually
doing some testing and they revamped. They revamped their recipes.
They went back to basics, garlic and parsley baked into
the crust, tomato sauce with more flavor, a mix of
mozzarella and provolone for the cheese. The company released a
(32:41):
short documentary about the whole thing called Pizza Turnaround and Yeah.
They tested numerous cheese, crust, and sauce variations over a
span of two years. Yeah yeah, and I, like I said,
this is when I was in college. I didn't have
a Dominoes at the time in my hometown. There's one
(33:04):
there now, so I think I avoided all of this.
I hadn't really tried that.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Well okay, okay, so you didn't. So you kind of
picked it up when they were getting good.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yes, yeah, good for fast food. Yeah yeah, but the
documentary is still online. Oh yeah, watch it? Oh yeah, yep, yep.
In twenty twelve, Dominoes dropped the pizza from their company name,
becoming simply Dominoes. When the Affordable Care Act went into
(33:37):
effect in twenty seventeen, there were stipulations around restaurants with
a certain number of locations displaying calorie counts on their menus.
Yeah yeah, yes, and Dominoes was one of the leading
adversaries fighting against it, and they ultimately lost, claiming that
the cost and effort was too high. It was interesting
to read about, though, because they were talking about putting
(33:58):
it on the website, putting it on the menu, and
just how it would show up in a bunch of
different ways. I think it was another shift in just
how Dominos was going to move forward.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah, yeah, sure, I mean you know, right, like once
you start talking about I don't know if they had
seven thousand locations at the time, but right when you
talk about that amount of signage that you have to
put up, I do get it, you know. I think
it's a worthwhile project for sure, exactly. Yeah, but yeah,
I understand their reluctance.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yes, yes, yes, yes. Meanwhile, also in twenty seventeen, Dominoes
started testing it self driving pizza delivery vehicles. These vehicles
were a part of a partnership with Ford that apparently
had They had heating compartments to keep the pizza warm,
(34:55):
and a way for the customer to unlock the door
with a code. Then some cities got e bike deliveries
in twenty nineteen. In twenty sixteen, they started working with
drones to provide air drop pizza delivery yep, YEP.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
In twenty eighteen, they opened up delivery of pizzas to
hotspots that like don't have traditional postal addresses, like a
park or a beach. They had added some two hundred
thousand locations by the end of the year.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
I witnessed this happen many years back. Yeah, I saw
I was at I was near Piedmont Park here in Atlanta,
enjoying my time, and this drone, oh wow, delivered this
Domino's pizza to people who were near me, and I
(35:52):
just stared at AGAs to stop.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Not all of the hot Spot delivery are by drone, but.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
That's fascinating.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
I have not witnessed to this in the wild, so well,
who knows what I saw, but I tell you, I
saw a drone with a Domino's pizza and it shocked
me to my core. Yeah, here's something else I can't believe.
I almost forgot to include this because I remember this happening.
That same year, twenty eighteen, Domino's launched their Paving for
(36:28):
Pizza campaign. They chose a handful of locations, including Athens, Georgia,
to pave over potholes with the message oh yes we
did on top uh. The company's statement about this campaign read, potholes, cracks,
and bumps in the road can cause irreversible damage to
(36:50):
your pizza during the drive home from Domino's. We can't
stand by and let your cheese slide to one side,
your toppings get untopped, are your boxes get flipped? So
we're helping to pave in towns across the country to
save your good pizza from these bad roads.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, props to that, Props to whatever Marketer
came up with that.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
That's very clever. I like it. Yeah. Like we said,
they've really gotten into all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Oh my goodness, yes, yes they have, speaking of several
of those things.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
During this entire time, they were really growing their analytics
and insights department. They went from having seven data science
employees in twenty eighteen to having sixty three by twenty
twenty one. And these are people who help process data
and develop models to predict customer behavior and store operations.
(37:58):
Along those lines, they launched an automated pizza checker in
their restaurant kitchens. This was a model that was trained
on images of pizzas, some provided by customers through the
Dominos app, and the system will record photos of every
(38:18):
pizza as it hits the cutting bench and analyze those
photos for what toppings are on the pizza and the
distribution of said toppings and like overall pizza aesthetics, and
if the system detects an issue, it'll flag the manager
to manually check the pizza. Once pizza is cleared by
machine or manager, the photo is sent to the customer
(38:41):
via the pizza tracker. It also logs mistakes and stores
might be flagged for like additional training or something like
that if it catches a lot of them.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
The system is also named dom after that earlier bought helper. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Right, around that same time twenty twenty one, Ish Dominoes
was really tooling with their predictive algorithms to help that
pizza tracker give more accurate delivery time estimates, factoring stuff
like how many employees and how many managers were on
the floor, how many orders are in line, and of
(39:19):
what complexity at like local traffic conditions. Apparently, combined with
processing power, they upped their accuracy from seventy five percent
to ninety five percent.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Wow, well it's working for better or for worse in
some cases. Yeah. Yeah. The franchiser behind the twenty nine
Dominoes operating in Italy file for bankruptcy in twenty twenty two.
(39:52):
They were all hit hard by the pandemic and then
traditional pizzerias adopting delivery models.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Oh yeah, sure, sure, but the company was still booming elsewhere.
That same year, they opened this highly automated dough and
products facility I think mostly dough in Indiana that cost
some fifty million dollars to build. It can create enough
dough in a day to make eighty eight thousand pizzas.
(40:22):
Also interesting, the Doe's shipped fresh, not frozen, because they
wanted to continue proofing slowly, but continue proofing on the
way from factory to store.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Or Yeah. Over the past ten.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Years, they've been playing and he said a little bit earlier,
but they've been playing with different platforms from which customers
can order pizzas. There's been support on Twitter, Facebook, Messenger,
Google Home, and smart TVs. Today they offer text message ordering.
They've paired with Amazon to allow ordering through Alexa, and
(41:03):
with Apple to provide ordering functions on the Apple Watch
and Apple CarPlay devices. This branch of their business is
called Anywhere a n y ware Anywhere clever, especially clever
because like look y'all, like, this is not just a
(41:23):
service that allows more orders to come in, although that
is a perk, this is also a field of data
to harvest from right like anything else that they're gleaning from.
Whatever device you use is of use. One of their
digital infrastructure partners claims that they're working with some seventeen
terabytes of data.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
The numbers in this episode are off the chart. My
brain was not prepared, y'all.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
I I grew up with five and a quarter inch
floppy discs. This seventeen terabytes doesn't mean anything to me.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
No, it feels like a super villain. You know, they
have like the whole space where she's just towering supercomputers.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Oh hmmm, all right, well, uh uh, speaking of I guess.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
During a twenty twenty four investor earnings call, the CEO
reported that that they're algorithms. Let them start making pizzas
before people actually press the place order button, because their
algorithms can tell when it's a sure enough thing, just
go ahead and start cooking.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
That is wild. That is wild because I am someone
who gets cravings a lot, and I'll like start in
order and then I and then back off. Yeah. I
wonder if they would call it correctly. They probably know you.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
They probably know your browsing habits or you know, like somos.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
I've been perceived by dominos.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Oh but you know, like there's still there, there are
still ways that they can innovate. Case in point, they
didn't actually debut a stuffed crust pizza until twenty twenty five. Wow,
I know, right, like Pizza Hut led the way with
that in like the nineteen nineties, and I totally assumed
(43:48):
that every pizza place did that. But yeah, Dominoes was
apparently just like, yeah, it's only a phase for like
three decades, thirty years old, brought out of it, and
then eventually, like someone in analytics and insights was like, no, really, guys,
we should be doing this.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
So stuffed crust pizza. Yeah. Wow, I could honestly just
look into and now I'm sounding like Dumbino's customers ordering
habits because I fascinated if if having the stuffed crust
(44:28):
option are not on a menu was enough that they
noticed a ding like people are turning to other places
because we don't have the stuffed crust option.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Yeah. I'm not totally sure. I was reading one of
their kind of like press releases about the whole thing,
and it sounded more like an upsell situation from the
way that it was reading. But but it might have
it might have been lost sales, like oh you don't
you don't have that. I thought you did have the
own well, never mind, I'm going to go to the
place it has it.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
I can't get my stuffed crust that I'm out. Wow.
Well it's been a fascinating ride.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Yes, oh yeah, yeah, and I would would you would
you share one fun fact about Tom with with the listeners, Uh,
the the one, the one about the sports team?
Speaker 1 (45:30):
Yes, yes, I share too briefly, so number one. I
wanted to do this one, but it was too complicated,
too complicated. Maybe it's too strong, but uh. He wanted
to build a tower, a leaning tower of pizza, okay,
(45:51):
and he wanted it on Their headquarters are in ann Arbor, Michigan,
and he wanted this structure. And he was a big
fan of the right, the people who inherited from the rights,
Oh okay, And so he went to them and they
(46:12):
were going to do it, and it was a gold
like leaning tower, but they had left because they thought
it was not it was beneath beneath them, and then
they brought he brought in. Somebody else also left. And
from what I understand, the reason I didn't include it
is because I was kind of confused by the resolution.
From what I understand, it never got built, but there
(46:34):
was a scale model that was eventually put up, but
you can look it up and it's it's like gold
and Yeah. But the fact Lauren was alluding to is
that from for a brief period of time, he owned
the Tigers football team h and he eventually sold it
(47:02):
because he was a devout Catholic and thought it was
sinful how much he wanted people to pay attention to him.
Oh wow, Okay, okay, But the person who bought it
was the owner of Little Caesar's Pizza. That's my favorite
part because what am I to make of that? Is
that a rivalry? Yeah? Well, what's happening?
Speaker 2 (47:24):
There was this a vindictive sports team purchase? Because I
feel like that happens a lot.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
I believe you're correct. But it was just so strange
to be reading his biography and it was like, oh,
he once owned this football team and then the owner
of Little Caesar's bought it. I was like, m I
think there's more to this than than meets the eye. Okay,
So I just realized I've been saying football team. It
(47:53):
is the Detroit Tigers baseball team in question here. I
am so sorry. I'm sure some of you have already
sent themis I am not generally a sportsperson. But yes,
the Detroit Tigers a baseball team. Uh, is what we're
talking about here. Like I said, fascinating fellow. You can
(48:16):
look him up. Oh in the lost dream of the
Leaning Tower of Pizza. Yeah, a lot a dream. I
think he wanted the offices to actually be in there. Wow.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Oh okay, See I was picturing like statuary, you know,
I was not picturing a functional building.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
I think at one stage at least you mentioned this
is where offices are going to be.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
All right, yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that for him
to be honest.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Yeah yeah. Oh well, I guess that's what we have
to say about Domina for now. I think we've captured
the energy, the kind of care energy of Dominoes for
this one. But listeners really please write in about this.
Speaker 2 (49:11):
Oh yeah, if you have nostalgic memories, if you have strong,
noyed opinions.
Speaker 1 (49:18):
He played the games, you played the games, yes, And
what's going on around the world, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (49:23):
Yes talking, yeah, Dominoes or any other pizza situation. Just
tell us more about pizza. Yes, but yes, we do
already have some listener mail for you, and we're going
to get into that as soon as we get back
from one more quick break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and
we're back with listener pits of time thirty minutes or less. Okay,
Johnny wrote, greetings from across the Alabama state line. Leichi
are a favorite of mine, and in my experience, the
(50:13):
tacab World market is a reliable place for fresh light
chi acquisition, as well as the canned variety. Failing that,
Kasou Guy and I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, and
Peeler's Leichi gummies aren't too terribly difficult to track down
from most Asian specialty markets as well as five below.
The kasou Guy gummies are, in my opinion, a superior
(50:35):
replication of their light, almost floral bouquet of note, and
I suppose to briefly toot my proverbial horn. I recently
had a story featured in the No Sleep podcast titled
Peelers Club, including the Fruit. Probably best not to think
too hard about the implications of that title if you're
(50:57):
squeamish about body heart. In any case, here's an excerpt.
I would later discover Leichi such a delight. Pulling free
and unmarred white fruit and separating it from the gently
textured shell, and then the bullet shaped pit was a
true joy, delicate, fragrant, worth the trouble. I look forward
(51:19):
to hearing about your own tactile arch unveiling experiences in
the not do distant future. Oh, I'm really intrigued by this.
I am a little nervous, all right. Oh.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
I love body horror though, So that's that's that's fine
by me. I mean, I'm I'm right there, I'm right there.
And uh, if if anyone else has watched the film,
we need to talk about Kevin feel like yeah, yeah,
similar vibes, similar vibes great, but yeah hi hi waving
waving at Alabama vaguely and yeah, Decab World Market is
(51:51):
a great one for sure. That is the first one
of the first places in town that I would check.
Speaker 1 (51:57):
Ah. But good, good good gummy rex as well. Thank you, Yes, yes,
I'm excited to see what my own experience shall be. Uh,
tactile like gee experience. But yes, thank you for the
recommendations all around.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
Yes and uh and congrats on getting that story and
in no sleep yeah, yes, Mary wrote, how am I
older than gummy worms. Coffin sized gummy bear best measurement ever.
I would be buried in one if I could, but know.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
That isn't a possibility. D and D.
Speaker 2 (52:37):
I hope this makes it into a new campaign. The
small human is now into D and D and I
told her about it for her DM days. A proud
NERD slash geek mom. Disney Gummy Bear's animated show was
one of my favorites. I think I liked them because
they never got a whole movie, so the story was
always moving ahead an.
Speaker 1 (52:52):
Episode at a time.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
I'm amazed that they weren't more popular than they were
because it was a fun show. The theme song lives
in my head, Rent Free Forever Sam as Lauren, I
have to think was Lauren?
Speaker 1 (53:02):
It was Hi.
Speaker 2 (53:03):
I remember the roadkill gummies and did eat them in
high school. I used to love eating gummy bears in
a very peculiar way. I would open the bag, line
up all the gummy bears along the top of my
desk near the pencil holder divot, reorganize them into a
pattern of color order, and begin to eat them from
the left to the right. I would eat all the
heads first, placing them back into the order, then the feet,
(53:27):
and then the rest. I would get quite a few
concerned looks from other students, and usually the teacher would
just smile at me because they knew me. I was
left alone by anyone looking to pick a fight after this,
so that was a plus in writing this, I've never
realized how gross it was to do this on a
desk that saw so many kids and never got cleaned.
It might explain my current immune system, which helps me
(53:49):
rarely get sick.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
I told my.
Speaker 2 (53:51):
Small human the story and she said did you really
to which my other half said yes, as she did
because he saw me do it a few times. I
currently love gummies that don't have gelatin in them because
my body has decided it hates that. I want a
soft inside but not sticky gummy which can be smashed
between my fingers for a very satisfying feel before being eaten. Yep,
(54:13):
I'm still weird, as I've aged. Pet tex is Lynn,
who put her paws in my shoes. I swear she
would wear them if she could. She also lays claim
to all jackets on the couch. Dante has decided he
loves paper and must have a pile of it to
lay on at all times. And yes, yes, attached are
(54:37):
photos of two truly glorious cats. Lynn is on a jacket,
napping as only a cat who's stolen your clothes can nap,
just so content and really beautiful orange black and white
patterning on linn there and then and then Dante is
(54:58):
a handsome fluf who is just encased in in in
like gift wrapping paper.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
Just uh.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
He's he's made a little play cave of it for himself,
and he he looks like he's willing to defend that
cave fiercely.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
Very pretty pretty cave. Oh and a pretty cat.
Speaker 2 (55:27):
Oh my goodness, he's got a pretty little white bib
and little tabby tabby patterning on.
Speaker 1 (55:32):
The rest of his face and little little white socks.
Oh my goodness. Yes, thank you. How's always for the
pet teck? Yes, yes, and thank you for your many
thoughts about gummies. Yes, the preferences. I love them.
Speaker 2 (55:49):
I love that you remember this ritual with the gummy
bears at your school desk. That that is, that is
in your head.
Speaker 1 (55:56):
I love it. And yeah that's real gross, that's super gross.
Yeah it is.
Speaker 2 (56:05):
But you know, hey, yeah, if you if you rarely
get sick. Now, then you're doing something right.
Speaker 1 (56:10):
Yeah, and also apparently frightened the kids enough to leave
you be look at what she does with the gummies. Nope, no,
that's quite fantastic. I really really like that. And I
like that you still have your your certain textures you
(56:32):
want specificity. Like we said, I appreciate it strong preferences always, always,
and and I love that you're you're small. Human is
gonna it's getting into D and D. Yeah, be a
d N. That's so exciting. Oh my goodness. Yeah, I concentrations.
(56:54):
Gummy bear is a good a good D and D trap. Right,
that's like a gelatinous cube button cute bear form.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
Yeah, oh yeah, very upsetting.
Speaker 1 (57:10):
Watch out, Lauren, Oh.
Speaker 2 (57:14):
No it never give your DM ideas.
Speaker 1 (57:21):
Too late. Well, thank you so much to both of
these listeners for writing in. If you would like to
write to us, you can or email us hello at
saborpod dot com. We're also on social media.
Speaker 2 (57:35):
You can find us on Instagram and blue Sky at
saber pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from
my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I'm Annie Reason and I'm Lauren vogel Baum, and today
we have an episode for you about Domino's.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yes, like the pizza chain. Yes. Uh and not a
sponsor Nope. But wow, what an episode. So many side
quests I had to chop off the tree. Yeah. One
at a certain point.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I mean, like like in our Pizza Huad episode, there's
a certain point where you're like, well, there's more to
read about, and I can't keep doing this forever. I
have I have to stop, like I have to feed
myself and sleep.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
At some point.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yes, perhaps do other activities yeah, mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Well was there any particular reason this was this was
on your mind? Lord?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
This is one of the ones that has been on
the list for a long time, especially after we did
the Pizza Huad episode and realized how completely ridiculous these
companies really are. So yeah, I just wanted to wanted
to squeak it in here.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yes, And it was my favorite fast delivery pizza in
college and doing this research, I have to say I
was in college around the time a lot of the
innovations Domino's had were happening. So it was fun to
read back over this research and be like, oh, yes,
I did really love that pizza track. Or I would
(01:38):
be like, ah, this is the stage my pizza is in.
Uh huh uh huh. Yes, and it was when they
changed the recipe. But we'll talk about all of that
more in the history section.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, and they are my favorite fast food
pizza as well. This was a surprisingly craving heavy day. Yeah,
because it's not it's not a category it is, it is,
it is. It's not a category that I like indulge
in very often. But yeah, I was like, oh man,
(02:11):
oh man, I want that kind of mediocre pizza.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yes, yes, yes, And I was remembering me and my
college roommate. We used to order two mediums because I
believe it was cheaper somehow we perceived it to be
cheaper somehow. We would eat both of them in one night.
And that's just such a difference from now. That was
(02:38):
like such a college anything I could not accomplish anymore.
But we would get two pizzas I think every Friday night,
well that we didn't have somewhere else to be and
devour them. Delightful. What a nice time we recognize the
names the people on the pizza treck are really today
(02:59):
all right? Oh my goodness. Yeah, yes, So past episodes
we have done pizza delivery and takeout. I think we
mentioned Dominoes in that one, probably, yeah, yes, and then
pizza hut right, so I'm glad to hear we have
actually done. I put a lot of question marks after it,
(03:21):
but I was pretty sure we did. Definitely excellent news,
all right, So I guess that brings us to our
question Dominoes. What is it?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, Dominoes is a huge international fast food pizza takeout
slash delivery chain. They serve foods like pizzas, breadsticks, pastas,
and salads, all in a quick service style, so there's
a lot of preparation on the back end, and in
order to get their foods out quickly, they have corporate
(03:59):
recipes and suppliers to standardize their products and keep costs
to the customer low.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
In the United States, I think.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
They're exclusively carry out shops uh with no customer seeding
to cut down on overhead. As well, they deal heavily
in online ordering and delivery coordination, like to the point
that the not joking joke told by Dominoes itself is
that really they're they're a tech company that happens to
(04:27):
make its money selling pizzas. Of sensibly, we're a food show.
Their foods are just fine. Uh you know they're they're
They're designed to be pleasing and craveable. You know, there's
saltiness in the cheese and the toppings, and sweetness from
the sauce and the dough, and like tanginess and savoriness
from the toppings and the sauce, richness from the cheese.
(04:47):
It's made to hit all of your senses and like
keep you entertained while you are eating it. Dominoes is
like a glimpse into the incredible future where our robot
overlords want to keep us fed and happy.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yes, they've developed the technology to do so. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Okay, but but let's let's run through the menu. The
menu here in the US currently includes, Yes, pizzas, you've
got your choice of crust, hand tossed crust, pan pizza type, crust,
crunchy thin crust, New York style, which is floppy thin crust,
Parmesan stuffed crust, or gluten free. Their standard cheese is
(05:41):
a combo of provolone mozzarella and other love that the
mozzarella is not technically mozzarella. It is and I quote
cheese made with one hundred percent real mozzarella, and I'm
not entirely sure what that means. At any rate, You've
(06:03):
got your choice of sauce, tomato, honey, barbecue, garlic, palm alfretto,
or ranch. Yes, you can just put ranch on the
whole pizza. Your choice of toppings, including proteins like ham, beef, pepperoni,
Italian sausage, bacon, philly steak, chicken or anchovies, vegetables like
sliced heli, panos, onions, banana peppers, olives, mushrooms or green peppers, spinach,
(06:28):
diced tomato or pineapple, and then other and or like
additional cheeses like shredded parmesan, aciago or a cheddar blend
or feta. If that is too many potentials for you,
never fear. They do have several like pre set combinations
in the form of their specialty pizzas, including the meatza
(06:52):
with those first four meats I mentioned, and then a
bunch of like regionally based combos is apparently what's right now,
like Honolulu Hawaiian with ham, bacon, pineapple and peppers, Philly
Cheese steak with steak, onions, peppers and mushrooms, Pacific veggie
with spinach, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, olives, and fetta, and Memphis
barbecue with chicken, honey, barbecue, sauce, onions and cheddar. They've
(07:17):
also got you could call them sides or other entrees.
I don't know, it depends on what you're up to.
I guess they've got chicken wings or tenders, which are
breaded and baked plain or with sauces. Or you can
get the tenders like chopped up and topped with cheese
and stuff. They also do tater tots topped with cheese
and stuff. You can also get baked mac and cheese
(07:39):
or a baked Alfredo pasta with optional sliced chicken. They
also have oven baked substyle sandwiches and then like salads
in garden or Caesar varieties, and cheesy bread which is
like an extra small oblong pizza with no sauce, and
bite sized breadsticks in garlic or palm or sweet cinnamon flavors.
(08:03):
Other dessert options include brownies and lava cakes. Chocolate lava
cakes you can also get any of their sauces, plus
things like a buffalo sauce or blue cheese dressing, and
like a cup for dipping and soft drinks from Coca Cola.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
I have to admit I do have some cravings. I
wasn't expecting. Yeah, I so hard.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
It's real, it's real. Those mini breadsticks are so good.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I don't know. I'm just like yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I mean, of course, like bread is good, like dough
is amazing, But I don't know how they're so good.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yes, And I told you, I have a friend who
loves the chocolate lava cake. And I would see the
look on her face when she would get it, and
it was just pure joy about what she was about
to eat. Oh my goodness. So happy for her.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I don't think kind of her ordered those, but happy
for her. And I do think like it is really
tickling me right now that the chocolate lava cake, like
the late eighties to early nineties it dessert of like
kind of high end restaurants, has become a thing that
you can order from Domino's.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yes, beautiful, Oh heck, okay.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
All of this is just in the United States, though
other markets have different toppings and products available. I read
about a Durian and Laichi pizza in China that also
has a stuffed crust, a spicy plantain pizza in Nigeria,
and asparagus and kim embert pizza in Japan. Toppings like cream,
(09:42):
cheese and dates in Iceland, donaor kabab pizza in Norway,
Penniartica pizza in the UAE, and a bunch of different countries.
Corn chips or like boiled corn in general are like
pretty popular toppings, and not just for dominoes, Like, that's
a pretty common thing for American style pizzas outside the US,
(10:06):
I guess because they associate like people associate corn with
the United States, so they're like, oh, yeah, sure, probably
that's what goes on there.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I've always enjoyed that. I've been like, I've never had
this before, and I love that it's Yeah, the US
style pizza literally would not occur to us, but sure, no,
I legitimately am like, okay, which again, listeners, please write
in my goodness, yes, yes, we still we haven't done.
We never did our stuffed crust around the world.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, yeah, there's definitely. Oh I don't remember where I
saw this on a menu. I looked at a lot
of different Dominoes menus today and somewhere they had a
it was called like a volcano pizza because it has
like built into the center of the crust is like
(11:00):
a little dipping bowl with melted cheese in it. All right,
and you like pull apart the entire thing and like,
I don't know, I like dip the pizza that you're
eating in the center of the pizza. I seems amazing,
seems honestly terrific.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I'm on board, Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
These restaurants are operated or franchised out by the Domino's
Company in the United States and by several franchise groups internationally,
and as a large company that owns and franchises hundreds
and thousands of stores. They're they're not just a pizza company,
(11:43):
right Like, they're in manufacturing, they're in supply chain, they're
in cold logistics, they're in real estate.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
They do also partner with schools to deliver fresh cooked
pizzas in line with National School Lunch Program requirements, including
ingredients with whole eat, reduced sodium, and reduced fat. As
with many large companies that are publicly traded, they do
believe that climate change is real. Doing episodes about these
corporations always cracks me up given the current political climate,
(12:14):
because like politics is like, no, that's ridiculous, and every
single company is like, we love talking about what we're
doing to combat climate change.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Please invest in us there.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
But you know, it's it's on the good side. They
seem to be using their massive footprint and massive data
banks to really nudge their net emissions lower across like
foods and other goods and utilities and aforementioned logistics. They
patented their online pizza tracker that is Domino's Tracker, reserved
US patent number one zero two six two eight, which
(12:53):
lets you check in on your order throughout the cooking
and delivery process. They have a wedding registry. It's just
like e gift cards and varying amounts. Okay, I love
that they I love that they did it, you know beautiful.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Oh yeah, and yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
On on their corporate page about like company purpose and values,
their headline is feed the power of Possible, one pizza
at a time.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Very intense.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, that's how I feel. I feel like that's the
voice that they want it to be perceived in.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Well, yeah, I think so. And they nailed it. Yeah, yeah,
well what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Do not eat international corporations even if you could, they
would probably give you a terrible indigestion.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yes, especially with their mascot, their past mascot, which we
will be talking about. Oh my goodness, we will. Yes,
we have some numbers for you. We do, we certainly
can do. Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So, Dominoes is the largest pizza retailer in the world
by revenue. As of twenty twenty. Harvard Business School called
Dominoes the world's leading international fast food retailer in general.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Not I didn't I didn't check their work, but yeah, certainly.
They run some twenty two thousand stores in over ninety country.
About sixty eight percent of that business is outside the US. Globally,
(14:54):
they deliver over one point five million pizzas every day,
or over one million I read. I read a couple
different numbers in a couple different places. Either way, it's
about a billion pizzas a year.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
A billion pieces.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I don't know, man, Yeah, yep. Across North America. They
have a supply chain of thirty like dough manufacturing and
food distribution centers which supply two hundred different products to
the seven than two hundred stores in the United States.
(15:36):
Their aforementioned pizza tracker has tracked over two point five
billion orders since two thousand and eight. Total revenue in
the US as of twenty twenty five was four point
nine billion dollars, and as of twenty twenty one, they
(15:56):
were doing fourteen billion dollars in global sale every year.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah, so a big deal. Yeah, that is a.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Scale of pizza that I don't It doesn't mean anything
to me anymore.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I'm like, oh, okay, how am I meant to comprehend? No,
I don't think we are. Well, there are other things
we're not meant to comprehend. In my opinion, in this.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Story, Annie is so upset about the noid. I can't
wait to get into it.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Oh heck.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
But yes, before we get into the history including that,
we are going to take a quick break to get
into a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
And we're back. Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you. Okay, So,
as we've been kind of alluding to here, what I
want to say at the outset of this is what
I person find the most fascinating about Dominoes is that
they were, and arguably are at the forefront of a
lot of innovations in the fast food pizza industry and
(17:11):
delivery in general. Yeah. Yes, And a lot of those
innovations are tech related, some more surprising than others. Some
we won't be mentioning because they've really got involved in
a lot of stuff. Yep, yep, yep, yep yep. Also,
there is a lot of myth building around how Dominoes
came to be and the longtime owner. He has a
(17:35):
personal history that I There are a lot of stories
I wanted to include, but eventually again had to be like,
this is a food show. But he was an interesting character,
so if you want to look up what he got
up to, you can. But the popular story goes that
in nineteen sixty in ipsil Ante, Michigan, a postman by
the name of Jim Monaghan Armanaghan, but I think it's
(17:59):
Manahan saw a pizza takeout store called Dominick's Capital Inn
and Nix Pizza for sale, which was named after owner
Dominic Devardi. Jim approached his brother Tom, who was an entrepreneur,
about the opportunity, and the pair purchased the store, in part,
relying on Jim's credit Union to make the payment. Dominic
(18:22):
even threw in an abbreviated pizza making class in the deal.
I think it was like fifteen minutes, but he still
was like, here's the basics. Good luck, good luck, all
the best. Tom and Jim's dad died when they were young,
and they were briefly placed in foster care while their
mother figured things out. Allegedly to help the family. Tom
(18:46):
started selling produce at a young age and that helped
him build a foundation of food knowledge, so he was
kind of coming from that space. At the outset. The
intention was for the brothers to split the fifty to fifty. However,
with Jim's job as a postman, it just wasn't tenable,
(19:06):
and within eight months something had to change. To buy
his brother out, Tom gave him the used Volkswagen Beetle
that had been serving as their delivery vehicle. Okay, yeah, hey,
all right yeah. Tom continued to grow the business, opening
(19:27):
two more locations in the early sixties, though all under
different names. Soon though, Tom decided that it would be
smart for marketing and growth to come up with a
unified name like Join Forces. So Tom asked his employees
to brainstorm, and the story goes that a pizza delivery
driver named Jim Kennedy came up with the winner, Domino's Pizza.
(19:52):
I love how often this is It's like a contest. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It was a name that didn't require too much when
it came to changing the logo, and it wasn't too
far off from the original name of domin Nicks, the
original location. The three dots on the logo the Domino
represented the three original locations. Yes, despite the consolidation of
(20:17):
the stores under one name, the first three struggled in
their early days. A lot of their mainstay customers were
college students. The original location was in a college town,
so the company decided to focus their energy on appealing
to these college students. This entailed a few steps. Firstly,
(20:38):
everything that wasn't pizza was pretty much cut from the menu,
and the pizzas only came in two sizes and only
one crust style. Not only that, but the focus honed
in on how to deliver hot pizza quickly. Through this,
the company came up with a foldable cardboard pizza box
(21:00):
that could withstand the weight of other pizza boxes on
top of it, and also had enough room in size
that the cheese and toppings didn't stick to the top.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, apparently that was them. Like we have pizza boxes
today because of Dominoes. Yes, not saying no one else
would have figured it out, just saying tech innovation.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
I'm telling you. The Amstar Corporation kind of side quest here.
The owner of Domino Sugar sued Dominoes in nineteen seventy one.
Domino Sugar, the brand, had been around since nineteen oh one.
Amstar sent a letter to Dominoes pushing them to change
their name, but Dominoes did not back down. Did not respond.
(21:41):
The US Patent Office granted trademark protection for the name
Domino's Pizza soon after that an Amstar. They kept pursuing this,
suing Dominoes in nineteen seventy five over trademark infringement. In
nineteen eighty, the US Court of Appeals for the Circuit
decreed that both entities could keep operating under the same name,
(22:05):
so essentially Domino's Pizza one yeah, yeah yeah. One of
the things Dominoes did to differentiate itself from its competitors
was with the thirty minute or less guarantee, first introduced
in nineteen seventy nine. The idea was on its face
simple the pizza would arrive in thirty minutes or less,
(22:28):
or it was free. This went on to be a
hugely influential campaign. It's been embedded in pop culture with
the help of things like the nineteen ninety film Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was appeared in things recently too,
though I was thinking about it. Some examples still around.
(22:49):
Thirty minutes or less became a whole thing over the years,
and after a few incidents, the guarantee evolved to a
three dollars refund if the pizza was late, and they
changed their sloganto you got thirty minutes in two thousand
and seven, so the guarantee was kind of removed. It
was just like, ooh, yeah, hopefully it'll get there. If
(23:11):
it doesn't, here's your three dollars. There was a lawsuit.
I think there was a couple of lawsuits, but there
was a big one where the person suing Dominoes won
and there was pressure from the AFLCIO. They claimed that
over three hundred Dominoes delivery drivers were involved in accidents
(23:31):
due to this campaign.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yes, yeah, yeah, always safety first, always, safety first, your pizza.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Your pizza can wait another four minutes. It really can,
It really really can. In nineteen eighty three, the one
thousandth store domino Store opened in the US. That same year,
they went international, opening stores in Canada and Australia. The
number of locations ballooned to over five thousand. As the
(24:05):
eighties came to a close. The international locations struggled to
find their footing. At first, though, Yes, but they were
not stopping, no, sir. Now, well, this brings us to
what I feared all along. So something else Domino's did.
(24:29):
They were pioneers in the fast food pizza mascot game
in a couple of ways. I won't give them this.
In the eighties, they hired an advertising company to help
them stand out, and stand out they did when ad
agency Group two four to three came up with something
(24:50):
that I'm going to say is difficult to describe. Lauren,
you can jump in here. Here's my attempt. I think
you've got yeah, yeah, I'll add if I need to. Okay,
here's my It's like a rabbit eared grimlin with red
spandex that has a letter in on it inside of
white circle and just wild eyes. And his whole goal
(25:15):
was chaos and stopping your Domino's pizza from arriving.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, dude in red spandex suit with like, right,
like kind of weird bunny ears looks looks a lot
like I don't know, like a character from the Tick
kind of like he does. Yeah, or you know, like
like that kind of genre of like satire adventure shows,
you know, like Adventure Brothers, that kind of thing. Yeah,
(25:44):
and Thenoid was presented in clamation, which really didn't make
it look less weird.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yes, correct, correct, Yeah, I'm also thenoid the name in general. Anyway,
Dominos came up with this slogan that their pizza Wasnoyd
Proof Survivenoid and get to you. Yeahause other pizza would
(26:15):
not right avoid the Nooid, as I said, Despite his
unsettling appearance in my opinion, a line of merchandise and
two video games about his character launched in nineteen eighty six,
hold where I think they were kind of pioneering. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, at least one of the video games was called
Yo Noid, which is just so late eighties early nineties.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
The entire thing.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Is really just a like era appropriate fever dream like
something born out of only that period of time could
really give you.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yes, greed. Yep.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I have truly neutral feelings about Thenoid, as I was
telling Annie before, but I understand that this agent of
pizza chaos.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Could be upsetting. He instills feared within for me anyway,
And I really don't mean to make light of this
at all, but that is an unfortunate zegue. Oh gosh, yeah,
oh yeah, Okay, and to what we're talking about. Yes,
(27:33):
In nineteen eighty nine, a twenty two year old man
engaged in a standoff with police after taking two employees
hostage at an Atlanta area Dominoes with demands that included
a car, pizza, and a lot of money. Five hours
passed before the police managed to arrest the man, who
turned out to be someone with paranoid schizophrenia with the
(27:55):
last name Nooid, and he believed that the Nooid ads
were taunting him.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah. Really really tragic incident. I didn't realize until we
were doing this reading that that was here in Atlanta.
At the time, I did not Atlanta wasn't really on
my radar because I didn't love here. But yeah, I'm
pretty sure that this incident is why the Noid was retired.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I believe so. So they retired the campaign after this,
I think, and they brought it back briefly in the
two thousands, but yeah, yeah, the noid is sort of
a figment of this fever dream. Yes, Domino started expanding
(28:41):
re expanding because they used to offer these things before,
some of them in nineteen eighty nine, putting more things
on their menu with pan pizza and thick crust, breadsticks
and thin crust soon followed, then buffalo wings and nineteen
ninety four, and sandwiches. In two thousand and eight, I
read that they had an ad campaign where if your
(29:03):
name was Jared and you ordered a sandwich, it was
on the house as a jabbed as subways then spokesperson.
I read it several places, but amazingly petty okay, yeah
into it. That fits their energy, I think. Yes. Soon
(29:26):
after that, pasta dishes and chocolate cake came along.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Meanwhile, they launched a website in nineteen ninety six, and
this I know, looking at it from like thirty years later,
that that's like, oh, yeah, it's a company. It has
a website, but this was not a thing that all
companies had at this point in time.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Yeah. Yeah. Tom retired in nineteen ninety eight and Bain
Capital took control of Domino's. Reportedly, Tom sold his family's
steak for one billion dollars billion with a billion Well Well.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Its new corporate overlords took the company public publicly traded
with IPO in two thousand and four.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Then in two thousand and seven, Dominoes changed the game
once again when they launched internet orders through their website,
something that again wasn't always the case we take for
granted these days. This was the same year that the
iPhone launched, so it was a really fortuitous tech or
a very forward thinking move. Yeah. Within a year, they
(30:34):
debuted their pizza tracker technology, so yeah, basically see your
order going from being placed, being repaired, it's in the oven,
it's ready. Sometimes they were webcams involved so you could
watch the process, which I'd like, h I think give
employees their privacy.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Man.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Yeah, their tech innovations didn't end there. They made sure
to make sure folks could order via increasingly popular devices
like Alexa, Integrating with all kinds of platforms. They later
introduced an AI ordering assistant bot called dom Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Less than a decade later, by twenty sixteen, they were
getting fifty five percent of their orders from online systems.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Who Well, the tech wasn't the only thing changing the
company at this time. There was some negative breasts in
the two thousands about Dominoes, including a consumer report placing
Dominoes at the bottom of fast food pizzas.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Oh ouch, yeah, Yeah, it was kind of a cultural moment,
like it was a pretty it was a pretty common joke,
Like they were shedding millions in profits year over year.
In two thousand and eight, The Onion put out the
satirical news report about Dominos scientists testing the limits of
what human beings.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Will eat to quote.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Despite ethical concerns about testing on humans, researchers say their
work was necessary to determine the boundary between garbage and food.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Oh dear Well. In response to this, Domino's was actually
doing some testing and they revamped. They revamped their recipes.
They went back to basics, garlic and parsley baked into
the crust, tomato sauce with more flavor, a mix of
mozzarella and provolone for the cheese. The company released a
(32:41):
short documentary about the whole thing called Pizza Turnaround and Yeah.
They tested numerous cheese, crust, and sauce variations over a
span of two years. Yeah yeah, and I, like I said,
this is when I was in college. I didn't have
a Dominoes at the time in my hometown. There's one
(33:04):
there now, so I think I avoided all of this.
I hadn't really tried that.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Well okay, okay, so you didn't. So you kind of
picked it up when they were getting good.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yes, yeah, good for fast food. Yeah yeah, but the
documentary is still online. Oh yeah, watch it? Oh yeah, yep, yep.
In twenty twelve, Dominoes dropped the pizza from their company name,
becoming simply Dominoes. When the Affordable Care Act went into
(33:37):
effect in twenty seventeen, there were stipulations around restaurants with
a certain number of locations displaying calorie counts on their menus.
Yeah yeah, yes, and Dominoes was one of the leading
adversaries fighting against it, and they ultimately lost, claiming that
the cost and effort was too high. It was interesting
to read about, though, because they were talking about putting
(33:58):
it on the website, putting it on the menu, and
just how it would show up in a bunch of
different ways. I think it was another shift in just
how Dominos was going to move forward.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah, yeah, sure, I mean you know, right, like once
you start talking about I don't know if they had
seven thousand locations at the time, but right when you
talk about that amount of signage that you have to
put up, I do get it, you know. I think
it's a worthwhile project for sure, exactly. Yeah, but yeah,
I understand their reluctance.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yes, yes, yes, yes. Meanwhile, also in twenty seventeen, Dominoes
started testing it self driving pizza delivery vehicles. These vehicles
were a part of a partnership with Ford that apparently
had They had heating compartments to keep the pizza warm,
(34:55):
and a way for the customer to unlock the door
with a code. Then some cities got e bike deliveries
in twenty nineteen. In twenty sixteen, they started working with
drones to provide air drop pizza delivery yep, YEP.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
In twenty eighteen, they opened up delivery of pizzas to
hotspots that like don't have traditional postal addresses, like a
park or a beach. They had added some two hundred
thousand locations by the end of the year.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
I witnessed this happen many years back. Yeah, I saw
I was at I was near Piedmont Park here in Atlanta,
enjoying my time, and this drone, oh wow, delivered this
Domino's pizza to people who were near me, and I
(35:52):
just stared at AGAs to stop.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Not all of the hot Spot delivery are by drone, but.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
That's fascinating.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
I have not witnessed to this in the wild, so well,
who knows what I saw, but I tell you, I
saw a drone with a Domino's pizza and it shocked
me to my core. Yeah, here's something else I can't believe.
I almost forgot to include this because I remember this happening.
That same year, twenty eighteen, Domino's launched their Paving for
(36:28):
Pizza campaign. They chose a handful of locations, including Athens, Georgia,
to pave over potholes with the message oh yes we
did on top uh. The company's statement about this campaign read, potholes, cracks,
and bumps in the road can cause irreversible damage to
(36:50):
your pizza during the drive home from Domino's. We can't
stand by and let your cheese slide to one side,
your toppings get untopped, are your boxes get flipped? So
we're helping to pave in towns across the country to
save your good pizza from these bad roads.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, props to that, Props to whatever Marketer
came up with that.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
That's very clever. I like it. Yeah. Like we said,
they've really gotten into all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Oh my goodness, yes, yes they have, speaking of several
of those things.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
During this entire time, they were really growing their analytics
and insights department. They went from having seven data science
employees in twenty eighteen to having sixty three by twenty
twenty one. And these are people who help process data
and develop models to predict customer behavior and store operations.
(37:58):
Along those lines, they launched an automated pizza checker in
their restaurant kitchens. This was a model that was trained
on images of pizzas, some provided by customers through the
Dominos app, and the system will record photos of every
(38:18):
pizza as it hits the cutting bench and analyze those
photos for what toppings are on the pizza and the
distribution of said toppings and like overall pizza aesthetics, and
if the system detects an issue, it'll flag the manager
to manually check the pizza. Once pizza is cleared by
machine or manager, the photo is sent to the customer
(38:41):
via the pizza tracker. It also logs mistakes and stores
might be flagged for like additional training or something like
that if it catches a lot of them.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
The system is also named dom after that earlier bought helper. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Right, around that same time twenty twenty one, Ish Dominoes
was really tooling with their predictive algorithms to help that
pizza tracker give more accurate delivery time estimates, factoring stuff
like how many employees and how many managers were on
the floor, how many orders are in line, and of
(39:19):
what complexity at like local traffic conditions. Apparently, combined with
processing power, they upped their accuracy from seventy five percent
to ninety five percent.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Wow, well it's working for better or for worse in
some cases. Yeah. Yeah. The franchiser behind the twenty nine
Dominoes operating in Italy file for bankruptcy in twenty twenty two.
(39:52):
They were all hit hard by the pandemic and then
traditional pizzerias adopting delivery models.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Oh yeah, sure, sure, but the company was still booming elsewhere.
That same year, they opened this highly automated dough and
products facility I think mostly dough in Indiana that cost
some fifty million dollars to build. It can create enough
dough in a day to make eighty eight thousand pizzas.
(40:22):
Also interesting, the Doe's shipped fresh, not frozen, because they
wanted to continue proofing slowly, but continue proofing on the
way from factory to store.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Or Yeah. Over the past ten.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Years, they've been playing and he said a little bit earlier,
but they've been playing with different platforms from which customers
can order pizzas. There's been support on Twitter, Facebook, Messenger,
Google Home, and smart TVs. Today they offer text message ordering.
They've paired with Amazon to allow ordering through Alexa, and
(41:03):
with Apple to provide ordering functions on the Apple Watch
and Apple CarPlay devices. This branch of their business is
called Anywhere a n y ware Anywhere clever, especially clever
because like look y'all, like, this is not just a
(41:23):
service that allows more orders to come in, although that
is a perk, this is also a field of data
to harvest from right like anything else that they're gleaning from.
Whatever device you use is of use. One of their
digital infrastructure partners claims that they're working with some seventeen
terabytes of data.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
The numbers in this episode are off the chart. My
brain was not prepared, y'all.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
I I grew up with five and a quarter inch
floppy discs. This seventeen terabytes doesn't mean anything to me.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
No, it feels like a super villain. You know, they
have like the whole space where she's just towering supercomputers.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Oh hmmm, all right, well, uh uh, speaking of I guess.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
During a twenty twenty four investor earnings call, the CEO
reported that that they're algorithms. Let them start making pizzas
before people actually press the place order button, because their
algorithms can tell when it's a sure enough thing, just
go ahead and start cooking.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
That is wild. That is wild because I am someone
who gets cravings a lot, and I'll like start in
order and then I and then back off. Yeah. I
wonder if they would call it correctly. They probably know you.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
They probably know your browsing habits or you know, like somos.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
I've been perceived by dominos.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Oh but you know, like there's still there, there are
still ways that they can innovate. Case in point, they
didn't actually debut a stuffed crust pizza until twenty twenty five. Wow,
I know, right, like Pizza Hut led the way with
that in like the nineteen nineties, and I totally assumed
(43:48):
that every pizza place did that. But yeah, Dominoes was
apparently just like, yeah, it's only a phase for like
three decades, thirty years old, brought out of it, and
then eventually, like someone in analytics and insights was like, no, really, guys,
we should be doing this.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
So stuffed crust pizza. Yeah. Wow, I could honestly just
look into and now I'm sounding like Dumbino's customers ordering
habits because I fascinated if if having the stuffed crust
(44:28):
option are not on a menu was enough that they
noticed a ding like people are turning to other places
because we don't have the stuffed crust option.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Yeah. I'm not totally sure. I was reading one of
their kind of like press releases about the whole thing,
and it sounded more like an upsell situation from the
way that it was reading. But but it might have
it might have been lost sales, like oh you don't
you don't have that. I thought you did have the
own well, never mind, I'm going to go to the
place it has it.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
I can't get my stuffed crust that I'm out. Wow.
Well it's been a fascinating ride.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Yes, oh yeah, yeah, and I would would you would
you share one fun fact about Tom with with the listeners, Uh,
the the one, the one about the sports team?
Speaker 1 (45:30):
Yes, yes, I share too briefly, so number one. I
wanted to do this one, but it was too complicated,
too complicated. Maybe it's too strong, but uh. He wanted
to build a tower, a leaning tower of pizza, okay,
(45:51):
and he wanted it on Their headquarters are in ann Arbor, Michigan,
and he wanted this structure. And he was a big
fan of the right, the people who inherited from the rights,
Oh okay, And so he went to them and they
(46:12):
were going to do it, and it was a gold
like leaning tower, but they had left because they thought
it was not it was beneath beneath them, and then
they brought he brought in. Somebody else also left. And
from what I understand, the reason I didn't include it
is because I was kind of confused by the resolution.
From what I understand, it never got built, but there
(46:34):
was a scale model that was eventually put up, but
you can look it up and it's it's like gold
and Yeah. But the fact Lauren was alluding to is
that from for a brief period of time, he owned
the Tigers football team h and he eventually sold it
(47:02):
because he was a devout Catholic and thought it was
sinful how much he wanted people to pay attention to him.
Oh wow, Okay, okay, But the person who bought it
was the owner of Little Caesar's Pizza. That's my favorite
part because what am I to make of that? Is
that a rivalry? Yeah? Well, what's happening?
Speaker 2 (47:24):
There was this a vindictive sports team purchase? Because I
feel like that happens a lot.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
I believe you're correct. But it was just so strange
to be reading his biography and it was like, oh,
he once owned this football team and then the owner
of Little Caesar's bought it. I was like, m I
think there's more to this than than meets the eye. Okay,
So I just realized I've been saying football team. It
(47:53):
is the Detroit Tigers baseball team in question here. I
am so sorry. I'm sure some of you have already
sent themis I am not generally a sportsperson. But yes,
the Detroit Tigers a baseball team. Uh, is what we're
talking about here. Like I said, fascinating fellow. You can
(48:16):
look him up. Oh in the lost dream of the
Leaning Tower of Pizza. Yeah, a lot a dream. I
think he wanted the offices to actually be in there. Wow.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Oh okay, See I was picturing like statuary, you know,
I was not picturing a functional building.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
I think at one stage at least you mentioned this
is where offices are going to be.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
All right, yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that for him
to be honest.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Yeah yeah. Oh well, I guess that's what we have
to say about Domina for now. I think we've captured
the energy, the kind of care energy of Dominoes for
this one. But listeners really please write in about this.
Speaker 2 (49:11):
Oh yeah, if you have nostalgic memories, if you have strong,
noyed opinions.
Speaker 1 (49:18):
He played the games, you played the games, yes, And
what's going on around the world, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (49:23):
Yes talking, yeah, Dominoes or any other pizza situation. Just
tell us more about pizza. Yes, but yes, we do
already have some listener mail for you, and we're going
to get into that as soon as we get back
from one more quick break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and
we're back with listener pits of time thirty minutes or less. Okay,
Johnny wrote, greetings from across the Alabama state line. Leichi
are a favorite of mine, and in my experience, the
(50:13):
tacab World market is a reliable place for fresh light
chi acquisition, as well as the canned variety. Failing that,
Kasou Guy and I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, and
Peeler's Leichi gummies aren't too terribly difficult to track down
from most Asian specialty markets as well as five below.
The kasou Guy gummies are, in my opinion, a superior
(50:35):
replication of their light, almost floral bouquet of note, and
I suppose to briefly toot my proverbial horn. I recently
had a story featured in the No Sleep podcast titled
Peelers Club, including the Fruit. Probably best not to think
too hard about the implications of that title if you're
(50:57):
squeamish about body heart. In any case, here's an excerpt.
I would later discover Leichi such a delight. Pulling free
and unmarred white fruit and separating it from the gently
textured shell, and then the bullet shaped pit was a
true joy, delicate, fragrant, worth the trouble. I look forward
(51:19):
to hearing about your own tactile arch unveiling experiences in
the not do distant future. Oh, I'm really intrigued by this.
I am a little nervous, all right. Oh.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
I love body horror though, So that's that's that's fine
by me. I mean, I'm I'm right there, I'm right there.
And uh, if if anyone else has watched the film,
we need to talk about Kevin feel like yeah, yeah,
similar vibes, similar vibes great, but yeah hi hi waving
waving at Alabama vaguely and yeah, Decab World Market is
(51:51):
a great one for sure. That is the first one
of the first places in town that I would check.
Speaker 1 (51:57):
Ah. But good, good good gummy rex as well. Thank you, Yes, yes,
I'm excited to see what my own experience shall be. Uh,
tactile like gee experience. But yes, thank you for the
recommendations all around.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
Yes and uh and congrats on getting that story and
in no sleep yeah, yes, Mary wrote, how am I
older than gummy worms. Coffin sized gummy bear best measurement ever.
I would be buried in one if I could, but know.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
That isn't a possibility. D and D.
Speaker 2 (52:37):
I hope this makes it into a new campaign. The
small human is now into D and D and I
told her about it for her DM days. A proud
NERD slash geek mom. Disney Gummy Bear's animated show was
one of my favorites. I think I liked them because
they never got a whole movie, so the story was
always moving ahead an.
Speaker 1 (52:52):
Episode at a time.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
I'm amazed that they weren't more popular than they were
because it was a fun show. The theme song lives
in my head, Rent Free Forever Sam as Lauren, I
have to think was Lauren?
Speaker 1 (53:02):
It was Hi.
Speaker 2 (53:03):
I remember the roadkill gummies and did eat them in
high school. I used to love eating gummy bears in
a very peculiar way. I would open the bag, line
up all the gummy bears along the top of my
desk near the pencil holder divot, reorganize them into a
pattern of color order, and begin to eat them from
the left to the right. I would eat all the
heads first, placing them back into the order, then the feet,
(53:27):
and then the rest. I would get quite a few
concerned looks from other students, and usually the teacher would
just smile at me because they knew me. I was
left alone by anyone looking to pick a fight after this,
so that was a plus in writing this, I've never
realized how gross it was to do this on a
desk that saw so many kids and never got cleaned.
It might explain my current immune system, which helps me
(53:49):
rarely get sick.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
I told my.
Speaker 2 (53:51):
Small human the story and she said did you really
to which my other half said yes, as she did
because he saw me do it a few times. I
currently love gummies that don't have gelatin in them because
my body has decided it hates that. I want a
soft inside but not sticky gummy which can be smashed
between my fingers for a very satisfying feel before being eaten. Yep,
(54:13):
I'm still weird, as I've aged. Pet tex is Lynn,
who put her paws in my shoes. I swear she
would wear them if she could. She also lays claim
to all jackets on the couch. Dante has decided he
loves paper and must have a pile of it to
lay on at all times. And yes, yes, attached are
(54:37):
photos of two truly glorious cats. Lynn is on a jacket,
napping as only a cat who's stolen your clothes can nap,
just so content and really beautiful orange black and white
patterning on linn there and then and then Dante is
(54:58):
a handsome fluf who is just encased in in in
like gift wrapping paper.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
Just uh.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
He's he's made a little play cave of it for himself,
and he he looks like he's willing to defend that
cave fiercely.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
Very pretty pretty cave. Oh and a pretty cat.
Speaker 2 (55:27):
Oh my goodness, he's got a pretty little white bib
and little tabby tabby patterning on.
Speaker 1 (55:32):
The rest of his face and little little white socks.
Oh my goodness. Yes, thank you. How's always for the
pet teck? Yes, yes, and thank you for your many
thoughts about gummies. Yes, the preferences. I love them.
Speaker 2 (55:49):
I love that you remember this ritual with the gummy
bears at your school desk. That that is, that is
in your head.
Speaker 1 (55:56):
I love it. And yeah that's real gross, that's super gross.
Yeah it is.
Speaker 2 (56:05):
But you know, hey, yeah, if you if you rarely
get sick. Now, then you're doing something right.
Speaker 1 (56:10):
Yeah, and also apparently frightened the kids enough to leave
you be look at what she does with the gummies. Nope, no,
that's quite fantastic. I really really like that. And I
like that you still have your your certain textures you
(56:32):
want specificity. Like we said, I appreciate it strong preferences always, always,
and and I love that you're you're small. Human is
gonna it's getting into D and D. Yeah, be a
d N. That's so exciting. Oh my goodness. Yeah, I concentrations.
(56:54):
Gummy bear is a good a good D and D trap. Right,
that's like a gelatinous cube button cute bear form.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
Yeah, oh yeah, very upsetting.
Speaker 1 (57:10):
Watch out, Lauren, Oh.
Speaker 2 (57:14):
No it never give your DM ideas.
Speaker 1 (57:21):
Too late. Well, thank you so much to both of
these listeners for writing in. If you would like to
write to us, you can or email us hello at
saborpod dot com. We're also on social media.
Speaker 2 (57:35):
You can find us on Instagram and blue Sky at
saber pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from
my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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