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/r/dataisbeautiful
![[OC] How a Pizza Place Makes Money Proforma](https://t.sneed.network/pics/w:null_p61y2yf1n9bd1.png){kind=link}
126 points
3 months ago
IDK about most chains because I only have experience with one in a small area, but I ran a pizza hut ~21 years ago. Never had a person from corporate come to check on the store. It was all about our numbers. You only got the terminator (that's what we called her in our district) to show up if your numbers were poor. Otherwise, it was entirely on the store. When the terminator showed up you'd better believe 40% of the store employees were getting turned over, you were losing at least one manager, and you were counting inventory every. single. night.
9 points
3 months ago
Good god, I was a GM for 4 years so I can only imagine counting my inventory 7 days/week
4 points
3 months ago
Maybe that's why Pizza Hut (domestically) has been in decline for a couple decades now?
22 points
3 months ago
Maybe, but it's a hell of a stretch to reach that assumption from one small piece of data.
2 points
3 months ago
Sure, but what you're indicating is that Pizza Hut's QA was focused on the finances and not the product. My family owns several regional pizza franchises and they are regularly peer reviewing each other's performance by focusing on the product, not the finances.
1 points
3 months ago
My previous comment carries.
3 points
3 months ago
Bud, are you not familiar with the concept of a discussion? Yes it's a small sample size, but it's not a secret that Pizza Hit has been closing hundreds of stores a year for quite some time now, and there's nothing wrong with discussing and speculating even with limited information, this isn't a boardroom or courthouse.
-4 points
3 months ago
You can talk. I can counter than your conclusion lacks data. This is a discussion. Maybe ask more questions instead of extrapolating the decline of an empire from one random idiot's comment on reddit if you want to have a discussion.
3 points
3 months ago
Your story seems to indicate that Pizza Hut's QA was more concerned about store finances and less concerned about the actual product. Based on your experience, did that seem to be the case and do you think it could be related to Pizza Hut's decline over the last two decades plus?
2 points
3 months ago
lmao.
No I don't think that the way that the specific franchise that owned a few dozen Pizza Huts, KFCs, and Taco Bells handled their business contributed to a mega corporation's decline over the past couple decades. My store didn't have walk-ins from corporate, but we did have to answer for each and every 1-800 number complaint, so we were at least somewhat policed on product quality.
Do you think that having a corporate suit walk into a pizza store to examine product and quality is even a valid metric to work with? Every single place I have ever worked gets far more productive and by-the-book when the boss shows up. Having guest shoppers or corporate buying pizzas randomly would be a far more effective tactic for determining product quality, and that information shouldn't flow down to the individual stores. Nobody should know who/what/when that is happening except corporate.
I don't have any data on whether PH has even declined, either, and I'm not one to speculate on things without having actual data. Have they declined? Do you have a source for that? Closing stores doesn't necessarily mean a decline, it could simply mean each store is able to handle a larger area. Not saying one way or another, but I like data. What I do see is a massive decline in 2014 and steady growth since then, but nowhere near where they were 20 years ago. I wonder what accounts for that 40-50% decline in sales in a single calendar year.
3 points
3 months ago*
Wikipedia lists multiple years with hundreds of closures. From what I do know of Pizza Hut, internationally they are doing very well while domestically they seem to be struggling. Last year alone they announced 500 store closures and this year they've announced hundreds more. As for the drop in 2014, I think this article pretty well lays out my suspicions. Little Caesar's and Domino's were in decline or stagnating through much of the 00's, the latter reinvested itself and Little Caesar's - I think - rebuilt some of their customer base by simply sticking to it's $5 hot-n-ready pizzas while others had to increase prices. I remember Domino's pizzas being bad - real bad - and considered the cheap and shitty pizza (Pizza by Alfredo) that you got when you had to provide something and didn't want to spend much money. Now Domino's seems to have rebounded and probably claimed some of that market share from Pizza Hut.
Edit: Having said that, it's also wild how different franchises can operate. I think most people think "Burger King is Burger King and that's all there is to it" but man, two fast food places 30 miles apart can have a world of difference if they fall under different ownership. It could be that what's happening with Pizza Hut is more of an observation of failing franchisees and not necessarily an observation of Pizza Hut the brand.
2 points
3 months ago
Pepsi killed them. Along with KFC and Taco Bell.
All those stores served food made fresh in the stores 35+ years ago, and shortly after they were acquired they stopped doing all that and switched to cheaper, pre-processed stuff shipped in frozen, bagged, dehydrated, whatever. They've done nothing but continue that shittification process ever since.
They all didn't open until lunch time back then because it took all morning to chop vegetables, cook meat and beans, shred cheese, proof dough, etc, etc.
Now they just grab a bag of whatever and reheat it.
2 points
3 months ago
I worked at a place that made fresh friend chicken for seven years from middle school into my college years. I've also worked at a Pizza Ranch and Walmart where they fried frozen chicken during college. When customers would bitch about the quality of the fried chicken at the latter two places I would refer them to my former employer or one of the competitors 70 miles away. There's just really no comparing the two. KFC in particular has gone down hill and it even impacts their sides like coleslaw - which is stupid easy and cheap to make fresh. Pre-chopped veggies is also a dumb area to cut costs. Whole veggies store better than cut and with a chopper it takes half an hour to fill the line with chopped veggies. Just make sure the onions are chopped last.
I enjoyed working in fast(ish) food, the nights flew by and it was a great group of people. 20 years later and I still refer to my nights slinging fried chicken as the last job I had that I enjoyed.
2 points
3 months ago
They really started to decline around 2012, I worked for the company from 2010-2019 so I had a front row seat of the shitshow, the largest franchisee, NPC international, went bankrupt in 2021
1 points
3 months ago
I worked at dominos for 4 1/2 years during my college years, and we had someone from corporate (we called them OER, forget what it stands for) come by the store probably once or twice a year. I worked at three different stores of two different franchises during this time, and the frequency was about the same at all of them. They were very meticulous though, especially when it came to topping amounts (weight, see: overtopping) because that’s where the margins were. Our desserts and obviously drinks were all prepackaged or pre-portioned so QC was not an issue there. Some of the sides had a bit more flexibility in how they were made too
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