His politics pissed me off, especially bitching about having to raise the price of pizza a few cents to provide health insurance. This from a company that gives away tons of pizzas if you’re a frequent buyer. I have no idea how many freebies I got from them before I quit going.
Instead, I order from a local place that has pretty good pizza, plus subs and calzones and salads and other things I can’t remember - and their delivery folks are great. Papa isn’t getting any more of my money.
The guy’s a dick, with an obvious disdain for his employees. His pizza’s just not good enough for me to justify giving him my money so he can build an even larger house while his employees scrape by. Why would I want to reward bad behavior?
I guess the “foodierific” pizzas I’m thinking of generally only come in one size, and top off at around $20 (but they aren’t meant to be eaten by more than two people), but the regular takeout places around here, you don’t hit over $25 unless you max out at the 20" party size, and load it full of ingredients. A normal 16" family sized pizza is around $15-$20 with four toppings.
At any rate, the number I was originally astounded at was $40, but either that got edited or it actually was $30 in the original post, in which case, it’s not that crazy. I can’t imagine ordering any pizza, though, and eating one bite and throwing the rest away, no matter how much I dislike it. Even Papa John’s.
Here’s one reason to care: Papa John’s treats their employees like shit. They are constantly trying to nickel and dime them, and do whatever it takes to squeeze a little more profit out of their wage slaves. The CEO denigrates his employees publicly, and everyone who works for him sees this. This is why nobody who works for Papa John’s gives a shit about doing a good job. Drivers do care about their tips, and many of them do make an effort to treat their customers well, but overall the people working at Papa John’s do not care. No matter how busy it is, the people making the pizzas would rather goof off and take smoke breaks and go next door for a soda than actually make pizzas. Nobody does any more than is needed to not get fired, because why should they? Why should they work hard to enrich some millionaire asshole who is constantly whining about how he doesn’t have enough money? Why should they care about a company that constantly, in many different ways, tells it’s employees they are worthless? So if you are interested in getting good (or even decent) customer service, it might be worth it to consider the way a company treats it’s employees.
I have lived in the Midwest for almost my entire life (though I went to college in NY and my parents are from the East Coast, so I have spent time there as well) and have no trouble finding local, non-chain pizza here. Given, I am in a big city and one that’s known for its pizza, but I imagine other towns also have other cheap, fast food options, even in the Midwest (I did go to school in Bloomington, Indiana for a while, and they still had pizza better than any chain pizza I’ve ever had, not to mention burgers, etc.)
I’d rather make myself a grilled cheese sandwich or buy a burrito or something than eat a crappy chain pizza. I only eat chain pizza when someone else is doing the ordering and it’s the only option. YMMV of course.
I tried their pizza once, and only once, on someone’s recommendation. That person is no longer a part of my life, and neither is PJ’s sub-standard pizza.
And Schnatter needs to learn that treating his employees better is in his own best interest . . . and so is making stupid comments publicly.
I don’t consider any chain pizza to be real pizza but that doesn’t mean some isn’t bad. I just put it in a separate category. I don’t eat Papa John’s because the first and only time I tried it I didn’t like it. Maybe it changed and is better now. I don’t know. I do know that I find Dominos and Pizza Hut to be perfectly serviceable products in that category if the kids want it. I have no need to try PJ. I do not care at all about the owner’s politics and think its silly to punish a franchise owner for something a guy 12 levels above might think.
Full disclosure - I own a Franchise from Papa John’s. My store has 6 family members working there so it is kind of a Mom and Pop Papa John’s. I have plans to own at least 3 more. From Franchise to Franchise your results may vary. My store pays higher than the national chains and all promotions come from current employees. We take all complaints about quality very seriously and will make it right every time. We follow all corporate rules but there is a lot of latitude in the way we run things when we don’t break a corporate policy.
There are enough different pizzas to satisfy everyone, if you like ours, great, if not, that’s ok too.
I do! Got two tonight, in fact. (And every Wednesday night.) I like the pizza, as I’m a fan of sweet sauce and not-too-thin-not-too-thick crusts, and the toppings really are fresh and tasty.
Your chicken wings and “poppers,” I’m sorry to say, rather suck. Not your fault, not your recipe, but…bleh.
I live in Queens, NY. I cannot understand why anyone is this town would ever order Pizza Hut/Domino’s/Papa Johns. Just about any local shop has better pizza. And there are local shops pretty much in walking distance of every residential and commercial building in the city. And 99% of them deliver.