A Future Without Pizza Hut
Domino's continues to win the pizza wars, with Little Caesars trailing not too far behind, along with Papa Johns.
While Pizza Hut has long been seen as the king of pizza, that just isn't the case any longer.
Only a few weeks ago, the Hut announced that they would be closing at least 500 stores of their currently more than 7,000 around the United States.
In 2018, Domino's saw sales of $15.8 billion, compared to Pizza Hut which saw roughly $12.2 billion.
Right now, the majority of the sales that Pizza Hut is seeing are coming from take-out and delivery orders, people aren't interested in sitting down and eating dinner out much these days.
The trend continues to decline, with more and more people opting to eat at home and use third-party delivery services or other options. To respond to that growing trend, Pizza Hut has many sit-down locations that it will be looking to change or close.
Of the more than 7,000 locations around the United States, more than 6,000 of them are traditional sit down restaurants. But they've only announced just recently that they'd be closing around 500 of them for now.
But while many of the locations might soon be closing, which has prompted some to become worried about the future of the Hut, others insist that they hope to still be at the locations they are now for decades still to come. Some of the Pizza Hut locations, like the one in Mountain Home, still have a thriving sit-down business and that one particularly is one of the busiest franchise restaurant locations.
Over time though, it's imagined that Pizza Hut will slowly transform their stores to be more like Domino's are today, focusing mostly on carry-out and delivery only.
There might be many other pizza options available on the market today, but it's clear that for many Domino's and Pizza Hut remain a favorite.
Back in 2016, the two of them together accounted for almost 70% of gross sales, for the top 10 pizza companies combined.
How the Domino's store mostly looks right now, you can see from the image below, the main focus is take-out and delivery and it's been working for them very well. Eventually, Pizza Hut might transform their locations to look a lot like that design, leaving little to no room for sit-down eating options that many are familiar with when they visit the Hut.
In 2017 it's estimated that 350 slices of pizza were eaten every second.
Increasingly, people are wanting their food as fast and conveniently as they can get it, whether that's delivery via drone, robot, or ordering via the computer or their phone etc. The companies that can give them the best options with the best price and most convenience etc, are going to be the ones that win at the end of the day. It's expected that the worldwide pizza market will reach $230 billion by 2023 with a variety of factors fueling that rise, including escalating disposable income, growing urban populations, and rising pizza franchisees, among other factors.
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This is not to be taken as financial advice, and has been posted for informational purposes only.
It's funny that this is happening because the Dominos that just opened in my small town has places to sit down. Granted the only people I ever see using the tables is people waiting for their to go delivery, but just find it ironic that dominos opened a place like this while pizza hut is closing them down.
I also think it's advertising and the deals as well. I usually go to papa johns and dominos just because they do a good job marketing the deals they have going on. I rarely see any advertising for pizza hut anymore and the deals they have just aren't deals i'm interested in.
Here in Chiang Mai, Thailand, there are a few Pizza Huts. There's even one in the shopping arcade next to my residence.
But when I want pizza, there are plenty of much better pizzas available in small shops run by locals. There's no reason for me to support another big corporation, actively or inadvertently.
I hope Pizza Hut remains. It makes me sad to see all these large chain names dissapear that were prevalent during my childhood.
If I had to choose to support one of these it would be Dominos because they have that initiative where they drive around and repair roads that have pot-holes. Here in the USA it’s very common for the roads to be in terrible condition. And if enough roads get patched by a private pizza company then people will realize we don’t need the government or taxes!
This is a very interesting story, but all three are garbage. I have not eaten at any one of those places in at least a decade. For one, they are corporate chains, lead by corporate douchebags, who hire totally in-experienced children to do the work for as little cost as possible.
We have a wood fire pizza place in my tiny little town of 30k people. Just down the street from a Pizza Hut. Not to mention Tony's Pizza in the next town over. Both of which source local ingredients and have their own unique style, quite simply, they out class these top three chains 10 fold.
Those top three represent nothing but low cost, mass produced food that is basically poison, and kills people every day. High in calories, carbs, fat, and saturated fat. Forget it!
Goodby Pizza Hut, good riddens!
I remember people, especially the kids would go crazy over Pizza Hut. That is when I was a little guy myself back in the 90s. Amazing how times have changed. I must say I like Papa Johns the best of these top three. Which is your favorite?
Well, the market has left Pizza Hut behind.
With delivery, why go out to a cheap pizza restaurant?
Having a sit down restaurant is expensive, even if the building is paid for.
You need servers, and someone to clean the whole place.
Even heating costs more.
So, today, people consider pizza one of those things you order delivered.
A place that is basically only an oven is far more economical.
So, with continuing trends, either Pizza Hut goes high end, or goes low end. Their place in the middle is killing them.