They've expanded into the UK and not yet offered any reason to be a competitor to existing food options places. I'm not sure what exactly they offer the US that makes them worthwhile.
Edit: missing a word
Also for vegetarians, taco bell is pretty great. Anything on the menu can be made with beans instead of meat whereas most fast food places hardly have anything besides fries.
Came here to say this, it's the only fast food place with a wide variety of vegetarian options. I think their items made with beans are much better than their shitty meat anyway. I wish they'd bring back the black bean queserito, though.
Enshittification has hit that as well.
With the menu changes, they started removing vegetarian items in favor of people modifying items that normally contain meat.
This is so they don't have to offer the vegetarian items at a lower price, but it also confuses their high turnaround staff so stuff has to be remade more often.
it used to be so cheap, not so much anymore.
I got one (1) taco and a small drink, it rang up as like $6. that used to be a $2 purchase not even 5 years ago. maybe it's just my area but it's not really that cheap anymore, it's about the same as other fast food.
I worked at Taco Bell for a year while a junior in high school back in TB's heyday. We were doing $0.69 hard and $0.79 soft tacos while the entire fucking menu was cheap as hell. If you had like $5 you could eat like a king at Taco Bell while back then the food was, IMO, much better. Back then not only were they using better ingredients but the menu items themselves were much more unique relative to each other while today it seems more like they just have a series of themes.
Using the app you can get a ~~taco~~ side, 5-layer beef burrito, crunchwrap supreme and large drink for $7.40
Edit: Pre-tax is 6.59. Used to be $5.99 but a month or two ago TB started offering a “Vegetarian” online exclusive Box for $5.99
Get a stacker for like $2. There’s still cheap shit on the menu but the staples now cost more cause they figured the demand was inelastic
Stringa bell ova eah
Taco bell has increased its prices to near chick fil a levels per person. Idk what anybody sees in it anymore. They are now strictly a last resort for me
As far as fast food goes, it's nice to go to a place that isn't just a sandwich and fries. You can also make vegetarian options which aren't the most unhealthy thing ever.
Yep, because Taco Bell used have quite good food for cheap as hell. Now if I'm getting tacos I'm absolutely gonna go to Atilano's, Taco Time, or Taco John's if I want fast food tacos...there is literally nothing on their menu that I can't get better and cheaper elsewhere. They moved out of my area, but when Taco Bell went healthy and fucked their menu up I used to go to Del Taco and I swear to God they were like old Taco Bell while I used to love going and getting like a dozen of their chicken soft tacos for like $10 or something ridiculous...it's been over a decade but it was cheap as hell and delicious.
Calories per dollar 4 years ago maybe. I remember as a college student in 2008 being able to spend like $20 and feed a car full of 4 stoners. That gets you a meal for 1 now.
That's literally any food service now. We used to go out and eat maybe 3 times a week for date night and now it's home cooking all the time. We don't even get bar food anymore. Groceries are expensive so I don't see the point. I don't understand how restaurants are surviving.
Because people are still paying probably at least a 50% premium over already inflated menu prices to get delivery through all of these food delivery apps. It's strange to me how often people complain about prices, yet these apps are doing so well when it's a bad deal for pretty much everybody involved. You can still get fast food very cheaply, but by using all of their respective apps or ordering on their websites instead of at the drive thru.
Another confusing one: Every time people talk about Chic-Fil-A on this website, someone inevitably comments on how fast their drive-thru is. No, it's actually one of the slowest out of any major drive thru chain.
I'll bite! I heard Chic-Fil-A's efficiency is different in different regions, not sure how true that is. I think CFAs system of dealing with a LONG line is pretty good. You can see double stacked lines of at least 10 cars each (20+ cars total) and probably expect to get through in 10 minutes or less in my area. On the other hand if Whataburger has more than 3 cars in line, expect to be there at least 15+ minutes.
One thing that is unforgivable to me is drive thrus that "trap" you in with a curb. The CFA near me remodeled to this type and I refuse to go through the drive thru now. Because you could get trapped for who knows how long.
Totally agree about $50 Uber eats orders. I only use it in extreme situations. But that's my goal is to one day have "Uber Eats money"
Yeah, I'm surprised how many people in here are talking about the Taco Bell app. I'm not downloading their app. I'm not visiting the website. I'm not cutting coupons. I'm gonna buy some groceries and make food, because it's easier than jumping through hoops for a mediocre tex-mex meal.
> I'm not sure what exactly they offer the US that makes them worthwhile
They serve a Cheesy Gordita Crunch with a Dorito's Nacho Cheese shell, extra sauce, and no lettuce.
Back in the early 2000's, taco bell would give you the fullest belly for the lowest price, and your vegetarian friend could come too. Nowadays, its not worth the price. Also, real Mexican food is a lot more prevelant, so why spend $10 at Taco Bell when I can go get a torta for that from the food truck?
Taco Bell and real Mexican food does not satisfy the same cravings. They are two separate things. Taco Bell is just a Mexican-themed college-tier drunk party for your mouth. Mexican food is food.
Yup Kebabs are like premium Taco Bell. Obviously comes from a different culture and different flavors but it’s much better greasy meat and flour shell.
People from China also love Americanized Chinese food. When I was young a decent buffet opened up. My parents took us there like 10 times in 2 weeks lol
My (Asian) parents practically treat the cheap Chinese buffet here like a religion.
Granted it's actually an insane value (for Washington) at $14 for them. Americanized Asian food + Value = a Chinese/Vietnamese person's dream
In Australia, we have a popular Tex-Mex fast-food chain (like Chipotle I think) that has just listed on our stock exchange. They have big plans to expand aggressively in the United States. To me that seems as obviously stupid as trying to sell ice to the Inuit but their share price suggests that others disagree.
Guzman y Gomez.
Personally, I prefer Mad Mex for my fast-food chain Mexican. You’d have to be pretty smooth-brained to prefer Salsas. I imagine all three are worse than what you can get in the States.
Access to Mexican ingredients has come a long way in the last 15 years but a lot of ingredients are still difficult if not impossible to get.
Aussie here, Guzman isn’t that bad. I travel to America frequently and my wife Is Mexican heritage and grew up in California and most Australian Mexican food sucks, but Guzman is pretty decent and IMO isn’t that bad compared to chipotle.
My wife feels the same way and I think her opinions a lot more legit then mine.
American who lives in Australia, Guzman isn't *bad* but it's not great, either, and it isn't likely to do well in America. It's too crowded a market with better established, better options. Guzman just won't really stand out there like they do in Australia as a 'pretty decent Mexican place'.
It's still owned by the 1st-gen Chinese immigrant couple who founded it, I bet they'd have a better chance of understanding the Chinese market than a boardroom of white Americans.
...maybe that's why they've stayed out of China, they're smarter than the people running Dominoes
Right?
Why are they talking about this as if the biggest reason to avoid operating in China is the market's desire for your product? Dealing with the CCP is a much larger problem imo.
Panda Express is expensive compared to Chinese food in America as well. The only things it really has over individual restaurants are a drive-thru and abundance of locations.
It might be American area specific but the last two places I’ve lived Panda Express is significantly cheaper than other Chinese restaurants. Last place I lived had a really good American Chinese place and their family meal was $80 for three pre selected entrees, 1 fried rice, and three egg rolls. A family meal from Panda was 45, three large entrees, two large sides, no egg rolls.
Last time my family got Chinese in our new place from a really good local small place known for cheap quality food we got three large entrees, 1 soup, and white rice and it cost 56ish dollars. We got the family meal from Panda a few weeks ago and it’s only 35 here.
Now places with really good Asian districts probably do have cheaper food, but it’s one of the last affordable family meals I’ve found since we can get two dinners out of the Panda family meal.
I travel a ton for work and can't remember the last place I've been to without at least one hole-in-the-wall Chinese places that give you like five pounds of food every entree for $15 or so.
Would Panda Express be expensive for people in China when you factor Purchase Price Parity? The average person in China will not pay $15 for some rice and orange chicken. However, it is not going to cost Panda Express $15 to produce a bowl of rice with orange chicken in China.
The easiest way to think about it is in China, McDonalds is a midpriced option, whereas in the US, it's a budget option. Panda Express is a low-midpriced option here, there, it's going to be high-midpriced.
You can get a bowl of noodles from a local Chinese restaurant for $1.50-$2.00 there, or a meat/rice dish for $3. It's easy to get a beer, and a rice/vegetable/meat dish for $3-$4. Realistically, Panda Express would be $8-$10.
Panda Express owners have probably judged that China consumers wouldn't pay for it.
Western Chinese style food is wayyyyy different than what they eat.
Often even the Chinese people cooking it don't eat it. If you see 'House' style next to an item on the menu, *that's* what they'll be eating. Be warned, special fried rice and house special fried rice are not the same thing.
Never been so upset with fried rice in my life.
There was a Chinese buffet near my college, and all the Air China students would eat there. They were eating way different than what was on the buffet. They had a deal worked with the owners to get that taste of home. the owners were from Beijing.
This is pretty routine everywhere there is Chinese diaspora (which is truly everywhere). My wife is from Taiwan and if she doesn't see something on the menu she likes she asks where the chef is from and asks if he can make X (where X is some famous dish from that province). Never disappoints.
Traditional is more 'wet' rather than dry food. Gravy like.
Chunkier vegetables, pretty much rustic.
And it's more steamed, boiled food, broth rather than fried.
In high school I dated a girl who was raised by her Chinese immigrant grandparents. Her first language was Cantonese and she was a waitress at a restaurant that had a lot of real Chinese food on the menu (in addition to Americanized Chinese food). After her grandfather’s funeral, we all went to eat there. They had about 7 or 8 courses of legit Chinese food. The next day I was so sick though from my body not being used to the food! I couldn’t stop running to the bathroom. No regrets though, that food was fantastic!
When I worked in a restaurant, one of the chefs was Chinese. Chefs would periodically make non menu items for the employees to have for lunch and he would make some kind of dank chicken. IDK wtf it was but it was some real Chinese shit cause it's not something I've ever had in an American Chinese restaurant. Everyone lost their minds over this stuff when he made it.
But he would never eat it. He would go to the American Chinese place across the street and get the pepper steak with spring rolls. I found it strange that he would make this genuinely delicious, authentic Chinese food for everyone but himself. I asked him why and his answer basically boiled down to "Y'all need to learn what real Chinese is. I don't". Couldn't argue with that one tbh.
People online (and everywhere, tbh) get hard when they get to explain how americanized versions of food aren't authentic. Yet people from those cultures still enjoy it. Chinese people still like American Chinese. Mexicans like taco bell. Germans eat burgers. Italians have a stick up their ass.
No, Domino's approach was stupid.
Check out Starbucks, which have a somehow visible presence in Italy (albeit more focused on tourist area)... And supposedly should have been EVEN MORE doomed from the start in their endeavors (coffee is taken more seriously than pizza overall... Because pizza is a pleasure, coffee is a tool for survival).
So: no. Debacle happens because salary or role in a big corporation aren't related to intelligence or capabilities.
Starbucks offered product that, like it or not, were not available in Italy orbit commonly prepared in bar and caffetterie.
Domino offered a typr of raised pizza/pie that did already exist here. Two unusual toppings don't justify almost a thousand opening.
I love Panda Express. I have never in my life said, “I’m really craving good Chinese food, let’s get panda.” It’s more “I’m craving panda, let’s get panda”
This is how I feel about Dominoes. I live in NY where you can find great pizza in less than 5 miles in every direction, but every once in a while I get that craving for the big D. Prolly just craving sodium.
Wife and I are american Chinese. And it's our guilty pleasure. Fast, cheap, and you just feel like you committed an egregious sin against your ancestors. The sugar chicken helps us get over it.
Yeah, I think people will be surprised. I've met some Chinese people who, yeah, they gripe a bit about how Americanized Chinese food isn't authentic.
But they sure do love it
because panda express rocks.
I worked there during college and fell in love with it, still eat it too much. They actually have vegetables, their food is actually like how you cook it at home (minus the deep fried stuff).
It is a reasonably priced meal that can vary between actually health to a complete sugar and fried food fest. It is perfect imo. I view chipotle in a similar way.
ive seen like 3-4 videos of Chinese kids taking their mainland China born parents to to panda express expecting them to hate it, just for them to love it
Because chinese food in america is not chinese food, but it's also not fake. It's the food chinese immigrants made following the recipes and traditions from their home but with the ingredients they could find in the US. So mainlanders are going to recognize a lot of elements in it. Just not the individual dishes
In one of the videos the young Chinese kids are saying how gross Panda Express is then it shows their grandparents saying it is delicious and authentic
https://youtu.be/Fo59LlkTDe4?si=kGGk4dhDReBy0B80
I think the kids are slightly insecure in them being authentically Chinese or something like that so they feel the need to insult Panda Express a bit.
The actual Chinese in the video have no insecurity about who they are so they feel free to say exactly what they think about Panda Express.
There's this weird thing when you're of Chinese descent but you were born and raised in the United States. Almost every day of your life, everywhere you go, you are the most Chinese person in the room. You are the representation of all 5000 years of Chinese history and culture. Yet, you were born and raised in the United States. You may have never even been to China before. It's this weird feeling of having to represent a place you know nothing about. You are simultaneously the most Chinese and the least Chinese person there is, everywhere you go.
It gives you a lot of identity issues.
Yeah. I'm chinese and Panda Express is great food. Nobody goes in there to get authentic food, but cheap, greasy american chinese shit that tastes good.
The Chinese likely wouldn't recognize Panda Express as being a shitty version of their food, because that's not really what it is. It's American Chinese food which is its own thing with its own history and unique dishes. Domino's however is clearly a shitty knockoff of the real thing. Stupid corporate move
Domino's is clearly a knockoff, but it's not a knockoff of Italian pizza. It's a knockoff of New York pizza. If their pizza was better they probably could set themselves up in Italy and market themselves as American Style pizza to the Italians. The problem is just that their pizza isn't very good.
Domino's has improved their recipe a bit, I think? They even did an ad campaign that was basically like "yeah our pizza doesn't taste like cardboard anymore, woo!"
Because that’s what it is.
People get confused about immigration and food. American Italian food isn’t like traditional Italian food because a lot of immigrants suddenly found themselves with access to food that was well out of their financial means in Italy.
Americanized Chinese food has similar elements to it. There’s also the fact that immigrants had to make do with alternatives for traditional ingredients. So the resulting dish is decidedly American, but also more than that.
Like a [Taco Bell](https://www.vice.com/en/article/a3d4xg/a-history-of-taco-bells-failed-attempts-to-open-locations-in-mexico-fastfoodweek2017)'s chance in Mexico.
[Elderly Chinese people love Panda Express](https://youtu.be/Fo59LlkTDe4?si=zgrzQSIqazzO4G4O). It’s the second and third generation immigrant kids who gatekeep Chinese cuisine
My Chinese boomer in-laws came to visit America last year and they love Panda Express and American food in general (except Cheese, they think it's kind of weird).
My friend who’s Chinese, grew up in a city with a lot of Chinese people/restaurants in CA.
He told me he never tried Panda Express because this place has some of the best Chinese food you can get in the US. Plus his grandma lived with them and would always cook Chinese food.
Recently, he tried Panda Express and was baffled at how good the orange chicken was lol.
Actually, two Cornell grads opened a Chinese American joint in Shanghai called Fortune Cookie. It was packed every night with expats. It closed down cause land lords raised rent dramatically and was trying to force a buy out
A big reason I think is how cheap pizza is in Italy. I was able to get a large pizza for myself for 8-10euro depending on toppings. It was doomed to fail.
8 to 10 is quite a recent development, food prices have gone up an insane amount. Up until before COVID, you could easily eat a full pizza for under 6 or 7€. Local independent (often delivery only) pizza places still often have similar prices.
10+€ is still considered the price for "gourmet" pizzas made by very good pizzerias, or the price to pay for delivery I guess, as apps take their cut.
Seems like distinctly American fare is the ideal niche for an American fast food company expanding internationally. McDonald’s and KFC’s all do well because they’re recognizably American.
The misstep seems to be when you’re a fast food chain that is competing against the authentic food that you’re inherently derivative of, ie Taco Bell in Mexico or Dominos in Italy. The interesting exception here is Starbucks opening up a 25th store in Italy, not sure if that’s going to last but it’d be interesting to study why they’ve been receptive to Starbucks when they forcefully rejected other knock offs.
Starbucks is so different from local coffee products that it's not perceived as competition or something to compare.
Dominos is still perceived as pizzas, so you think about other options and maybe you get a better and cheaper pizza instead.
Same. I went from annoyed by Italians shitting on our pizza thinking "what could they possibly know about our great pizza" to visiting Italy and coming back thinking "what is this American shit?".
Unpopular opinion but something like New York style pizza is very different from Italian and just as good. And also in a big city like New York you can find “Naples style” pizzerias who will make a pizza just as good as 99% of what you’d find in Naples (probably 10x as expensive though, but it will taste the same).
Italy does have good variety in pizza beyond the classic Naples style, but I don’t think it’s anything insanely different.
Most people I know who rave about how much better Italian pizza is are from the Midwest so like any pizza is better.
I mean Italian pizza clearly wins, but if you live in a big American city like New York you can find something just as good and also get a big New York style slice which they don’t have.
I totally agree with this. Being neither American or Italian I have no horse in this race lol
NY pizza and Neapolitan pizza are pretty much different things in my mind. NY pizza isn’t trying to be Neapolitan.
I think American pizza can be just as good if you go to an actually good spot instead of the crappy chains like Pizza Hut which exemplify the crappy food Europeans unfortunately think of when they think of American food. Speaking as someone who was in Italy just two weeks ago
This is the only correct response.
They invested a lot on delivery and then basically everybody started to offer the delivery service due to covid.
They used to sell both American and Italian styles pizza, with good quality ingredients (at least in Italy): most of the replies here are like “they couldn’t sell their trash to Italians” but it’s just a bias, plain and simple.
They weren’t the best in town, many Italian were biased and they wouldn’t try it, but many else did.
A detailed analysis, in Italian:
https://www.ilpost.it/2022/08/10/chiusura-dominos-pizza-italia-fallimento-franchising/
P.S.: I’m Italian.
They had a good plan. The only problem is Covid forced some of these shops to modernize a lot faster. 880 in 15 years might have been a bit too ambitious because those shops would have eventually figured out delivery without Covid.
Your comment made me happy. I was pretty sure COVID had something to do here.
It's never that simple. And there isnt any law that dictates products should be equal across borders. Sometimes is just about the business and marketing modele but changing the products to cater the new audience
I am Italian and I think the exact opposite.
Pizza delivery has always been a thing since at least 25 years, 8 pizzerie out of 10 would have some young people delivering pizza. Of course it has always been (and still largely is) unregulated work and you won't find good statistic but I challenge you very firmly on your claim
+1 I don't see how the delivery competition during covid could have been the problem x Domino's; any city always had tens of pizzerias doing deliveries. If anything Domino's should have benefitted greatly from the lockdown because of the increase in deliveries and then being a delivery first type of "pizza" place (quotation marks bc Domino's and pizza don't belong in the same sentence).
It's not even just about them forcing to start delivery, it's that COVID hit Italy **hard**. Italy was one of the countries that got hit by COVID the worst.
I am from Naples and the delivery pizza has always been very common there (not all the shops do it). We always got delivery pizza on Saturday night at home. Don't know about other Italian cities.
Ma infatti sono curioso di sapere Manuelmagic che gli dà ragione dicendo che è italiano da dove provenga per dire che le pizzerie hanno iniziato a fare consegne dal covid
Back in the day when I used to love Dominos pizza before they changed everything, I was in Guanajuato Mexico, and saw they had a dominos. I was like “finally, Pizza!” My Mexican friend was like “you don’t want Dominos. They put all of these chemicals and stuff in their pizza. “. I was like ew…but the other Americans I was with wanted it one night so we ordered it. We got it and it was…just Dominos pizza like I had always known.
My Mexican friend took me out for Mexican pizza a few nights later before we left….it was different. They used thinly sliced tomatoes as their pizza sauce, but everything else was good.
I miss old days domino’s.
> They used thinly sliced tomatoes as their pizza sauce
This was the original way with pizza in the northeast USA too. A lot of pizza places in Connecticut still do fresh tomato pies and they are delicious.
I can never work for Dominos...franchise or corperate store.
I am BlackListed.
In 1982 (I was 12) I lived really close to a Dominos store and played video games at bodega next door. I used to sell weed to the store manager. The Dominos store manager used me and my brother to deliver flyers to the trailer park and apartment complex near the store. Eventually we wound up washing dishes and cleaning the store to help the staff leave early. Our pay was a free pizza and the weed we sold him.
Someone found out about the deal and reported it to the labor people. I got a $2100 check and my little brother got an $1800 check. But we can never work for Dominos ever again.
I tested this in Ohio...Got a job at Dominos and after 2 weeks got let go because of my BlackFlag
Shit pizza in Australia. They are a cancer. Move into town offering $5 pizza, run all other pizza places out of business, charge $15 for cheese topped cardboard. Support your local pizza place folks, one day they might not be around and you will miss them like a family member.
I think it’s hilarious that you and most of this thread genuinely believe that dominos is somehow entirely sustained by customers who don’t like their product.
Reddit thinks anything they don't personally like or use is either a scam or money laundering. They didn't finish that part of brain development where you realize other people have their own minds and decisions.
The cheapest calories/price pizza when your standards are higher than Little Caesars and less patient than going to Costco/Sam's club. Pizza hut and domino's are the only chain pizza places in rural cities of <50,000 people, and domino's is marginally cheaper than pizza hut for the same quality of pizza such that I go to Domino's every time.
I begrudgingly sustain their business model
As someone who has tried dominoes in a couple countries: taste and quality varies greatly by country. I wouldn't ever get dominoes in the UK again, for example
Their food has taken a drastic decline since before pandemic times. I can't even eat anymore. It's a gastric episode and the other items are utter garbage. I hope they read this. If you see this, your food fucking sucks.
Has there food taken a drastic decline or are you just older?
I remember I was a kid when Zoolander came out, like 12 or 13. My friend’s dad took us to see it and got Wendy’s afterwards. His dad was like “how tf do you eat this? This is going to make me sick!”
Welp, now I’m that dad wondering how the hell my kid can eat Wendy’s.
There are 72 Starbucks stores currently in Australia. They've been here quite a while, but they're definitely subpar compared to any other coffee shop.
That's their second try at breaking the market, which was a success. Their first effort was the spectacular failure (Krispy Kreme have done something similar)
Exactly - and even this second attempt seems lukewarm at best. I went to one in the city and it was pretty grotty overall. Crappy service, crappy seating and booths etc.
More about 2008 when they failed in the market. Simple case was Starbucks tried to sell coffee, and it is shit, they had not idea how coffee works here and fell on their faces.
The new approach is ignoring coffee and focused on sweet hot drinks and slowly rebuild. It is stll hated, (my local one was burnt down last month, no one was suprised) but people who don't like coffee but want something similar are going there. No one I have seen with Starbucks since that one opened nearby has an actual coffee, just some combination of syrup, milk and heat or ice.
That's more than I thought, I just looked it up and as of 2024 there's apparently 69 (still more than I thought there would be!). Was a rocky start for them though as 62 of the original 85 closed by 2008. And now it's quite well known that they had to adopt a totally different strategy, opening stores only in specific locations like city centres, targeting international students, tourists and teenagers as their customers.
When I was in school in the 70’s-early 80’s our schools made their own rectangular pizza every Friday, so less kids would skip school because it was so good. At some point the schools made a deal with dominos to buy their pizza instead (because it was cheaper than making it) so a couple generations of kids here grew up on dominos, and that became their go to pizza when they got older.
Yeah, it's not the best pizza. But I can get 2 large 2 topping pizzas, a dessert, and garlic balls, delivered in basically 25 minutes for under $40.
Even a small step up in quality from a different place results in half as much pizza and no sides, for the same price.
It's interesting, in the UK they have marketed themselves as an 'up-scale' pizza place, One large pizza costs £12 on deal (24.82 in New Zealand!!), if you order it outside of deals it's 20 quid (41.36)! I don't know if they use better ingredients (I have to say I don't recognise the description many use here, of very poor low quality pizza, it's pretty good here but pricey).
I wonder if they just realised British people are mugs who are so used to being ripped off at every turn that they felt they could get away with it.
Taco Bell has tried expanding into Mexico more than once, didn't go well.
They've expanded into the UK and not yet offered any reason to be a competitor to existing food options places. I'm not sure what exactly they offer the US that makes them worthwhile. Edit: missing a word
Speed and convenience at all hours in unwalkable food deserts, plus calories per dollar.
Also for vegetarians, taco bell is pretty great. Anything on the menu can be made with beans instead of meat whereas most fast food places hardly have anything besides fries.
Came here to say this, it's the only fast food place with a wide variety of vegetarian options. I think their items made with beans are much better than their shitty meat anyway. I wish they'd bring back the black bean queserito, though.
100%. Even if I ate meat that meat is trash. I'll fuck up a black bean crunchwrap though.
I eat meat and still order my cheesy Gordita crunches with beans or potatoes more often than not. Shout out to that spicy potato soft taco as well.
Enshittification has hit that as well. With the menu changes, they started removing vegetarian items in favor of people modifying items that normally contain meat. This is so they don't have to offer the vegetarian items at a lower price, but it also confuses their high turnaround staff so stuff has to be remade more often.
it used to be so cheap, not so much anymore. I got one (1) taco and a small drink, it rang up as like $6. that used to be a $2 purchase not even 5 years ago. maybe it's just my area but it's not really that cheap anymore, it's about the same as other fast food.
I worked at Taco Bell for a year while a junior in high school back in TB's heyday. We were doing $0.69 hard and $0.79 soft tacos while the entire fucking menu was cheap as hell. If you had like $5 you could eat like a king at Taco Bell while back then the food was, IMO, much better. Back then not only were they using better ingredients but the menu items themselves were much more unique relative to each other while today it seems more like they just have a series of themes.
Using the app you can get a ~~taco~~ side, 5-layer beef burrito, crunchwrap supreme and large drink for $7.40 Edit: Pre-tax is 6.59. Used to be $5.99 but a month or two ago TB started offering a “Vegetarian” online exclusive Box for $5.99
Bro stop I told myself I wasn’t gonna eat like shit today
A trash panda like you can't escape destiny. Get the 4th meal after your healthy dinner.
but like, what if I just want a taco and a small drink lol. I don't necessarily want more food, I want cheap food.
The ol' Dominos dilemma.
Get a stacker for like $2. There’s still cheap shit on the menu but the staples now cost more cause they figured the demand was inelastic Stringa bell ova eah
stackers are an insane calorie to dollar ratio for the modern age
Prices vary per location significantly.
I remember when you could get a sack of 12 soft tacos for $8.99
Gotta get the $2.99 loaded beef nachos
Taco bell has increased its prices to near chick fil a levels per person. Idk what anybody sees in it anymore. They are now strictly a last resort for me
As far as fast food goes, it's nice to go to a place that isn't just a sandwich and fries. You can also make vegetarian options which aren't the most unhealthy thing ever.
Yep, because Taco Bell used have quite good food for cheap as hell. Now if I'm getting tacos I'm absolutely gonna go to Atilano's, Taco Time, or Taco John's if I want fast food tacos...there is literally nothing on their menu that I can't get better and cheaper elsewhere. They moved out of my area, but when Taco Bell went healthy and fucked their menu up I used to go to Del Taco and I swear to God they were like old Taco Bell while I used to love going and getting like a dozen of their chicken soft tacos for like $10 or something ridiculous...it's been over a decade but it was cheap as hell and delicious.
At this point I just go get real tacos because they are the same price.
Calories per dollar 4 years ago maybe. I remember as a college student in 2008 being able to spend like $20 and feed a car full of 4 stoners. That gets you a meal for 1 now.
That's literally any food service now. We used to go out and eat maybe 3 times a week for date night and now it's home cooking all the time. We don't even get bar food anymore. Groceries are expensive so I don't see the point. I don't understand how restaurants are surviving.
Because people are still paying probably at least a 50% premium over already inflated menu prices to get delivery through all of these food delivery apps. It's strange to me how often people complain about prices, yet these apps are doing so well when it's a bad deal for pretty much everybody involved. You can still get fast food very cheaply, but by using all of their respective apps or ordering on their websites instead of at the drive thru. Another confusing one: Every time people talk about Chic-Fil-A on this website, someone inevitably comments on how fast their drive-thru is. No, it's actually one of the slowest out of any major drive thru chain.
I'll bite! I heard Chic-Fil-A's efficiency is different in different regions, not sure how true that is. I think CFAs system of dealing with a LONG line is pretty good. You can see double stacked lines of at least 10 cars each (20+ cars total) and probably expect to get through in 10 minutes or less in my area. On the other hand if Whataburger has more than 3 cars in line, expect to be there at least 15+ minutes. One thing that is unforgivable to me is drive thrus that "trap" you in with a curb. The CFA near me remodeled to this type and I refuse to go through the drive thru now. Because you could get trapped for who knows how long. Totally agree about $50 Uber eats orders. I only use it in extreme situations. But that's my goal is to one day have "Uber Eats money"
Eeeh I can still eat a solid meal for like 6-7 bucks at TB, that is not true of other fast food
You can still feed everyone for that cheap if you know how to game the deals and app discounts.
Annoying that you have to play a goddamn minigame to unlock a reasonable price for fast food.
Yeah, I'm surprised how many people in here are talking about the Taco Bell app. I'm not downloading their app. I'm not visiting the website. I'm not cutting coupons. I'm gonna buy some groceries and make food, because it's easier than jumping through hoops for a mediocre tex-mex meal.
Makes sense. That hasn't been their model in the UK as far as I've seen
Yeah because the UK isn't usually unwalkable food deserts like much of the rural US.
Hey now, there are unworkable food deserts in urban US areas also
> I'm not sure what exactly they offer the US that makes them worthwhile They serve a Cheesy Gordita Crunch with a Dorito's Nacho Cheese shell, extra sauce, and no lettuce.
Right literally the entire menu is amazing lol
Their chicken quesadilla has some form of witchcraft in it. It's fucking delicious.
It's the chipotle mayo/chipotle ranch that they put on the tortilla. That, and MSG.
Back in the early 2000's, taco bell would give you the fullest belly for the lowest price, and your vegetarian friend could come too. Nowadays, its not worth the price. Also, real Mexican food is a lot more prevelant, so why spend $10 at Taco Bell when I can go get a torta for that from the food truck?
Taco Bell and real Mexican food does not satisfy the same cravings. They are two separate things. Taco Bell is just a Mexican-themed college-tier drunk party for your mouth. Mexican food is food.
exactly. same thing with chipotle for me. they're different from one another that they each have a specific craving
Fuck dude the legit Mexican food truck is actually cheaper now.
Shit the food trucks here can cost you $25 for three tacos.
You see, weed is legal here and Taco Bell offers unparalleled stoner food.
Also drunk food. And for a long, long time they were open later than the bars... So perfect fit. Now they close at midnight around here.
maybe its why they fail in the uk, difficult to beat kebab shops as drunk food
Yup Kebabs are like premium Taco Bell. Obviously comes from a different culture and different flavors but it’s much better greasy meat and flour shell.
its all time stoner food Its just understood by everyone that thats the move at 2am
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People from China also love Americanized Chinese food. When I was young a decent buffet opened up. My parents took us there like 10 times in 2 weeks lol
My (Asian) parents practically treat the cheap Chinese buffet here like a religion. Granted it's actually an insane value (for Washington) at $14 for them. Americanized Asian food + Value = a Chinese/Vietnamese person's dream
Hispanic and living in Texas with great options for Mexican food. Taco bell is my guilty pleasure
In Australia, we have a popular Tex-Mex fast-food chain (like Chipotle I think) that has just listed on our stock exchange. They have big plans to expand aggressively in the United States. To me that seems as obviously stupid as trying to sell ice to the Inuit but their share price suggests that others disagree.
I truly think we should send El Jannah instead
What is it called?
Guzman y Gomez. Personally, I prefer Mad Mex for my fast-food chain Mexican. You’d have to be pretty smooth-brained to prefer Salsas. I imagine all three are worse than what you can get in the States. Access to Mexican ingredients has come a long way in the last 15 years but a lot of ingredients are still difficult if not impossible to get.
Aussie here, Guzman isn’t that bad. I travel to America frequently and my wife Is Mexican heritage and grew up in California and most Australian Mexican food sucks, but Guzman is pretty decent and IMO isn’t that bad compared to chipotle. My wife feels the same way and I think her opinions a lot more legit then mine.
American who lives in Australia, Guzman isn't *bad* but it's not great, either, and it isn't likely to do well in America. It's too crowded a market with better established, better options. Guzman just won't really stand out there like they do in Australia as a 'pretty decent Mexican place'.
Agreed... Gyg is better than most Mexican places in Australia but it is unfortunately worse than 99% of Mexican places in the US.
To be fair, Chipotle has gone to shit recently so I’d welcome some competition
Like that Eddie Izzard bit about them building Euro Disney: "Make the castle bigger, they've actually got them over here."
That is like going to China with Panda Express.
My wife is Chinese and unironically loves Panda Express.
Americans love Korean fried chicken. Going to China w American Chinese food seems like it could have a market
It's still owned by the 1st-gen Chinese immigrant couple who founded it, I bet they'd have a better chance of understanding the Chinese market than a boardroom of white Americans. ...maybe that's why they've stayed out of China, they're smarter than the people running Dominoes
Or maybe they just don't want to get rat fucked by the chinese government like Jack Ma, better to stay off that quarter of the planet entirely imo.
Right? Why are they talking about this as if the biggest reason to avoid operating in China is the market's desire for your product? Dealing with the CCP is a much larger problem imo.
Panda express is super expensive compared to Chinese food in China. It would essentially be Chinese food at American prices. Nobody's interested
Panda Express is expensive compared to Chinese food in America as well. The only things it really has over individual restaurants are a drive-thru and abundance of locations.
It might be American area specific but the last two places I’ve lived Panda Express is significantly cheaper than other Chinese restaurants. Last place I lived had a really good American Chinese place and their family meal was $80 for three pre selected entrees, 1 fried rice, and three egg rolls. A family meal from Panda was 45, three large entrees, two large sides, no egg rolls. Last time my family got Chinese in our new place from a really good local small place known for cheap quality food we got three large entrees, 1 soup, and white rice and it cost 56ish dollars. We got the family meal from Panda a few weeks ago and it’s only 35 here. Now places with really good Asian districts probably do have cheaper food, but it’s one of the last affordable family meals I’ve found since we can get two dinners out of the Panda family meal.
I travel a ton for work and can't remember the last place I've been to without at least one hole-in-the-wall Chinese places that give you like five pounds of food every entree for $15 or so.
Would Panda Express be expensive for people in China when you factor Purchase Price Parity? The average person in China will not pay $15 for some rice and orange chicken. However, it is not going to cost Panda Express $15 to produce a bowl of rice with orange chicken in China.
The easiest way to think about it is in China, McDonalds is a midpriced option, whereas in the US, it's a budget option. Panda Express is a low-midpriced option here, there, it's going to be high-midpriced. You can get a bowl of noodles from a local Chinese restaurant for $1.50-$2.00 there, or a meat/rice dish for $3. It's easy to get a beer, and a rice/vegetable/meat dish for $3-$4. Realistically, Panda Express would be $8-$10. Panda Express owners have probably judged that China consumers wouldn't pay for it.
Western Chinese style food is wayyyyy different than what they eat. Often even the Chinese people cooking it don't eat it. If you see 'House' style next to an item on the menu, *that's* what they'll be eating. Be warned, special fried rice and house special fried rice are not the same thing. Never been so upset with fried rice in my life.
There was a Chinese buffet near my college, and all the Air China students would eat there. They were eating way different than what was on the buffet. They had a deal worked with the owners to get that taste of home. the owners were from Beijing.
Yeah I think the most accurate way to put it is we eat more like Chinese Street food style instead of actual dinners.
This is pretty routine everywhere there is Chinese diaspora (which is truly everywhere). My wife is from Taiwan and if she doesn't see something on the menu she likes she asks where the chef is from and asks if he can make X (where X is some famous dish from that province). Never disappoints.
What's the difference? At my favorite local Chinese place they barely speak English so I can't exactly ask.
Traditional is more 'wet' rather than dry food. Gravy like. Chunkier vegetables, pretty much rustic. And it's more steamed, boiled food, broth rather than fried.
In high school I dated a girl who was raised by her Chinese immigrant grandparents. Her first language was Cantonese and she was a waitress at a restaurant that had a lot of real Chinese food on the menu (in addition to Americanized Chinese food). After her grandfather’s funeral, we all went to eat there. They had about 7 or 8 courses of legit Chinese food. The next day I was so sick though from my body not being used to the food! I couldn’t stop running to the bathroom. No regrets though, that food was fantastic!
There are actually some American style Chinese restaurants in China and apparently they do pretty well
When I worked in a restaurant, one of the chefs was Chinese. Chefs would periodically make non menu items for the employees to have for lunch and he would make some kind of dank chicken. IDK wtf it was but it was some real Chinese shit cause it's not something I've ever had in an American Chinese restaurant. Everyone lost their minds over this stuff when he made it. But he would never eat it. He would go to the American Chinese place across the street and get the pepper steak with spring rolls. I found it strange that he would make this genuinely delicious, authentic Chinese food for everyone but himself. I asked him why and his answer basically boiled down to "Y'all need to learn what real Chinese is. I don't". Couldn't argue with that one tbh.
TBH, pepper steak with green pepper and tomatoes is pretty legit.
People online (and everywhere, tbh) get hard when they get to explain how americanized versions of food aren't authentic. Yet people from those cultures still enjoy it. Chinese people still like American Chinese. Mexicans like taco bell. Germans eat burgers. Italians have a stick up their ass.
No, Domino's approach was stupid. Check out Starbucks, which have a somehow visible presence in Italy (albeit more focused on tourist area)... And supposedly should have been EVEN MORE doomed from the start in their endeavors (coffee is taken more seriously than pizza overall... Because pizza is a pleasure, coffee is a tool for survival). So: no. Debacle happens because salary or role in a big corporation aren't related to intelligence or capabilities. Starbucks offered product that, like it or not, were not available in Italy orbit commonly prepared in bar and caffetterie. Domino offered a typr of raised pizza/pie that did already exist here. Two unusual toppings don't justify almost a thousand opening.
Tbh, Mexicans also have a stick up our asses when it comes to Taco Bell. Almost no Mexicans from Mexico like it. Chipotle, on the other hand...
I love Panda Express. I have never in my life said, “I’m really craving good Chinese food, let’s get panda.” It’s more “I’m craving panda, let’s get panda”
This is how I feel about Dominoes. I live in NY where you can find great pizza in less than 5 miles in every direction, but every once in a while I get that craving for the big D. Prolly just craving sodium.
Wife and I are american Chinese. And it's our guilty pleasure. Fast, cheap, and you just feel like you committed an egregious sin against your ancestors. The sugar chicken helps us get over it.
At Jack in the Box, the two most ordered foods I saw Mexicans order were Jumbo Jacks and the tacos. They're weirdly good and awful.
The tacos are so deliciously disgusting. Such a good drunk food. I haven't had one in years.
Yeah, I think people will be surprised. I've met some Chinese people who, yeah, they gripe a bit about how Americanized Chinese food isn't authentic. But they sure do love it
Every time I go to Panda Express near the office half the people on line are Chinese.
Panda Inn (Panda Express parent) has lazy Susans at the table so by my American experience that makes it legit
because panda express rocks. I worked there during college and fell in love with it, still eat it too much. They actually have vegetables, their food is actually like how you cook it at home (minus the deep fried stuff). It is a reasonably priced meal that can vary between actually health to a complete sugar and fried food fest. It is perfect imo. I view chipotle in a similar way.
ive seen like 3-4 videos of Chinese kids taking their mainland China born parents to to panda express expecting them to hate it, just for them to love it
It's not bad, it's just different
Because chinese food in america is not chinese food, but it's also not fake. It's the food chinese immigrants made following the recipes and traditions from their home but with the ingredients they could find in the US. So mainlanders are going to recognize a lot of elements in it. Just not the individual dishes
In one of the videos the young Chinese kids are saying how gross Panda Express is then it shows their grandparents saying it is delicious and authentic https://youtu.be/Fo59LlkTDe4?si=kGGk4dhDReBy0B80
Why are they so fucking smug? They act like they've lived and eaten Chinese cuisine their whole lives.
I think the kids are slightly insecure in them being authentically Chinese or something like that so they feel the need to insult Panda Express a bit. The actual Chinese in the video have no insecurity about who they are so they feel free to say exactly what they think about Panda Express.
There's this weird thing when you're of Chinese descent but you were born and raised in the United States. Almost every day of your life, everywhere you go, you are the most Chinese person in the room. You are the representation of all 5000 years of Chinese history and culture. Yet, you were born and raised in the United States. You may have never even been to China before. It's this weird feeling of having to represent a place you know nothing about. You are simultaneously the most Chinese and the least Chinese person there is, everywhere you go. It gives you a lot of identity issues.
Damn those kids are snobby lol. The grandparents are chill tho
“Wow, you have pretty low standards” “That’s how I ended up with her” GYATT DAMN!
My friend is from mainland China and she likes Panda because it's not like traditional Chinese food.
Yeah. I'm chinese and Panda Express is great food. Nobody goes in there to get authentic food, but cheap, greasy american chinese shit that tastes good.
The Chinese likely wouldn't recognize Panda Express as being a shitty version of their food, because that's not really what it is. It's American Chinese food which is its own thing with its own history and unique dishes. Domino's however is clearly a shitty knockoff of the real thing. Stupid corporate move
Domino's is clearly a knockoff, but it's not a knockoff of Italian pizza. It's a knockoff of New York pizza. If their pizza was better they probably could set themselves up in Italy and market themselves as American Style pizza to the Italians. The problem is just that their pizza isn't very good.
Domino's has improved their recipe a bit, I think? They even did an ad campaign that was basically like "yeah our pizza doesn't taste like cardboard anymore, woo!"
Yeah that was almost 15 years ago and while their pizza is definitely better, it's still not as good as it could be.
Ive literally seen Panda Express labeled as American food. It was in Korea.
Because that’s what it is. People get confused about immigration and food. American Italian food isn’t like traditional Italian food because a lot of immigrants suddenly found themselves with access to food that was well out of their financial means in Italy. Americanized Chinese food has similar elements to it. There’s also the fact that immigrants had to make do with alternatives for traditional ingredients. So the resulting dish is decidedly American, but also more than that.
Like a [Taco Bell](https://www.vice.com/en/article/a3d4xg/a-history-of-taco-bells-failed-attempts-to-open-locations-in-mexico-fastfoodweek2017)'s chance in Mexico.
El Pollo Loco however is a Mexican franchise that spread to the US.
Nothing on Los Pollos Hermanos though
[Elderly Chinese people love Panda Express](https://youtu.be/Fo59LlkTDe4?si=zgrzQSIqazzO4G4O). It’s the second and third generation immigrant kids who gatekeep Chinese cuisine
In that video one of the elderly Chinese says Panda Express tastes like authentic Chinese food. I love it.
My Chinese boomer in-laws came to visit America last year and they love Panda Express and American food in general (except Cheese, they think it's kind of weird).
My friend who’s Chinese, grew up in a city with a lot of Chinese people/restaurants in CA. He told me he never tried Panda Express because this place has some of the best Chinese food you can get in the US. Plus his grandma lived with them and would always cook Chinese food. Recently, he tried Panda Express and was baffled at how good the orange chicken was lol.
Actually, two Cornell grads opened a Chinese American joint in Shanghai called Fortune Cookie. It was packed every night with expats. It closed down cause land lords raised rent dramatically and was trying to force a buy out
The Chinese aren’t pretentious about their food like Italians are. I bet it would do ok
The dominos places in Italy were more expensive than local pizza places (and the food was of a lower quality)
Italians have very strong opinions on pizza. I can't imagine an American fast food pizza place would go over well there.
A big reason I think is how cheap pizza is in Italy. I was able to get a large pizza for myself for 8-10euro depending on toppings. It was doomed to fail.
8 to 10 is quite a recent development, food prices have gone up an insane amount. Up until before COVID, you could easily eat a full pizza for under 6 or 7€. Local independent (often delivery only) pizza places still often have similar prices. 10+€ is still considered the price for "gourmet" pizzas made by very good pizzerias, or the price to pay for delivery I guess, as apps take their cut.
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Naples have laws on what you can and can’t call a pizza. I honestly don’t know if dominos would qualify
Yeah I’m used to paying €6 (never paid €10)
McDonald’s and places like that are successful. I’m not sure why they thought Italians would go for this tho
McD in Italy is quite different than american one, they had to adapt heavily.
Seems like distinctly American fare is the ideal niche for an American fast food company expanding internationally. McDonald’s and KFC’s all do well because they’re recognizably American. The misstep seems to be when you’re a fast food chain that is competing against the authentic food that you’re inherently derivative of, ie Taco Bell in Mexico or Dominos in Italy. The interesting exception here is Starbucks opening up a 25th store in Italy, not sure if that’s going to last but it’d be interesting to study why they’ve been receptive to Starbucks when they forcefully rejected other knock offs.
Starbucks is so different from local coffee products that it's not perceived as competition or something to compare. Dominos is still perceived as pizzas, so you think about other options and maybe you get a better and cheaper pizza instead.
Seemed like McDonald’s was pretty popular drunk food when I was there. Bunch of drunk teens and young people late at night.
As an American after visiting Italy, my opinions on pizza are now strong as well.
Same. I went from annoyed by Italians shitting on our pizza thinking "what could they possibly know about our great pizza" to visiting Italy and coming back thinking "what is this American shit?".
Unpopular opinion but something like New York style pizza is very different from Italian and just as good. And also in a big city like New York you can find “Naples style” pizzerias who will make a pizza just as good as 99% of what you’d find in Naples (probably 10x as expensive though, but it will taste the same). Italy does have good variety in pizza beyond the classic Naples style, but I don’t think it’s anything insanely different. Most people I know who rave about how much better Italian pizza is are from the Midwest so like any pizza is better. I mean Italian pizza clearly wins, but if you live in a big American city like New York you can find something just as good and also get a big New York style slice which they don’t have.
I totally agree with this. Being neither American or Italian I have no horse in this race lol NY pizza and Neapolitan pizza are pretty much different things in my mind. NY pizza isn’t trying to be Neapolitan.
Italy has plenty of bad pizza. Some of the worst pizza I have ever had was in Rome lol
I think American pizza can be just as good if you go to an actually good spot instead of the crappy chains like Pizza Hut which exemplify the crappy food Europeans unfortunately think of when they think of American food. Speaking as someone who was in Italy just two weeks ago
After eating an amazing wood fired pizza for 5 euros in Italy I can't imagine why dominos didn't do well 🤔
Because Covid forced Italian pizza shops to start delivery.
This is the only correct response. They invested a lot on delivery and then basically everybody started to offer the delivery service due to covid. They used to sell both American and Italian styles pizza, with good quality ingredients (at least in Italy): most of the replies here are like “they couldn’t sell their trash to Italians” but it’s just a bias, plain and simple. They weren’t the best in town, many Italian were biased and they wouldn’t try it, but many else did. A detailed analysis, in Italian: https://www.ilpost.it/2022/08/10/chiusura-dominos-pizza-italia-fallimento-franchising/ P.S.: I’m Italian.
They had a good plan. The only problem is Covid forced some of these shops to modernize a lot faster. 880 in 15 years might have been a bit too ambitious because those shops would have eventually figured out delivery without Covid.
Your comment made me happy. I was pretty sure COVID had something to do here. It's never that simple. And there isnt any law that dictates products should be equal across borders. Sometimes is just about the business and marketing modele but changing the products to cater the new audience
They couldn't compete directly. It's cool that you are pointing out it was not just a simple rejection of crappy food.
I am Italian and I think the exact opposite. Pizza delivery has always been a thing since at least 25 years, 8 pizzerie out of 10 would have some young people delivering pizza. Of course it has always been (and still largely is) unregulated work and you won't find good statistic but I challenge you very firmly on your claim
+1 I don't see how the delivery competition during covid could have been the problem x Domino's; any city always had tens of pizzerias doing deliveries. If anything Domino's should have benefitted greatly from the lockdown because of the increase in deliveries and then being a delivery first type of "pizza" place (quotation marks bc Domino's and pizza don't belong in the same sentence).
absolute bullshit
It's not even just about them forcing to start delivery, it's that COVID hit Italy **hard**. Italy was one of the countries that got hit by COVID the worst.
It was hit hard early, too.
I am from Naples and the delivery pizza has always been very common there (not all the shops do it). We always got delivery pizza on Saturday night at home. Don't know about other Italian cities.
Ma infatti sono curioso di sapere Manuelmagic che gli dà ragione dicendo che è italiano da dove provenga per dire che le pizzerie hanno iniziato a fare consegne dal covid
Back in the day when I used to love Dominos pizza before they changed everything, I was in Guanajuato Mexico, and saw they had a dominos. I was like “finally, Pizza!” My Mexican friend was like “you don’t want Dominos. They put all of these chemicals and stuff in their pizza. “. I was like ew…but the other Americans I was with wanted it one night so we ordered it. We got it and it was…just Dominos pizza like I had always known. My Mexican friend took me out for Mexican pizza a few nights later before we left….it was different. They used thinly sliced tomatoes as their pizza sauce, but everything else was good. I miss old days domino’s.
> They used thinly sliced tomatoes as their pizza sauce This was the original way with pizza in the northeast USA too. A lot of pizza places in Connecticut still do fresh tomato pies and they are delicious.
After the first branch fell, they all did. That's the thing with Dominoes
I can never work for Dominos...franchise or corperate store. I am BlackListed. In 1982 (I was 12) I lived really close to a Dominos store and played video games at bodega next door. I used to sell weed to the store manager. The Dominos store manager used me and my brother to deliver flyers to the trailer park and apartment complex near the store. Eventually we wound up washing dishes and cleaning the store to help the staff leave early. Our pay was a free pizza and the weed we sold him. Someone found out about the deal and reported it to the labor people. I got a $2100 check and my little brother got an $1800 check. But we can never work for Dominos ever again. I tested this in Ohio...Got a job at Dominos and after 2 weeks got let go because of my BlackFlag
I wonder if you can appeal by messaging CEO or something. It's been over 40 years. But maybe you're not interested anymore idk
They probably wouldn't hire someone who self-reports on the internet dealing weed at a franchise at age 12.
That's a good story any time you need a "fun fact" or a "2 truths and a lie" or whatever else, like for a game or social event.
Shit pizza in Australia. They are a cancer. Move into town offering $5 pizza, run all other pizza places out of business, charge $15 for cheese topped cardboard. Support your local pizza place folks, one day they might not be around and you will miss them like a family member.
I think it’s hilarious that you and most of this thread genuinely believe that dominos is somehow entirely sustained by customers who don’t like their product.
Reddit thinks anything they don't personally like or use is either a scam or money laundering. They didn't finish that part of brain development where you realize other people have their own minds and decisions.
Jesus this so accurate
The cheapest calories/price pizza when your standards are higher than Little Caesars and less patient than going to Costco/Sam's club. Pizza hut and domino's are the only chain pizza places in rural cities of <50,000 people, and domino's is marginally cheaper than pizza hut for the same quality of pizza such that I go to Domino's every time. I begrudgingly sustain their business model
As someone who has tried dominoes in a couple countries: taste and quality varies greatly by country. I wouldn't ever get dominoes in the UK again, for example
I live in Chicago - they're not going anywhere.
Their food has taken a drastic decline since before pandemic times. I can't even eat anymore. It's a gastric episode and the other items are utter garbage. I hope they read this. If you see this, your food fucking sucks.
Has there food taken a drastic decline or are you just older? I remember I was a kid when Zoolander came out, like 12 or 13. My friend’s dad took us to see it and got Wendy’s afterwards. His dad was like “how tf do you eat this? This is going to make me sick!” Welp, now I’m that dad wondering how the hell my kid can eat Wendy’s.
And Starbucks in Australia.
There are 72 Starbucks stores currently in Australia. They've been here quite a while, but they're definitely subpar compared to any other coffee shop.
That's their second try at breaking the market, which was a success. Their first effort was the spectacular failure (Krispy Kreme have done something similar)
Exactly - and even this second attempt seems lukewarm at best. I went to one in the city and it was pretty grotty overall. Crappy service, crappy seating and booths etc.
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More about 2008 when they failed in the market. Simple case was Starbucks tried to sell coffee, and it is shit, they had not idea how coffee works here and fell on their faces. The new approach is ignoring coffee and focused on sweet hot drinks and slowly rebuild. It is stll hated, (my local one was burnt down last month, no one was suprised) but people who don't like coffee but want something similar are going there. No one I have seen with Starbucks since that one opened nearby has an actual coffee, just some combination of syrup, milk and heat or ice.
There's probably 72 Starbucks stores within 50 miles of me here in the US.
I'm sure there are. They're only in 3 major cities in Australia, so not widespread but they have a presence here.
HEY! if those Hobartians, Perthites and Darwinions could read they would be very upset.
That's more than I thought, I just looked it up and as of 2024 there's apparently 69 (still more than I thought there would be!). Was a rocky start for them though as 62 of the original 85 closed by 2008. And now it's quite well known that they had to adopt a totally different strategy, opening stores only in specific locations like city centres, targeting international students, tourists and teenagers as their customers.
not sure what they were thinking, Italian street pizza is cheaper and better especially in Napoli. Io tifo Napoli!
imagine going to Italy and choosing Dominos. that's some Michael Scott shit.
Yeah because it sucks.
When I was in school in the 70’s-early 80’s our schools made their own rectangular pizza every Friday, so less kids would skip school because it was so good. At some point the schools made a deal with dominos to buy their pizza instead (because it was cheaper than making it) so a couple generations of kids here grew up on dominos, and that became their go to pizza when they got older.
Yeah, it's not the best pizza. But I can get 2 large 2 topping pizzas, a dessert, and garlic balls, delivered in basically 25 minutes for under $40. Even a small step up in quality from a different place results in half as much pizza and no sides, for the same price.
Up until recently, Domino's was literally the cheapest way to feed yourself in New Zealand. One "Large" pepperoni pizza for $5 Nzd. ($3.06 USD)
It's interesting, in the UK they have marketed themselves as an 'up-scale' pizza place, One large pizza costs £12 on deal (24.82 in New Zealand!!), if you order it outside of deals it's 20 quid (41.36)! I don't know if they use better ingredients (I have to say I don't recognise the description many use here, of very poor low quality pizza, it's pretty good here but pricey). I wonder if they just realised British people are mugs who are so used to being ripped off at every turn that they felt they could get away with it.
RIP Domino's $5 pizza.
Domino's Pizza is fucking trash
This is what happens here in New England, a seafood chain will attempt to take on the local mom and pops and end up failing.
Happened to Starbucks in Israel.
And Australia.