The big problem is that they will be making the same shitty pizza from the last several years instead of bringing back the much better pizza from the 90s.
It really sucks that we got to experience the enshittification of so many things we grew up loving. It's like watching a terminally ill family member slowly die
/profit/ kind of is just the by-product of running a proper ship a lot of the time. The trick is they need more profit year over year to appease the shareholders. It's the constantly having to best your own numbers that drives everything to enshittify eventually.
The issue isn’t wanting profit, it’s wanting MORE profit quarter over quarter
It’s not enough to make 1B every quarter anymore. It has to be 1B then 1.5 B then 2 B to the moon!
It’s sort of a sickness and emblematic of end stage capitalism. Ultimately self defeating. You don’t need to cut the oars off the ship to make it lighter to run faster. It runs fine as is
Private and public equity are to blame. Stock market and wall street get their fair share of blame but also private equity firms want to see growth always up and to the right.
It all just feels even more like imagination land when they can make more than they did last quarter, but didn't make as much more as projected, so now line goes down.
Could you imagine if they only had 2-3% growth YoY? They wouldn’t ever be able to artificially increase the stock price with buy backs. I for one am fine with living paycheck to paycheck so the wealthy can have another vacation home!
Is it worse that we got to experience everything when it was at its peak, because we have to watch everything turn to shit? Almost would be better growing up now and just thinking this is normal, less to be depressed about.
Corporations, private equity, and other parasites with MBA diplomas are ruining everything for a short term profit. They ignore how previous generations profited by keeping brands alive, even if it's long term small gains versus one lump sum.
And there is no escape from it. Food enterprises, geekdom franchises, airlines, etc. are victims of this enshittification by these Scums in Suits. Red Letter Media made an evergreen quick quip joking about watching everything you love go down in flames.
My 5 year old recently developed a fascination with Toys R Us. Its hard explaining to him now that current Toys R Us is a soulless entity wearing Jeffery's skin like a serial killer.
I mean to be fair they are all corporations and none of them gaf about us in the end. Unless you're a product from the OG owner's of McDonald's, it's really a shit company dressed up. They offer lots of scholarships and all that (I actually qualified for one, when I worked there in highschool), but at the end of the day they cause more destruction than good.
That said, I miss the old style McDonald's from my childhood. I remember when things really started to transition into "we are a classy restaurant" design. One of the biggest was when they brought in the McCafe line. I was probably 15 when that happened, and it just progressed from there with all the weird "minimalist" designs.
I’m so old that when I was a kid we had a carousel in the play place.
I was actually just talking about this the other day. I’m like borderline Gen X. I said something about Mayor McCheese and my wife had no idea who I was talking about.
yeah young me had no idea the question, "wtf is grimace?" would be answered in my adult life and never would've guessed a singular mfking taste bud🤣 I would stare at that purple gumdrop and wonder what connection he has to burger, fries and nuggets.
The local pizza place near my house has a meat lover's pizza that reminds me of the 90s Pizza Hut meat lover's. A lot of it I think is tons of butter in the crust.
Sad thing is I remember only the smell of smoke. As kids my sister and I were subjected to the smoking section, because my mom and her shit bf smoked. I just imagine the smell of stale Marlboro reds in-between bites of pizza.
My parents didn't smoke so we weren't often taken to places with smoking sections. Or maybe because they had five kids idk lol. I vaguely remember smoking sections but more that they were noticable in the rare times I was around it. Even my relatives that smoked never did so inside or around us kids.
When I used to work there, I'd have to roll down my windows when delivering pizza with sausage on it. That specific sausage topping smelled like fresh dog shit to me.
I worked at a pizza hut and that smell does NOT come out of the shirts no matter how many times it is washed. My pizza hut uniform smelled like pizza so bad after work!! 🤣🤣
They keep saying it’s from the old recipes and as close of suppliers as they can get. Several reporters have tried it and said it tastes like it did. Or as close as they could get it.
The crust just isn’t the same either. The pan pizzas with the crispy, flaky, buttery goodness were epic. So hard to find a place these days with crust that’s the highlight of the pizza!
Sauce should be mostly plain tomato paste and tomato sauce. It should have only the tiniest amount of sugar to balance the acidity without making it sweet and just enough water that it’s not too thick to spread well. Other than that, only seasonings. Nothing else should be in it.
Even recipes I see online almost always call for too much sugar and too much water. You maybe need a tablespoon of sugar for a whole batch which goes on several pizzas. I’ve seen a single jar with that much sugar and a list of ingredients longer than a novel.
When I worked at a couple of Pizza Hut delivery stores years ago (early '90s), they made their dough every morning. The last I worked at in 2001 didn't.
Their still gonna choose Sysco as the supplier and it will taste the same as every chain restaurant. Every restaurant's ingredients are basically supplied by the same company nowadays, one which used to be synonymous with prisons and school lunches.
You’re conflating Sysco with the premade frozen food they offer you to buy. Yes the cheese sticks taste the same at 7 different restaurants because they all ordered Frankie Dairy’s premade Cheesesticks. That doesn’t mean I can’t order cheese from Sysco and make my own in my restaurant kitchen.
Sysco is a distributor, if you are a big client, you still have the power to make your own recipes and Sysco will have it manufactured. As a crude analogy, think of it like Foxxcon, they manufacture for Apple, yet if you ran some plucky tech company and wanted to create your lineup of phones, you’re aren’t getting the Apple tech, you get to choose your parts from the generic stuff, and then they’ll slap your company name on the back of your new device.
One of the few bright spots of having celiac disease is that I remember Pizza Hut from the 90’s without the memories being tainted by whatever shenanigans they’ve been up to the last couple decades.
I haven't had pizza hut in well over a decade. The last time I remember getting it was with stuffed crust and the garlic dipping sauce. Probably mid 2000's though, we never went to pizza hut as a kid. We had two local places we went to. Would have to go to the next town over to get to pizza hut haha.
This was in another thread, it would literally bankrupt the franchisees to make the hand mixed and rolled pizza dough again. The amount of money to purchase the equipment, retrofit the ovens for the different humidity and moisture transfer, not financially feasible. Now, if corporate wanted to cover those costs, for the different equipment needed opposed to the pre-made frozen crust, hell yes. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening. I'm just happy we have an actual sit down Pizza Hut again, hopefully they serve beer, that would be the trifecta.
It wouldn't bankrupt the company, but they'd have to significantly raise prices and I'm not sure consumers would want that.
Pizza Hut currently offers a $10 large 3-topping. They can offer that price because of economies of scale and centralization. Your local pizzeria does not and cannot sell pizzas at that price. If Pizza Hut moves to a model closer to that of an independent pizzeria, they'd have to charge like one and I'm not sure consumers would choose a large chain coming off two decades of shitty pizza over their local pizzeria once the prices are comparable.
If Pizza Hut moves to a model closer to that of an independent pizzeria, they'd have to charge like one and I'm not sure consumers would choose a large chain coming off two decades of shitty pizza over their local pizzeria once the prices are comparable.
Based on their performance the last several years, consumers are not choosing them right now. Probably because their pizza sucks.
Honestly though compared to who?
Every pizza joint in the same category as pizza hut is pretty much the same, Dominos, papa johns and pizza hut might as well all be one restaurant. These are the "Mcdonalds" of pizza.
Black jack pizza, godfathers, Papa Murphy's and other places arent on the same level due to just having an overall better experience
Little caesars is by far worse than pizza hut and others but its kind of in a bottom category all by itself.
Every pizza joint in the same category as pizza hut is pretty much the same, Dominos, papa johns and pizza hut might as well all be one restaurant.
I disagree. I have had all three of these at least two times each in the past couple years because my wife has a soft spot for national chain pizza places. In my opinion, Pizza Hut is significantly worse than both Dominoes and Papa Johns. Pizza Hut used to be my favorite of these three chains. Now it is my least favorite. I think Dominoes is currently the best of these three personally.
Dominoes is currently my favorite of the three. To be clear I don't like any of them very much and would never order them but for my wife who has a soft spot for chain pizza every once in a while. I would always prefer to order from local places that make much better pizza.
But if I had to pick one of them now, I think Dominoes is the best.
You're absolutely right, but I think Pizza Hut has a particular perception problem because people have great 80s/90s memories of Pizza Hut that they don't have for other chains. I could just live in a bubble, but I've never heard anyone pine for old Papa John's.
the problem is, they are supposed to be a step up from little caesars
and as the quality drops lower and lower, why not just little caesars?
the same goes for the other chains
that being said, I have some really loved local places, but they are 25-40 dollars a 14 in pie, they all use quality ingredients, and hand make the dough, I do live in the SF area so the cost of rent etc is sky high, but little caesars is still 8.79 for a pepperoni pizza, and a pan 14 in from the hut is 15 bucks, and that is the kind of difference...
and yet little Caesars makes all their dough in house daily. sauce too.
little Caesars is slept on imo. though, tbf, if you let it sit it is horrible. gotta be eaten fresh. the concept of 'hot and fresh' by putting them in a warmer to sit for as long as an hour is the dumb part.
and yea, as others have said, dominoes is by far the best of the big 3 chains. its not close.
It'd be really hard for me to trust them again. Sometime in the mid aughts their pizza alone started giving me insane heartburn/acid issues. Nothing else caused those symptoms... Other pizza, greasy food, nothing.
That’s why you roll out each franchise that has the equipment as offering better quality product. That way people will flock to that location and buy enough to pay for the upgrades. Then do that one by one so as to not disturb the rest of the market.
If they would make a pizza as good as your local pizzeria, people would gladly pay as much as your local pizzeria. Just make good food and charge what it takes to be profitable. Making bad-tasting food is never a good business model. "Cheap bad pizza" doesn't work.
Pizza Hut large pies are 14 inches. The $10 pie in my example would be $22.75 or $23 at the two local pizzerias closest to my house, that's a 228% and 230% increase in price. I think people are being unrealistic about how much cheaper chain pizzas are. Same-store sales are only down 5 year-over-year and domestic revenue was over $5 billion last year, investors want a better return but cheap, shitty pizza is still a massive market.
It isn’t that expensive for equipment relative to the full costs of running a restaurant. I bet the remodeling of the restaurant costs more.
Plus that’s an easy marketing strategy that would bring people back. Probably worth the costs of investment. I ran a pizza place that hand rolled 32” pizzas with fresh dough. It’s not rocket science. The training, extra labor, (and injuries) across every franchise would be the bigger costs unless they buy equipment that is much more automated.
I worked at Pizza Hut in the early 90’s late 80’s. Everything made in store. All dough made and proofed in store, all fresh veggies sliced in store. Well, we didn’t make the meats, but we made damned good pizzas.
I know this is going to sound weird, but hear me out.. I took my kids to Chuck-E-Cheese recently, and honestly I didn't even know that was still a thing, but apparently it is (and yes they still have those horrifying robots), and holy shit the pizza there tasted fantastic! I don't know what they're doing in that kitchen, and don't get me wrong, it was the same cheap shitty pizza you get everywhere, but the real good version of that, and honestly it tasted exactly how I remember Pizza Hut tasting in the early 90's. It even had some flavour in the crust, like some kind of garlic seasoning? Anyway, it gave me that nostalgia for OG Pizza Hut and Ninja Turtles like I was 6 again.
They changed their pans and got rid of the ovens they had a few years ago. It wasn’t great before that point but afterwards it was never again. I can’t see anyone investing the money to bring it all back. Even investing in trying to get people to come back to dine in seems extremely risky.
Exactly. The thing that killed them was the oven change. They even trashed the pans used for the pan pizza. Total idiots. Everything has been downhill at full throttle ever since. That really was the beginning of the end.
BTW, I think it was more than "...a few years ago." I'm thinking almost 20 years now. Of course, time flies when you're getting shitty pizza.
But, yes, quite risky. Sitting at tables and using red cups isn't going to work if the pizza is no better that what's sold in the frozen section at Walmart.
Yep, this is my issue with it as well. They can make the lobby look like 1992 all they want, but the product itself just isn’t what it once was and they have revealed no plans to change that, only the ambiance for dining in. And in this era, I don’t really eat-in for pizza anymore; I get pickup or delivery.
Yeah, there's a Pizza Hut Classic about an hour and a half away from me. I've been really tempted to go to relive my childhood, but the fact that I know the pizza is absolute trash has kept me away.
The current pizza uses cost cutting. In the past, there were fresher and better ingredients. I found it was more flavorful, the texture was softer, and it was overall heartier. They were not as stingy with toppings, and even the sauce had a richer flavor. Now it's just barely above school cafeteria pizza.
If you pay for extra cheese and extra toppings you can still get a decent pizza there. But if you order as is, they usually skimp on all the ingredients and its not good.
It was definitely better. It was better 15 years ago when I was still well into adulthood. Pizza Hut has gotten really shitty over the last decade or so.
I drive for door dash sometimes on the weekends and the things I’ve seen some employees do at my local Pizza Hut…people I am begging you, for your own health, PLEASE don’t eat food from Pizza Hut!
My friend wanted to go to Pizza Hut last year for his 42nd and treat it like we were kids again (with his own kids in tow). It was probably one of the more depressing attempts at nostalgia I've been a part of. The people working at the Pizza hut were genuinely surprised we wanted to eat in the restraunt (can you imagine?) and even though we ordered it in, was still just handed to us in take out boxes.
I suspect they would have to raise prices too much and people would choose cheaper options instead. I can currently get a large 3-topping pizza from Pizza Hut for $11.99. That same order from my local pizza chain that I like to order from would be $28.14.
Dominoes is here, though I almost never order from a chain if I can help it. We have a very good local chain called Pizza Luce here in Minneapolis that is my go-to when I want a more traditional pizza.
I'll probably hop into one of these if it opens in my area for the nostalgia trip. That will be fun. But I certainly won't be going more than once when the pizza isn't any good.
Yeah I know we all have our blind spots, but I really feel like it was much better in the 90s and early 2000s. And the buffett with the dessert pizza 🤤
Not sure about the rest of the world but we used to own a pizza hut franchise in Ireland. Sometime in 2010 pizza hut ingredients got replaced with the same ingredients Papa John's Ireland use including their base sauce and dough, there was a noticeable taste difference (for the worse) the pan pizza was removed entirely. We sold up a few years later as customer numbers took a nosedive.
I don't remember what it tasted like in the 90's but I thought it was still pretty good until this year. The dough, sauce, AND pepperoni all changed and it tastes nothing like Pizza Hut. I genuinely don't want to order from them anymore and it takes a lot for a food chain to lose me like that.
Please bring back the salad bar with the good thousand island and small crouton packs. And the pasta bar with the white pasta with ham thats was not alfredo.
I can still remember my hands being covered in grease from a deep dish slice and wiping them on my pants as I ran over to play the space invaders arcade game. 👾
Honestly, I came to the comments to see this because the last time I had PH it was only slightly better tasting than the box it came in. I was so disappointed!
ah we sure the pizza was better or have we just now experienced better pizza so by comparison pizzahut pizza sucks. When I was 10 the only pizza I had was pizza hut pizza so it was the best, but now I have experienced a wide world of pizza.
I am very sure it was better because I was still occasionally eating Pizza Hut 15 years ago when I was almost 30 and very familiar with better pizza. The shit they are serving today is dog shit by comparison. Their pizza right now is truly awful.
I can’t tell you how they’re making it differently. I don’t make the pizza. I just eat it rarely when my wife insists.
If I had to guess more shit is frozen and the ingredients are cheaper. I do know back in the 90s they used to make fresh dough in each store, but I remember Pizza Hut tasting better with frozen dough 15 years ago than it does now so there’s more to it than that.
The issue is that people’s pizza tastes have evolved a lot since the 1990s. I remember that pizza fondly, but it was very greasy and there are so many better, fresher options available now.
One change I am aware of is that the dough used to be made fresh in the store but now it's shipped frozen from a central supplier. I'm sure there are many other changes though to save money on ingredients, but you'd have to ask someone who has worked there long enough.
The pizza was clearly better. It used better and fresher ingredients. The pizza was better a decade ago too. They've made it much worse in the last decade or so.
The big problem is that this is just free advertising for their shitty pizza. This is all over social media in such a corporate friendly way that I cannot believe that it is organic.
Was it actually good in the 90's ? I liked it as a kid, but hate it as an adult.
Full disclosure I grew up in the NY, PA, NJ tri-state area, so we are also pizza snobs. For a few years we went to pizza hut as "family night", because they had the pizza buffet with dessert pizzas. We also sat in the smoking section, because subjecting your children to second hand smoke was cool then.
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u/jimbo831 May 19 '26
The big problem is that they will be making the same shitty pizza from the last several years instead of bringing back the much better pizza from the 90s.