Pizza Hut to Close up to 500 Dine-in Locations

[Zing]

Thanks, John, for writing a first hand account of the problems independent pizzerias are experiencing at present.

Unfortunately, I am not clear by what you mean by Pizza Hut being ahead of the curve.

I don't know how good or bad the Pizza Hut locations, both full service dine in and the smaller delivery/carry out locations are in your neck of the woods. But locations of some franchisees like NPC International and ADF Companies turn out a terrible product. As I have written above, the dine in locations they are trying to close have no dine-in customers. For dine-in customers, they are basically serving frozen pizza but charging legitimate independent pizzeria prices. The discounts are on delivery and carry out. The Pizza Huts around here are dying, while new dine-in locations from chains like  Mod Pizza, Pieology, &pizza, Blaze Pizza, and Rise Pies are opening.

[fazzari]

All decisions are made on the margins.  Here in Washington State, it began with the huge increase in labor costs.  Of course it is true that increased wages are a huge benefit to those who hold jobs.  But it says nothing to those whose labor is considered to expensive to use...and so hours are cut until only the most essential hours are paid for.  To go further, one has to assess if it really makes sense to create and maintain a jobplace where higher costs are a disadvantage to survival.
So, while all of that is working through the system, we get hit with a serious virus which forces us to shut down dining rooms.  These are not just distractions....they make you focus like laser beam on the way out for survival.  Like I said, some will not make it out.  Others will find they do just fine.
So my comments about Pizza Hut are not made in regards to the quality of their products, they are made in regards to the atmosphere in which we do business.

john

[Bwturner03]

I knew this was coming, but it's unfortunate, because dine in Pizza Huts were a staple of my childhood.  I wish we had more pizzerias for family nights. 

[CookingWithG]

I travel a LOT for work all over the world.  PH is considered a restaurant in most countries and some of them are very nice/upscale.  I don't know why but it honestly tastes better overseas.  The pizza comes out like the pictures and tastes great!  I think I have had PH once in the last 5 years here in the States and it was gross...  Overseas I think still makes it to the original recipe and way of making it.  Here it has become too commercialized which leads me to my next two comments.

1. PH is owned by Yum Brands.  They own PH, KFC, Taco Bell, etc....  I link PH's fall to almost the same time they sold out.  Now they are just a revenue stream of a Fortune 500.  Same happened with KFC as their quality went way down.  Its just bad now!

2. All major chains in the US have become a race to the bottom.  Little Caesars and Domino's with their constant $5.99 deals have captured the lower end of the market.  This has killed PH and PJ's.  To be honest I don't think any of the major four are that great taste wise and when they ask $12-15 a pie its just crazy given the quality of it.

There are a few mid range/regional (across several states) chains that I think are good, Marco's, Vocelli's, and a few others.  That is if you like that style of pizza.  I call them the new PH's.  Now you have all the brick oven places like Spin-Fore, MOD, and others that have popped-up too and they have taken the mid to high end of the market.  This doesn't leave PH and PJ's much place to go but down.  Unless they are going to reinvent themselves with substantial investment from Yum, I think they will become a thing of the past in another few years.

Enough rambles from me!

CookingWithG         

[foreplease]

You make some good points. That said, the alternative to ‘no place to go but down’ is to grow the total market. The big companies have done that over the last few decades.

[jac]

My one adventure at PH was when my folks & I dropped in for dinner in 1975.
They had the nerve to serve my father of plate of stuck together spaghetti that was thrown into a pot of boiling water and forgotten about.

Someone mentioned Wendy's.
I just had to bring this up.
I ate there just once in '92 and tasted it for 3 days.

[couillion]

Our corner of the world fell apart in a different way at a different time.  The area franchise holder of over 40 locations had royalty problems with Pizza Hut Corporate as well as being delinquent on taxes causing the local sheriff's to chain the doors shut.  The locations were eventually sold and all of the stores in our area turned in to other food locations, some successful, some not.  Fast forward to today, the new Pizza Hut locations being opened are pick up/drive thru only.  All have been built or opened up near the old locations, some right across the street from the former store.

https://www.nola.com/news/business/article_11e7f969-26eb-5dca-83dd-052d9e0e9e6c.html