With bright colors, a beverage cooler and staff showing off its pizza-tossing skills, Domino’s hopes its customers will think they’re in an old-time pizzeria. But they’ll probably be taking their dinner home.
Dubbed “pizza theater” by the Ann-Arbor, Mich.-based fast-food chain, the new store design reflects a growing carryout business and a newfound pride in the primary product. The first Chicago-area location reflecting the new design is expected to open in Glenview on Wednesday.
Domino’s franchisee Reece Arroyave, who has four area locations, will open three more in the “pizza theater” style before year’s end. He described the design as “more inviting” and more conducive to interacting with customers. Staff members now face outward while making pizzas, rather than working with their backs to the door and nothing but a stack of empty boxes to welcome customers.
“It’s a much more exciting experience,” he said. “Customers can sit down, relax and watch their pizzas being made, and there’s a chalkboard for kids that they’ve really come to enjoy.”
In early 2010, Domino’s tried out an unusual marketing strategy: saying that its pizza was bad but that it had been fixed. The company has reported U.S. same-store sales gains for all but one quarter since then.
“We are so proud of it now,” Arroyave said of the pizza. Making “theater” out of the tossing process is tantamount to saying, “This is what we’ve got, we’re proud of it, we’re standing behind it,” he said.
Throughout the chain, Domino’s carryout business has roughly doubled in recent years, to about 30 percent of sales, according to the company. Arroyave has seen even bigger gains in carryout business at his stores, with one of them doing about half of its sales in carryout orders.
Arroyave cited the difficult economy and consumers looking to save money wherever possible, like delivery charges and tips for drivers. Now, he said, franchisees are scouting “grade-A locations,” with vehicle and foot traffic more convenient to customers.
Last summer, Domino’s said it was dropping “pizza” from its name and planned to redesign its stores, making the pizza-making process more transparent and its stores more comfortable for consumers stopping by to pick up their dinner rather than dialing the store once they get home.
In recent years, Domino’s has expanded its menu, with items like pasta, subs, wings and cheese-stuffed bread. Domino’s is the second-largest pizza chain the U.S., behind Pizza Hut.
About 60 of the chain’s nearly 5,000 stores reflect the new look. Spokesman Chris Brandon said the company “doesn’t have a timeline for the remodels to be completed” but wants them to be completed as soon as possible.
“A lot of people’s relationship with Domino’s is knowing the phone number,” Brandon said. “We want to bring more people into our stores and be more welcoming in our stores.”
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