Despite the fact that Domino’s Pizza has been around since the 1960s, there are probably a lot of things you don’t know about this chain. After all, everyone has secrets, right?
Continue reading to find out what secrets Domino’s is hiding from you.
10. They Intentionally Screw Up Orders
As crazy as it may sound, Domino’s employees will sometimes intentionally screw up your order. Not because they don’t like you or because they just want to be mean but simply because they want to take home a free pizza.
That’s right! When they correct your order and give you the pizza you asked for, they get to take home the one they messed up.
“It didn’t happen often, but sometimes we’d make an extra pizza if we wanted something to eat,” writer Kevin Beirne, who worked for Domino’s for two years during college, told Eat This, Not That!
“It didn’t really work with side orders because an extra garlic pizza bread would quickly find a new home on an upcoming order.”
By the way, the employees also love when you don’t show up to get your order. That means they get to take that home for free as well.
9. They Keep Tabs on You
Unfortunately, in this digital world, there is no such thing as privacy. This even applies when you’re ordering pizza.
According to an article published by The Daily Star, Domino’s employees know your entire order history. There’s also a special feature that lets employees leave notes about customers’ behavior.
“When you give your number, we can see your last few orders, as well as notes from the previous people who have taken your order to warn us about the s*** you’ve tried to pull,” writer Kevin Beirne, who worked for Domino’s for two years during college, told Eat This, Not That!
8. Plain Pizza Doesn’t Mean What You Think
Okay, so when you go to a pizza spot and order a “plain pizza,” you just ordered a pizza with only cheese, right? Well, maybe.
According to an article published by Eat This, Not That!, one customer found out the hard way that the phrase “plain pizza” at Domino’s might just mean a pizza that comes topped with only red sauce.
ALL TIME TIP: The next time you want to order a cheese pizza, do yourself a favor and just ask for a “plain cheese pizza” or simply a “cheese pizza.” That way there won’t be any surprises when your pie arrives.
7. There’s a Secret Menu
Domino’s offers an off-menu pizza at most locations. It’s called the “Super Lot,” and it consists of all the chain’s meat options piled onto one crust.
Additional toppings included are mushrooms, red onion, pineapple, olives and oregano. Some Domino’s employees get a little crazy with the off-menu creations.
One such employee described one of his off-menu creations on Reddit:
“Italian sandwich stuffed cheesy bread, cinnamon rolls, cinna bites, a Thai-style pizza using basic ingredients (mango hab [sic] and garlic parmesan/boneless and onion and green pepper with garlic shake), quesadilla, calzone, stromboli. There are others but I can’t remember.”
Unfortunately, these crazy creations are NOT for ordering. Sorry to disappoint you.
6. You Can Get Free or Discounted Food
There are a number of ways you can get free or discounted food from Domino’s. According to an article published by The Daily Star, all you have to do is be nice to the staff if you want free food. We’re not sure how effective this method is, but it’s definitely worth a try.
One way to get discounted food is to have the right connections. That’s because staff gets a 50% discount. And, if you happen to know someone who works there, you can get them to place an order for you, and voilà, half off on your order! Another way to get discounted food is to create your own “Legends” pizza.
According to The Daily Star, this is a quick and easy way to get 30 percent off. Domino’s American Legends(TM) pizzas are “a line of six flag-waving specialty pizzas featuring 40 percent more cheese than a regular pizza, cheesy crusts and delicious combinations of premium toppings,” a company press release reads.
The six varieties include Honolulu Hawaiian, Cali Chicken Bacon Ranch(TM), Pacific Veggie, Memphis BBQ Chicken, Buffalo Chicken and Philly Cheese Steak.
5. Crazy Requests are Sometimes Met
Ok, so you know how Grubhub and individual restaurant websites give you space when placing your order to leave specific instructions for the delivery driver? Well, some Domino’s customers have taken full advantage of this in some very unusual ways.
Case in point: Twitter user Michelle, who goes by the name MimiDoesLife, tweeted about the time her boyfriend placed an order for Domino’s and asked them to draw a dinosaur.
Needless to say, he didn’t think they’d do it… but they actually did! Someone at the restaurant drew a picture of a dinosaur with the caption “Grrr!!” on the inside of the pizza box. Michelle was thrilled. “Thank you dominos haha!” she tweeted.
4. More Equals Less
At Domino’s, more equals less when it comes to pizza toppings. In other words, when you order five or more toppings, you’ll actually end up getting less of each topping. But, it’s not because they’re trying to gyp you or anything like that — although that could be part of it, too.
The fact of the matter is the more toppings you add to a pizza the messier it gets. So, in this sense, Domino’s is looking out for you, the customer. And, here’s another reason to avoid more than four toppings: it can get pretty expensive.
3. Domino’s Used to Go by a Different Name
Before Domino’s was called Domino’s, it went by another name. In 1960, brothers Tom and James Monaghan purchased Domi-Nick’s, an old pizza restaurant in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The restaurant’s name was changed to Domino’s Pizza, Inc., in 1965. Delivery driver Jim Kennedy came up with the new name.
Unfortunately, the new name landed the pizza chain in a bit of hot water. In 1975, Amstar Corp., maker of Domino Sugar, instituted a trademark infringement lawsuit against Domino’s Pizza. Five years later, a federal court ruled that Domino’s Pizza did not infringe on the Domino Sugar trademark.
2. The Three Dots Represent Than Just a Domino Piece
Yes, that’s a domino piece in the pizza chain’s logo, but there’s more to that story than meets the eye. Those three dots actually represent the original three stores that were open in 1965.
Then-owner Tom Monaghan originally planned to add a new dot for each new store. Thankfully, he didn’t. With more than 18,000 locations worldwide, that’d be a lot of dots — and one huge logo!
FUN FACT: The first Domino’s Pizza franchise store opened in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in 1967.
1. They Tested Delivery by Drone
Yes, you read that correctly. Domino’s has delivered pizzas by drone. You may be wondering why you were never aware of this. Well, that’s because it was only done in New Zealand. In 2016, Domino’s teamed up with startup Flirtey to design the world’s first-ever pizza delivery drone.
It was made of carbon fiber, aluminum and 3D printed components, designed to complete deliveries across a variety of weather conditions and flight paths in suburban environments, and featured low-battery return-to-safe-location programming and auto-return-home commands in case of low GPS signal or communication loss.
