By Diane Bullock November 1, 2011 01:27 PM
The burger wars are as American as, well, war itself. With sales dipping recently, not into the sweet and sour sauce, but to their lowest numbers of the year, the fast food chains have been desperate to put some sizzle in their grade-D steak. Take, for instance, the bun-to-bun makeover of Wendy’s signature menu item, the single with cheese, as the new, unfortunately-named Dave's Hot 'N Juicy or Burger King’s new line of limited-time burgers called BK Toppers in Deluxe, Mushroom, and Swiss and Western BBQ.
In the dough-eat-dough world of pizza franchises, Domino’s undoubtedly made the most drastic recipe reinvention of its peers in December 2009. “Our hand-tossed pizza is new,” said in a company statement. “It’s not a slightly altered version of the old pizza. It’s not the same old product in a fancy new wrapper. It’s a completely new pizza from the crust up.”
But last month Domino’s turned up the heat in its battle for pizza market share by literally burning down the competition. Lake City, Florida, Domino’s managers Bryan Sullivan and Sean Davidson, unnerved by losing business two blocks away to rival Papa John’s, decided to set it on fire with gunpowder-packed incendiary devices. The two men were charged with felony arson.
“(Sullivan) felt that if Papa John’s was no longer open, it would increase his business,” said a police department spokesman. “He said he got tired of their vehicles driving by his store. He said he had taken down some of their local advertising at intersections.”
The orders to off their pizza enemy apparently didn’t come down from corporate, which claims to be “as shocked as anyone by this.” Domino’s spokesman Tim McIntyre said: “As a company, Domino’s Pizza has nothing but the greatest respect for the Papa John’s system and its franchisees, and it should go without saying that we don’t endorse criminal behavior of any form.”
No comments:
Post a Comment