Domino’s: The new New Coke
I really don’t understand how people run big corporations.
Domino’s is the world’s largest pizza delivery chain. But when their pizza came in last on a survey measuring customer taste preferences, they decided to change everything. They drizzled butter, garlic, parsley and parmesan cheese on the trust. They made the sauce spicier and added red pepper to the mix. They even tweaked the cheese, adding a touch of provolone to the mozzarella.
One of my friends came over to watch Supernatural yesterday. She’s never seen an episode, so we’re making our way through the first season. For supper, I suggested we get a pizza. I’d seen the ads promoting the changes Domino’s has made to their pizza, and I was curious and somewhat excited to taste it.
Susan and I both love the Brooklyn style pizza from Domino’s. We usually get it with just cheese (mozzarella plus provolone), and it’s almost always perfect. With the online coupon, it’s only $11.50 plus tax and tip, which isn’t bad.
After we’d eaten the pizza, we both agreed that we probably will never order another pizza from Domino’s again. It wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t good.
At first, I thought the sauce was tasty. It was a little strong, but I was okay with it.
By the time I finished the first slice, however, I was starting to resent how completely the sauce overwhelmed the cheese and bread. I prefer a sauce that compliments the rest of the pizza; this one dominated it to the point that it made the other ingredients inconsequential. The more I ate, the more I disliked the sauce, and afterwards, I had to eat some Mounds miniatures to try and get the aftertaste out of my mouth.
And the crust was a complete disaster. I couldn’t even finish the crust from my first slice. Just as with the sauce, it felt like the mess of ingredients dumped on the crust were demanding attention, but the result conflicted both with the sauce and with itself. It was more of a confusing taste than a bad one, but the crust alone put me off Domino’s forever.
I don’t get it. You’d think after Coca-Cola almost lost everything after replacing their main product with a brand new (and vastly inferior) product, companies would have learned their lesson. Instead of changing everything, why not add choices? And I’m not talking about sandwiches that aren’t very good and definitely aren’t worth the extra delivery charges, or pasta bowls that are mostly bread with a few pieces of penne pasta baked in.
Why not offer the “new improved” sauce and crust as options instead of replacements? I want the pizza that I enjoyed back – you know, the pizza that made Domino’s the world’s largest pizza delivery chain in the first place. Just how moronic do you have to be to run a major corporation nowadays?
I checked afterwards, and it looks like you can still order the regular sauce (assuming that’s what the “hearty marinara sauce” is). But there’s no way to opt out of the craptastic new crust, at least online. So some people thought the old crust tasted like cardboard and the old sauce tasted like ketchup. Evidently other people thought different, or Domino’s wouldn’t be so incredibly successful.
Oh well. There’s a Taco Bell/Pizza Hut five minutes away, so from now on if I’m craving pizza, I’ll get a Personal Pan Pizza in drive-through. It might not be bold or exciting. But unlike Domino’s, it’s good.
