Domino's tried to sell pizza to Italians. It failed

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/10/business-food/dominos-exits-italy/index.html

by elsewhen • 4 years ago

21 15 4 years ago

cnn.com

quantified• 4 years ago

In other news, gravity held us on the earth's surface for yet another day. Who'd have thought of it?

theandrewbailey• 4 years ago

Dominos has upped its game over the past 10 years or so, but it's still not great.

Melting_Harps• 4 years ago

Dominos has upped its game over the past 10 years or so, but it's still not great.

It's a logistics company, using pizza as it's MVP to deploy it's franchise model and impose it's delivery tracking model and ancillary systems. The food is at best a tertiary consideration in this model.

With that said, I ate quite a bit of Dominoes during COVID as it was the last thing to close on a weekday (12am-1am) in my region, and I always picked up and tipped the staff who prepared it inside because the truth is that was a depressing job to have during that time (no tips and base salary only with massive rushes during lunch and dinner with everyone locked down), and if you added things like kimchi to the pizza it really wasn't so bad.

Having worked and ran kitchens in Italy, I can say that it's not a shocker they'd turn this Americanized product down just on principal; Dave Chang did segment on this with some of his friends from NY (chef/owner from Lucali) on his netflix show who then even traveled to Italy to see how it was made to emphasize why things are this way.

With that said, it's not for the reasons these pundits think either [0], I'm about 45km from the Italian border and the Pizza place I just got back from had to put a pause on firing any new orders because they got an order for 30 pizzas for take out, and guess what they have Pineapple Pizza, too! Hell they have Vienna sausage on one, too since they're a mainly targeting tourists from Austria this time of year.

Italy as a culture is just very insular, even amongst themselves, especially it comes to regional cuisine. I had to do so much studying and reading old recipe books form the family's owners from centuries ago before I could present anything on the menu since I was from California. They couldn't even believe I knew how to throw together a minestrone when I first showed up! You can only imagine their faces when I started to put things from Sicily, Naples (where the owner is originally from) and even a few special menus from Calabaria on the menu in Central Italy.

Take the Parma labeling model for example, those are all made in different but specific regions with the same animals with same recipes but the Italian government refuses to allow the sell of them on the open market--though I have attended the farmer's black market where you can get parmigiano from outside Regio Emillia, or Balsamic from outside Modena etc... and the products are still top notch and were on my menus in a well renown place in Emillia Romagna.

0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz5Xtpo9H2E

googlryas• 4 years ago

A lot of pizza joints in Italy might be a 2 person job (father and son, brother and brother, that kind of thing). They are quite common. But, they wouldn't deliver because there are only two of them. So, once food delivery apps starting providing that service, the amount of pizza places that would delivery to any given area went from 2 to 20. So it makes sense that a big edge dominos had (a fleet of scooter drivers) was no longer an edge, and people decided that they would prefer non-dominos pizza if they had a choice.

Notably though, this operation was alive for 7 years. It seems that people didn't hate Dominos pizza. They thought it was acceptable if they wanted delivery. But now they can get any kind of pizza delivered and that is the preference.

simonblack• 4 years ago

The main thing is that Italian pizza joints make a delicious pizza that's eaten hot and crispy by being put on your plate immediately after being freshly cooked in the (very probable) wood-fired oven.

Domino's have two main problems: one, their pizzas are made to a cheap price (not very tasty) and, two, if they are delivered they are not very hot and are quite soggy on arrival after some time in a box inside a carry-bag.

wrp• 4 years ago

I've heard that American fast food chains in general have not done well in Italy. Is that correct?

fy20• 4 years ago

I was living in Rome in 2016/17, and at the time yes. I'm not sure if things have changed now. Even finding a place that did "generic American style BBQ" was hard enough. There was one brand with a few stores, but it was pretty bad.

Of course you get the standard McDonalds and KFC, but those are everywhere... I'm not sure if my Italian colleagues ever visited them mind - I felt I'd be fired and kicked out the country if I ever mentioned I ate there - whenever I went they seemed to be full of teenagers.

One time we really wanted Mexican, so we traveled to the other side of the city to visit the one of two restaurants that sold burritos. It was the worst 'Mexican' I'd ever had.

The thing about Italians is they know what they like. A typical dish of Italian cuisine has few ingredients, but due to skill of the chef and the high quality fresh ingredients, they can create something amazing. That doesn't really mix well with American cuisine.

ananiochita4• 4 years ago

There seems to be an unhealthy obsession to label food products as Italian -- not from "somewhere else", meaning, of course, worse, no doubt about it and don't you dare even question it. To the point where walking into a supermarket can turn into a xenophobic slap sometimes. Honestly scary.

Edit : I've had the same experience with Japanese food. As far as we can tell, there are two or three real Japanese restaurants, owned by Japanese. And ONE French bakery in Rome. This is the third capital of the EU by population mind you. I mean, they literally have a border with France ! Good luck finding decent bread.

ananiochita4• 4 years ago

Italy is one of the worst countries for business, consistently so in every study and list made about it.

Starbucks ( ! ) just opened its first ( ! ) and only ( ! ) store in Rome a few months ago.

It goes the same for most popular world chains. You'll find UNIQLO in France or Spain, forget about Italy.

If you want to be in a place forever frozen in the seventies, go to Italy.

ananiochita4• 4 years ago

For the downvoters, please provide an explanation based in facts about Italy. You probably take the statements above as an insult, but it is a description of reality ( -- some might in fact like to find a place that doesn't change much or is relatively isolated from globalization and wouldn't take this as a negative thing ). You only need to ask an Italian or anyone who has spent a significant amount of time in the country.

I have, a solid decade in total, between the 70s, the 80s, the early 00s, and recently a considerable amount of time during the pandemic. I don't speak from hearsay or try to be offensive.

ichicoro• 4 years ago

I think you're being downvoted because you're wrong and you're being smug about it.

Starbucks ( ! ) just opened its first ( ! ) and only ( ! ) store in Rome a few months ago.

Uhm, there's 7 (according to Google Maps) in Milan, 2 in Turin, and at least two more someplace else (one being in Rome). Additionally, 1 of the 7 Starbucks in Milan is the only "Starbucks Roastery" in Europe.

It goes the same for most popular world chains. You'll find UNIQLO in France or Spain, forget about Italy.

There's a UNIQLO store in Milan.

alanwreath• 4 years ago

not gonna say Dominoes is great - however, to say that "It's obvious Italy doesn't like a reinterpretation of their own invention" is debatable given that both America and Italy (as a whole) have a substantial claim to it's fame https://eccentricculinary.substack.com/p/pizza-isnt-italian

Domino's tried to sell pizza to Italians. It failed

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