Pizza chain offers grants to communities in need of road repair
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Domino’s Pizza is underscoring the importance of its carryout business by working to make roads easier to drive on.
The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based chain is working with communities to help fill potholes and is inviting customers to nominate their towns as a target for road repair at pavingforpizza.com.
Domino’s announced it had already worked to repair roads in Burbank, Calif.; Bartonville, Texas; Milford, Del.; and Athens, Ga. It documents the work done in those communities on the Paving for Pizza web site.
Jenny Fouracre, the chain’s director of public relations, said Domino’s had provided grants to those municipalities for road repair and would do the same for towns nominated on the website. She said Domino’s wasn’t disclosing how much it was spending on the grants.
“We really want to focus on the spirit of the program — better roads for everyone!” she said in an email.
In a press release announcing the initiative, Domino’s USA president Russell Weiner said the road repair work would make customers feel more secure in picking up their pizza.
“Have you ever hit a pothole and instantly cringed? We know that feeling is heightened when you’re bringing home a carryout order from your local Domino’s store,” he said.
“We don’t want to lose any great-tasting pizza in a pothole, running a wonderful meal. Domino’s cares too much about its customers and pizza to let that happen.”
The tongue-in-cheek approach to promoting the ease of carryout follows Domino’s announcement earlier this year that it would provide free insurance for carryout pizza, remaking it for free if anything should happen to it.
Fouracre said that around 60 percent to 65 percent of Domino’s business is delivery, but almost all of the rest is carryout, making it a significant part of the business.
Although in the most recent quarter delivery outpaced carryout, that was a reversal of the norm, as carryout had outpaced delivery last year.
Both are growing, however: Domestic same-store sales were up by 8.3 percent in the quarter ended March 25.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
