The Decline of Pizza Hut...What Happened?
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- čas přidán 21. 12. 2021
- Pizza Hut was once the world's leading pizza chain. They've been losing ground over the years and this video attempts to explain why.
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As a general manager ( of Pizza Hut ) back in the 90's, we hand made everything. Cut cheese made dough, cut veggies and meat, buttered garlic bread etc etc. Then they decided to centralized the toppings. Frozen cheese, pre-cut veggies were all sent to us, and the 'flavor' of the deep dish just sank. Doesn't take a genius to see why it's completely lost its luster. RIP
Yeah they cheapened the ingredients and raised the price. They wanted 30 dollars for 2 one topping pizzas I called too order a few months ago. When they said the price I said no thanks. They're pizza isn't AT ALL worth that price PLUS the quality of their food is garbage now. They used to be so good though back in the day.
@@j.t.thomas1859 Exactly, if I'm going to pay that much, I'd rather pick a local play with fresh and tasty ingredients. The quality is poor and the price is too high. If I wanted cheap quality pizza, I'll go to Little Cesar's for a quarter of the price.
Yeah. Pizza Hut used to be so good. Now it's close the bottom of the barrel. Such a shame.
💯💯💯 True!!
That is exactly what I said above before reading this section of the comments. I worked for Pizza Hut back in the late 90's. That must have been around the time they started switching. By the early 2000's I could barely stomach a pizza (or afford, lol. Yeah, that too.)
I switched to frozen pizza baked at home. Got better results.
Its pretty simple. They thought they could undercut consumers with cheap ingredients and reduced labor. The difference in the taste was instantly noticeable. Not only that but the vibe in the restaurant changed. There was a signature atmosphere and smell that you couldn't get in any other pizza restaurant. The smell of the sauce was mesmerizing. Now it smells like old cheese and cardboard. If you would've told me back in the 90s that we would live in an era where Domino's and Little Ceasar's would be better alternatives to Pizza Hut I would laugh in your face. The franchise has fallen off that bad.
👏🏾 Cause Pizza Hut was fireeeeee .
It’s because their pizzas are now full of soy. Soy shouldn’t be in pizza. Period. Lol the cheaper the pizza the more soy. And the more reason it tastes like crap
I know exactly what you mean! I can still remember the smell like it was yesterday. When I was a kid, Pizza Hut had an even better atmosphere; the restaurant was darker, lit mostly with table lights, as it tried to sell itself as a serious restaurant and not just a pizza joint. I miss that version of Pizza Hut.
@@allison4516 Ive never noticed soy being in pizza? I do notice cheap ingredients doh.
You're right. It does smell more like cardboard than yummy pizza.
Pizza Hut as a kid in the 80’s and 90’s was so good. I loved the atmosphere, the jukebox, the Arcade games, and the pizza was so fresh. That pan pizza!
Hence the word WAS
Video explained the first order reasons. The actual, second order reasons are that overall wealth and income levels of middle class has declined so much. Middle class is no more like it was in 80s/90s
Plain and simple. It just cost too much for what you get. Quality has gone down hill as well. Not worth it.😢😢😢 11:15
Pizza Hut was fun, fun experience, even the crazy overly creative “pizza” ideas were simply true to themselves. Who cares that “pizzas” from Pizza Hut ain’t authentic? Then they seemingly tried to make their restaurants look more higher class, yet their food were still the same or even worse, with higher price. I remember the same item I used to order, I never expected it to be gourmet Italian dish but it was decent, now taste worse than some microwave meal from supermarket.
This map is insane
"Were going to Pizza Hut!" was a seldom heard phrase that sent me and my brother to Happyville. This was the mid 90's when I feel there quality was an industry standard and the restaurant felt like a restaurant. I visited a Pizza Hut 2 months ago after many years of not eating at chain restaurants. My experience there was extremely dissapointing. The food was terrible. Sucks to get old. On one hand I experienced some of the best America had to offer but I also am witnessing the decline and death of all those great things
I feel you, their pizza now is extremely greesey and nasty and msot of the time the delivery drivers make a mess of your pizza or the pizza is cold by the time it arrives. After one too many times of crappy pizza and deilivery drivers I ended up just switching to Dominos and a local chain.
@@dragonace119 I don't know about your area, but in mine, Pizza Hut uses DoorDash drivers for a lot of their deliveries, but Dominos only uses in house drivers.
If your pizza arrives cold, the most likely case is that Pizza Hut saw it was a low tip or no tip order and passed it on to DoorDash. DoorDash drivers make $2 per delivery, plus any tips if there are any. A DoorDash driver is not obligated to take any offers sent to them, and if the offer shows a very low amount, it is going to get declined for a very long time until DoorDash raises the pay enough to make it acceptable for a driver to pick it up, They generally raise the offer by 25cents every ten minutes, so it can take a very long time until someone decides the payout is worth the gas used and distance.
Edit: I should also add that it is very possible that the Pizza Hut stole your tip for themselves, making it appear as there is no tip, which has the same effect as mentioned before.
Almost every Friday when dad would get home from work and we’d go out for groceries, we’d go to Pizza Hut to have a large supreme pizza and some breadsticks. We stopped going in the early 2010s because our local Pizza Hut got so gross and the food went downhill too
Do you still eat Pizza Hut?
@@puggoman902 every now and then, seems like their quality has came back up lately. I still love their breadsticks though
That sounds like a nice family tradition, at least up until the decline of their food quality.
@@MrDemonsushiGuy it’s one of my favorite memories from being a kid.
I worked there in the early 2000's and quality was high. over the years things got worse quality and stretched too thin as they tried to compete with dominos. Now i haven't eaten there in 7 years and no one i know wants to go there.
The old Pizza Hut restaurants were dark and had this sexy glow from the candles on the tables. They had video games. The pizza was hot and delicious. It was a magical experience, but now the restaurants are like every other sterile uninspired box.
Soda in those red plastic cups and multiple beers on tap...I remember it fondly. The dark atmosphere with the arcade is something you just don’t see anymore. I actually have considered opening my own pizza joint with this exact same feel. Maybe one day when the country stabilizes itself. Too much chaos and uncertainty right now to invest in anything.
Now, it just blends in. Nothing distinct. You can look at an old school Pizza Hut that has been repurposed into a laundry mat or whatever and know exactly what it used to be.
Used to go there for date nights. loved the cavatelli and the salad bar was so good. The place was packed on weekends used to love to sit in the corner window seat.
Couldn't agree more. Pizza hut used to be the place to go after little league games and at the end of the season for trophies
cocktail Pac-Man tables, pitchers of Pepsi, and those red plastic cups
Pizza Hut in the 80’s was amazing. The smell, the arcades, the look, the taste, and the great service. It doesn’t even taste the same no more. You couldn’t really beat out Pizza Hut in the 80’s and early 90’s.
I agree. Back then, the pizza had a reliably good taste.
Omg Pizzahut in the 80’s and 90’s 🤤
The future is in 3D printing your own Pizza. No company is really ready to innovate in this area tho.
Our local Pizza Hut closed down years ago and just last year, someone decided to open a new Pizza Hut in town. I noticed a lot of people talking about it on Facebook so they got some free advertisement and attention there, but after they opened, no one talked about it. One day recently I decided to stop by the new location to introduce Pizza Hut to my wife. I walked in hoping to see the Pizza Hut that we all loved when we were young, but it was just one of those delivery/carryout only places. We stood inside and looked around for a minute and decided to leave without ordering anything. I can buy frozen pizza in the grocery store. Pizza Hut was about the experience and they no longer offer that. I won't be back.
If you can buy frozen pizza in the grocery store then why do you care about Pizza Hut at all? You seem to have your mind set on thawing out shitty pizzas and thinking that's the pinnacle of food. Sit down restaurants started being phased out in 2013 because nobody leaves the house anymore.
I was a manager of a pizza hut delco in the late 90"s. The dough USED to be made fresh every morning. They switched to frozen dough to save money. It will never be the same.
Ya i was gonna say, he didn't really hit on taste but it def doesn't taste as good as it used to. That's #1 with any food spot. If you can't get taste right, nothing after that matters.
Yo i was gonna say I remember going to pizza hut as a kid and they'd actually be throwing dough now its just some frozen crap
I remember how it tasted before the frozen dough and it was so much better
I worked there in 91 and remember the only frozen dough was bread sticks. I left and came back in 95 and the hand tossed was frozen. Like WTF? Hand tossed shouldn't be a frozen dough.
well that explains a lot... I had Pizza Hut recently because my usual pizza place was closed. It tasted nothing like I remember which is not effective at getting someone to return to being a customer. The customer service was great but that cannot change the product itself.
The missing part of the story is how the quality of ingredients declined rapidly, precut ingredients shipped in boxes, frozen and partially frozen premade dough was shipped in and it was 'cooked' by a team with minimal training and low pay causing massive employee turnover. This was all done to increase the profit for Pepsi at the expense of the customer. Eventually customers noticed and decided that Pizza Hut was not the place for them. Pizza Hut cut its own throat with short term decisions at the expense of the business.
That sounds about right. I know Domino’s does that too. I wonder what would happen if Pizza Hut suddenly went back to hand-cutting fresh produce instead of pre-packaged crap and paid their employees more, or at least offered more free food so they don’t struggle with hunger. I would say bring back the dine-in too. For those establishments that were built small to only accommodate take-out or delivery, expand them or take back the old restaurant buildings. That was a key part of PH back on the day and it worked. Dominos doesn’t do that.
absolute truth. pizza hut is a terrible place anymore with poor ingedients and massive fraudulent advertising. look at their pictures compared to any other pizza place. the elmer's glue is 3 inches thick and pouring off the slice like a waterfall. this is blatant fraud and can't even begin to be explained as "a presentation" of the real package. nope. it's not a creative presentation. it's fake. they should be sued for being fake in marketing and cheap in products.
@Green Mamba Games yup.
It's "Italian" food made by non Italians marketed to Midwest bumpkins who don't know any better. Just like how every other chain restaurant in this country "succeeds"
@@danieln.285 They won't do it because Republicans don't want regulations, which is an open invitation for companies to pay garbage and blatantly false advertise
The reason why Pizza Hut fell apart was because of bad management. Believe me I use to work there and it was so poorly run (especially by the district manager) it was ridiculous.
Domino's is run like shit, too. The difference is there's a domino's on every corner. That's why pizza hut fell apart.
That makes sense. Bad management in a lot of companies it seems.
me too
Shocked that the quality of the pizza was not mentioned in this. I'd say that would be the #1. I remember as a child first going to one in the late 80's and it was great. We didn't have one locally, so any time I had it, it was always in travel. Then when I finally moved to a city in the late 2000's, there was one nearby, so I went, and man not only did it not taste the same, but the quality was definitely worse.
exactly what was he talking bout in the video wasn't the reason that shit is nasty
This is the real reason. It's a simple answer. Thier product declined to the point where nobody wants it anymore.
@@CCLIPBEATZthe business side of things
But not bringing up the quality going down the drain should've been a factor on the decline
I was a General Manager for 14 years. They sold our region to NPC franchise group. It went straight to shit. They did not care for the Managers that had made Pizza Hut great. They got ride of them based on pure greed. I left on my own terms. Got my own Pizzeria doing it the right way now.
Good thing, mind some promotion for your restaurant so I know to go to it next time I pass through your town?
Why wouldn't you say they name of your pizzeria, NOT TOO SMART ARE YOU???
@@michellej7734 hey, calm down
@@michellej7734 why so upset
@@michellej7734 Found the NPC Franchise group mole
I’m 55 years old.
I remember going to eat at Pizza Hut all throughout the 80’s.
It was usually on a Friday night.
The atmosphere was extremely busy with tons of positive vibes coming out of both the dining room and the kitchen and front counter areas.
As I write this I can smell the pizzas baking, the clanking of dishes and the laughter wafting through the air.
This might seem odd to say but if I could put an entire experience of being a teenager in the U.S. in the eighties this pretty much sums it up.
Oh how I miss you Pizza Hut of the past. 🍕😢
With the background noise of a ms pacman and spy hunter arcade machines.
Me, too! I have such great memories of going to PH with a big group of my high school friends after football and basketball games and dances.
@@bludstone Same but Street Fighter 2 Turbo since I'm a bit younger
I’m nearly your age and a product of the 80’s. You hit the nail on the head with the Friday night Pizza Hut experience. Those giant red plastic goblets filled with ice cold Pepsi, the rattling of the pans, that sizzling pan pizza when they delivered it to you table, the sound of Foreigner playing on the jukebox in the background….wow. Then afterwards, racing home to catch Miami Vice on TV. We were kings!
All of this sounds glorious. I'm envious.
My sister and I used to get so many free personal pan pizza coupons from elementary school in the early - mid 90s for reading so many books. So we'd go down to Pizza Hut and sit down there and the pizza was amazing. I actually did enjoy the big foot pizza they had. I was always into those kind of stories and it was a huge pizza which I thought was awesome. Nothing like getting a big foot pizza and going home to watch "Unsolved Mysteries" or the show "Sightings" and hope to hear a story about Big Foot lol.
Unsolved Mysteries and Sightings...you hit me right in the nostalgia xD
I loved Pizza Hut when I was a kid. Me and my D&D crew used to eat there all the time. The restaurant always smelled so good, and the pizza was to die for! The only reason we stopped going was because the pizza started to suck, no other reason.
Prices went up, quality went down. The big local Pizza Hut here just closed, and had been understaffed and in disrepair for many, many years. Sad to see a favourite chain from my childhood decline so badly.
Also there stuff like alfredo noodles and the garlic bread knots, wings is better than there pizza. There called pizza hut but focus more on their appetizers. I also liked their sandwiches but they removed it.
Had a friend who worked at Pizza Hut in the early 80's when in high school. Seemed like decent pizza. But about 10+ years ago a Pizza Hut near me was doing all you can eat lunch buffets. Tried it once and it was really lousy. Had to force myself to go back for seconds just to get my money's worth.
The two Pizza Huts in my town closed and the closest one to me went down the tubes years ago. Cheap pizza at a not so cheap price. No thanks.
Yup. Prices going up, quality and topping amount dropped, the deals were worse. So I switched to Domino's and haven't even checked the Pizza Hut website for changes since 2016. Consumers these days have long memories and a penchant for vengeance.
@@Elhardt Yeah, I remember the lunch buffets. The quality wasn't that good at all, mainly because they were trying to get pizzas out quickly.
Basically every failure comes down to:
1) cheapening the product
2) increasing the price
3) reducing customer service
4) failing to timely adapt to major persistent changes in consumer behavior and preferences
1 through 3 can be largely attributed to the business being bought out by someone who wants to get a return on their investment as soon as possible.
4 is pretty difficult.
When i was a kid, my favorite food was basically pizza hut. I like going there for my birthday. Now, i associate them with low quality pizza.
Is it really a failure though from the perspective of those who made the changes? By doing those things the executives can increase profits, get a nice bonus, then move on to the next company by the time the brand is downgraded.
They have to keep increasing the price in dollar terms though…inflation exists. $9.99 pizza in 1980 is about $40 in today’s dollars.
With options of UberEats, DoorDash... PizzaHut is seldom ever in my mind for delivery. Times have changed
On 4... Families still like to go out and eat. Things change, but some things dont. They wanted to target a different market ao they could do 1-3
Pizza Hut's decline pretty much mirrors the transition from having dine-in locations versus locations where you can pick up or which serve as delivery hubs. The problem is that a Dominos pickup/delivery store has a much lower overhead than a dine-in restaurant. Pizza Hut has been transitioning to a lower-overhead setup that is basically just a me-too place that has nothing to distinguish it from any other pickup/delivery only places.
Like you said, a lot of Pizza Hut's appeal in earlier years was with outings. The salad bar, dessert pizza, and make-your-own-sundae were really fun parts of the experience, and those are the things that stuck with me over the years. That, and how bad their pizza was. If they want to do well, they just need to make good pizza. But, if there's anything I've learned from this channel, it's Yum Brands is where restaurant chains go to die.
I think the primary reason for their decline is a decline in the quality of the pizza followed by ever increasing prices from early 90's to now. In a pizza business, quality and price are the key to success. All else comes next. I would say the third factor is delays in delivery and the limited geographic delivery areas (there are many "islands" in suburbs where no PH delivers to). If they improve quality, pricing, and delivery in that order, they will beat Dominos any day. If the top executives of PH can't improve these basic factors, they don't deserve to be in their jobs making millions in salaries.
Yes! Quality is #1. I remember exactly when Pizza Hut, Pizza Pizza, Digorno (Delissio), and Domino's changed their recipes -precisely when they had enough brand recognition to rely on that rather than quality! I left every single one of them for it. Little Caesar's on the other hand, their deep dish stuffed crust brought me back to pizza chains exclusively.
Once they start offering larger pizzas they can take the #2 spot.
They have delays in delivery cause no one wants to work for 7.25 an hour as a driver not to mention you don’t always know if you’ll get a tip. I did a 75$ order once and only received like 6$ for a tip for it to go 15 mins away from the store to be delivered
Pizza Hut & Subway both went downhill at around the same time in my small town. IMO their downfall began when they got too greedy and started using cheaper & cheaper, crappy ingredients while simultaneously increasing the prices. Pizza Hut & Subway also suffer from worker morale (imo). Most Employees don’t stick around long and the ones there are undertrained and usually rude. I don’t expect the employees to be experts in their pizza & sub making craft and treat me like I’m royalty, but overpriced, sh*tty food served by aloof, rude employees is a disaster for attracting return customers. The employees at places like Starbucks, McDonalds, White Castle and Burger King are usually provide WAY better customer service.
My dad always loves to talk about how they got rid of the 2 for 1 he said that was why in the 80's he went and took us their
@@mikeappleget482 "IMO their downfall began when they got too greedy and started using cheaper & cheaper, crappy ingredients while simultaneously increasing the prices."
I swear this is the history of every modern food chain; they start with good, fresh ingredients then jack the prices up and move to frozen. I'm sure some executive saw this as a brilliant way to save money but it's a case of "save a penny lose a dollar" because people do notice and stop going. Case in point - We've stopped going to Applebees and Panera Bread because of this; the prices have gone up but the quality and quantity have gone down.
The reason for the decline is simple… the quality of the pizzas declined rapidly whilst prices went through the roof.
Their new recipes suck !
Honestly pizza has pretty much stayed the same price for 20 years or longer. Look at other places like McDonald’s for instance. 20 years ago, a large burger like a Big Mac or quarter pounder was $2, now it’s over $4. I remember paying 99 cents for a whopper in the late 90s, now they’re $4 as well without buying 2 or more.
@@gregrowe1168 not sure who eats at McDonald’s or any of the fast food chains anymore. You pay $10 for dog crap. They say poor people go to these places. I say that’s where you go to stay or become poor.
Exactly. Pizza Hut has quite possibly the most expensive pizza prices out there and it tastes as bad if not worse than Little Caesar's at this point. The quality and price are at a huge disconnect.
@@TraumaER When you're short on time and money its far too easy to spend $5 on a 1000 calorie meal while only waiting for 15 minutes or less. Besides the McDonalds is very likely closer than your local grocery store.
The Pizza Hut closest to my office regularly charged higher prices than what was on their menu. When questioned about this the manager always said, "That's an old menu." When confronted about false advertising he'd tell people to leave and never come back. I'm pretty sure that specific store closed just because word got around. It didn't help that the corporate office never would step in.
Way to grow a business. Insult your customers.
I think you missed one of the biggest failings. Much like their sister yum branded restaurants, pizza hut changed their recipe/ingredients to save money. The resulting change in taste is very drastic. Pizza Hut used to taste freshly baked with real ingredients, because that's what it was. It was good! Now they've cheapened their ingredients while adding so many artificial flavors and preservatives it tastes like plastic. They don't even make half of the products on site anymore. Dough is shipped in frozen.
it is literally lower quality than freezer pizza now. they did the same thing to taco bell, it's pure trash now
That makes sense as to why todays PH is no comparison as it was in years past
I think most places have a rule that there has to be at least 2 people working at the same time. But with low pay and morale, I imagine there are times where the second person calls out sick and leaves the 1 person hanging. When I worked retail they always scheduled adequately for Sunday, but if one person called out it would suck. When someone had to go on their lunch break you knew the long was going to get long and the customers would get angry.
@@aznnp77 Actually, the fact that if even 1 person calls out, it goes to hell, means they are not adequately staffing. Adequate staffing means having enough people to handle the handle, while being cognizant of the reality that it's likely that 1 or 2 people will call out.
Agree 100%! Then you add the over an hour delivery time, even in non peak hours, plus the fact that they are more expensive than Domino's and their staff are either rude or clueless and that cinches it.
I worked at Pizza Hut in the early 1990s - my job was to make all the fresh pizza dough every morning - mixing real ingredients, fresh... it used to be an actual quality product.
and then some of the locations had the all you can eat lunch buffet. As a teenager that was a favorite of mine
Did they still have Priazzo then or didn’t that survive the 80s?
@@TipsyMcStumble82 no - Priazzo was out by the mid-late 1980s... We did have the buffet. It was a wonderful, just out of highschool job. My best friend and I would go in every morning and make all the dough for all the pizzas for lunch buffet - fresh - while jamming the juke box - then we'd run the buffet and be off after lunch. "Any way you want it thats the way you need it..." Journey was a repeat jukebox song. My how times have changed. Pizza Hut used to be fun. I joined the Navy so I purposefully got fired by having my friend ladle pizza sauce all over me and serving a buffet pizza. I was such a rotten kid.
Yea i got laid cuz of an old school pizza hut. Met my first there and even though it didnt go well i still blush when i see the place
You sir were a dough master. Yes folks that was a real position.
What amazing memories from the late 80s/early 90s as my family would go to the sit down PH restaurants. Piping hot pizza, that Pepsi in those red plastic cups, the sit down Pac Man Arcade game, the salad bar and birthdays celebrated there! It was a great time to be a kid. Thanks for the memories! 🫶🏻
I was just remembering how you used to be able to dine in and they had some sort of salad/Pizza bar, and was wondering if that was still a thing. I got my answer in this video, thanks Company Man. I wish you could still dine in
It's just mismanagement. Their food had a considerable drop in quality, but not in price. On the contrary, Dominos actually managed to improve their products and keep the accessible prices, which is impressive to say the least.
I agree also I love how dominos has the whole pizza insurance thing. When they take to long on your pizza they always give you a free one. I like that. Pizza Hut dont do that.
THIS. Back in the day, Pizza Hut's pizza was superior to Domino's to the point where it was embarrassing to admit you'd gotten Domino's instead. Now, 15-20 years later, I will gladly admit to ordering Domino's, to the point of even encouraging people to give them another shot (if their opinion is based on their pizza circa 1992-2000.)
Dominos is my fav
Pizza Hut is straight trash 🗑
The price is half of what it used to be in the 90s. So, counting inflation, that's a 75% decrease in price. This is one of the reasons they struggle.
The problem stemmed from going from fresh to frozen. I worked as a prep cook/certified dough master for over five years. In that time specs were reduced twice. Smaller sizes and products were shipped to outlets frozen instead of made fresh daily. These factors reduced the quality of the menu. Eventually our local store was forced to close due to superior products from the competition. Sad, but not surprising.
It's so easy to make pizza dough, such a sad way to cut costs!
I whole heartedly agree. See my post above.
What competition though? You def can't be talking about Dominos or Little Ceaser lol.
No, we have a local brick oven pizzeria called Pagliai's that was voted best Pizza in the state four years running. Admittedly, they're tough to beat.
@@benjaminrupe5930
Just like Imo's here in St Louis.
They're our long time version of what Pizza Hut coined "The Edge".
Which ironically to this day I haven't tried The Edge yet.
For anyone reading this is it worth trying before they kill it off again in a few weeks?
I'd ask if the toppings are any fresher etc but all frozen.
I kinda know what to expect on crust if it truly holds up to your "expensive cheese and crackers" bka Imo's pizza.
Had a local Hut around the corner that was an older wooden building. Lots of ambiance, and the food was excellent (30 years ago). They tore that building down and erected a chrome and vinyl monstrosity that was like walking into a hospital, and with the advent of the canned condiments, the pizza started to taste like it was from a hospital.
Of course, I got spoiled when living in Boston during college ('76 to '80) - the pizza places in the North End were incredible!
A friend of mine in MA says the best pizza is Old School Italian Pizzeria in Wellesley.
I remember in the 70's I would order a pizza for carryout and they would place the cooked pie in an oversized paper bag; grab the center of the bag, pull it straight up to create a tent and serve it. Also I miss their buffets in the 80's where my family could eat cheaply (I was a struggling college student). However I hated to see the waste from people leaving tons of their crusts.
Edited for additional comments: My favorite memory was as a highschooler, walking to our nearest Pizza Hut, ordering a small pepperoni pizza on Friday night and eating it while watching "Friday Night Frights" on WTCG-TV, Channel 17 (UHF) in my hometown, Georgia, which is now known as TBS.
Also, I do miss the dining-in at their restaurants.
I'm kind of surprised you didn't mention this, but for me it's because of the pizza itself. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind the quality of their pizzas has been drastically reduced since I was a kid. Their pizzas for me are just so bland compared to what they were 10-15 years ago, imo.
Possibly, probably, also your taste buds may have changed as well.
indeed, goes for most things sadly
This is correct - they used to make their dough fresh on site, but switched to bringing in frozen pizza crusts, the quality definitely declined, and they did it just at the time when "fast casual" restaurants were coming on the scene and customers were starting to pay more attention to the quality of ingredients from fast food places. Cheaping on quality was never a good idea, but Pizza Hut did it at an especially bad time.
And it's true of all Yum brands....it's just Pizza is a far more competitive market. Taco Bell stands alone as Mexican Fast fast food (Chipotle is just fast). KFC is certainly being hit by Chick filet/Popeyes growth, but the Chicken wars are new.
All the quality has plummeted under Yum and with so many pizza options from national like Dominos, to regional, to local...if you don't deliver quality, no branding is going to fix that. KFC will be next to falter again because of quality.
I’d agree with this, but as I’ve grown up, their pizza are just greasy and kind of gross. As a kid, you don’t mind but as an adult I want a pizza that does not seem deep fried 😜
When I lived in the US in the late 80s, Pizza Hut was like a gourmet dining experience and a memory I'm still genuinely fond of. The pizzas were sublime, plus you had the parm shakers on each table allowing a generous addition of parmesan to your liking. When I came back to college, it was downright unrecognizable. So much grease and oil! It was a sad reminder that sometimes the past can never be brought back to life.
Yes! You couldn't of said it better! It was a place for birthdays and study group get-togethers! Serb you have sparked something in my sense zone and it's been twenty-seven years since I smelt that! I even had a taste. Man it was 1994 the last time I really sat down in one. I was 16 and it was my birthday. My dad set it up and I showed up to fifteen people waiting for me! Such an amazing time to be alive! Now a days common sense and free speech are thrown out the window 😔. SerbAtheist thanks again for awakening a great time in my life🙏❤️🙂👊🦈
@Sophilia ... ...Because common sense to not cheapen ingredients to the point of repulsion is a good idea? Pizza Hut, like free speech online, is waning.
Similarly, i REALLY miss being able to smoke in a Dunk N Donuts. Everything's so... boring now.
But some people like the oil, there's a whole sub-culture that likes the greasy oil that accumulates in pepperoni slices. Me? I don't eat much pizza, but had fun with a girl visiting Belgrade once where they sell roasted chestnuts in the street. Good times.
@@raylopez99 Well dammit Ray, now it sounds like you had fun with a chick while utilizing pizza oil. My mind will be laughing at this all night at work.
Wow, this video was sooo good, full of good and interesting information to us as well!! This channel's increadible, seriously.
The Hut was a great time growing up. Totally family friendly and the pizza was excellent.Friday and Saturday nights were lit! I thought the lunch buffets were a great idea. After a while the quality declined, the restaurants became unkempt and dirty. I stopped going and slowly but surely, the restaurants disappeared. It was kinda sad seeing these old, iconic restaurants that have stood for so long suddenly close and get demolished. Nothing lasts forever.
Wouldn’t hurt my feelings if they canned the gimmicks and just got back to the classic model: pan pizza, gingham table cloths and all you can eat salad bar in a sit down restaurant. Oh, and if they could bring back the table top Pac Man, Donkey Kong and Galaga video game machines, that would be appreciated too!
Thats what im sayin too👍. Bring back the oldschool pizza and oldschool arcade and can the gimmicks
Don't forget those thick red plastic cups at the soda fountain, and the pebble ice machine.
@@chaoticutopia yup those red bumpy glasses were the best. Pepsi tasted so good out of those.
Agreed. And maybe sponsor a little league team again while they’re at it.
Ha this makes me feel old 😂
Back in the early 2000’s Pizza Hut was supreme, but around 2003ish our local Pizza Hut switched from making dough from scratch, and went to frozen dough “patties” that are proofed in in a warm setting. I only know this because I worked there at the time. The taste was noticeable, and in my belief, it was all downhill from there.
Yep, my first job was a pizza cook at the hut. We stopped making the dough and started using those pucks, and people noticed. We went from being slammed on Fri and sat nights, to sometimes closing early. It seemed corporate started to get more and more involved as well and kind of handcuffed the genetal manager. The final straw was when the got rid of the lunch buffet.
There are just some things that you shouldn't industrialize, fresh food is one of them.
They really do taste like shit now. I have not been there in over 10 years. good riddance
@@Evian1990 NO WONDER WHY I KNOW THE PIZZA WAS "BAD"
So can tell me story on mushroom soup. I KNOW IT TASTE BETTER THEN whatever there doing now
@@nuruddinshah684 we didn't have that soup when I worked there
Not having the sit down buffet is the sole reason I haven't ate pizza hut in over a decade.
I remember walking into pizza huts with my family as a kid and seeing the cooks tossing the dough. I even asked my dad what that man was doing and my dad explained it all to me. Dad, mom, brothers, my sister, pacman and galaga. It was a beautiful time.
Back in the day, my friends and I called Dominos Pizza a "Dominos Death Disc" because of how bad it was. The problem for Pizza Hut is that Dominos improved DRASTICALLY, while Pizza Hut's quality has been stagnant or gotten worse.
Couldn't have happened to a better pizza brand. #Dominos4life #LastLaugh
I remember that Dominos made an extensive study of customer experiences and learned that they had a reputation for cheap ingredients, bland taste. They took this info and adapted, as well as advertising the fact, and subsequently took off. I remember specifically finding them much much better then, and still today.
I completely agree!! When I was younger, I hated Dominos and loved Pizza Hut. Every Friday was pizza day and the family would always get Pizza Hut but around 2012 it got insanely gross to me that I'd actually throw up. It was weird going from eating it every week to not even understanding what I'm tasting or consuming lmao they changed so much. Finally got Dominos and it was way different in 2015 compared to 2008
Hmmm this unlocked a memory in my mind that as a child I hated dominos like I would not eat it. And what kid doesn’t want pizza ya know ? But I remember the smell is what had me not want to eat it and the taste.
For real. How bad Domino's used to be is burned into my brain, I'll never forget the flavorless plastic poorly melted atop toasted cardboard.
Now they're so much better it isn't even funny. Pizza Hut briefly won me back once they started introducing a lot of interesting toppings, crust flavors etc. But now those aren't a thing anymore.
Last time I got Pizza Hut I paid $20 for a medium 3 topping pizza. One of the toppings was sliced green olives. I was lucky to have 4 bits of green olives on a slice. The Pepperoni was cut razor thin and the cheese didnt cover the bread at places. The pizza was worth $9 not $20. I will never go there again.
And everybody know pizzas are cheap to make. You could have bought a stake sandwich with $20.
@Logan McGlynn Yeah Little Caesar's has the Pan Pizza with Bacon around it. That is so good. 😛
I loved the old-school Pizza Hut back in the 80s with the black pans and red cups. Great memories! I think that overpopulation leans more towards a delivery model to support the masses. Gosh I miss those old days compared to what we have now.
Black pans, red cups, and red and white checkered table cloths.
I had forgotten all about that!
Idk how you can forget that. I never forgot it. Also I have the red cups I bought off eBay. @@spamuser8277
I remember going to the Pizza Hut in Roanoke Virginia by the little movie theater in the late 1970's. Baskins and Robbins was a couple of buildings down from it. I loved going to the hut. It had those big plastic red cups for soda, those short round pyramid style candles on the tables, video games, it was happening. I was like 7 or 8 years old!! When we walked in the door I turned my head to the left and they were tossing pizza dough in the air!! Huge round saucers flying up in the air and then catching them with their fist on the way down. I thought that was so cool. I have that memory, that image still in my head. Salad bar for mom. I wasn't going to waste room in my stomach for lettuce, just more pizza! The last time I went to pizza hut maybe 2005 I walk in, it was a little box thing in a strip mall type building with no place to even sit down. It had a check out counter that was it. I ordered a pizza and added extra mushrooms. I watched him make it. He pulled out this previously frozen made in a factory pizza crust, tossed everything on it, all measured carefully, god forbid you put to much toppings on my pizza. When it came to the mushrooms he had this little cup to scoop up the mushrooms, about the size of those little drawn butter things they serve at Red Lobster, it was small!! He scoops it in the mushrooms, scrapes/levels it off with a knife and sprinkles these bacon bit size mushroom crumbs over my pizza and for the extra mushrooms I was paying for he fills that little cup half way and dumps it on the pizza I couldn't even see anything come out. I said Hey!! I asked for extra mushrooms!! He said that was, he argued with me and then put a pinch more on. That was the last time I had pizza hut. The pizza sucked too. Oh and the reason I went there to get my pizza, when I called for delivery they said they were going to charge me for deliver!! WHAT!!! It's been free my whole life!! They were the first to kill free delivery. RIP Bye Bye Never again! Surprisingly Papa Johns is pretty darn good chain pizza with the garlic butter and side of peppers!! I'd say the best in my market, in a pinch. I always order from mom and pop local pizza joints. I pay 2x or 3x the cost but I rather eat something good then pay anything to eat something gross. Dominos!! Oh god I made that mistake, pizza and their wings. So disgusting I, no joke, spit it out and through everything in the garbage. I'd be ashamed to own or serve Dominos!! Anyway that's my story of the late once great Pizza Hut!! RIP
For me it’s not about the gimmicks. Pizza Hut used to taste WAY better! Their pan pizza was the best!I talked to a guy a while back that retired from Pizza Hut. I asked him why did the pizza taste better in the 90s and earlier, was I just imagining it or is it really different? He said it’s very different. To streamline things and cut down on costs and to be able to do their gimmicks (ie stuff crust). He said they no longer made the dough there but that it came in, premade and frozen. He also said the cheese and sauce were changed to fit the new direction. So for me it was 90% the taste changed. Couple that with no longer going to sit down at Pizza Hut and it pretty much added up to no longer being Pizza Hut, rather a whole new company and a whole new, subpar, pizza that just so happens to have the same name.
Yeah but at least they cost a lot more $$$$$.
Did they think people wouldn't be able to tell? Maybe the average Joe doesn't care, considering how popular Dominos is.
I knew it wasn’t just me that had noticed that the taste quality of Pizza Hut went down quite a bit since the early 90’s.
Now it all makes sense. It did taste better decades ago. They need to use the old ingredients.
Eating there in the restaurant with the salad bar was the best
I worked for Pizza Hut for 15 years. I can tell you that it was the innovation in the early to mid 2000s that started the stagnation of the brand. We would advertise new specialty products relentlessly. However, they were only available for limited time. Therefore, we trained our customers that special pizzas were only available when they were being advertised on TV and in print. This translated to customers not calling when their favorite pizza wasn't being advertised. A great example is the Stuffed Crust pizza which was available every day, year round. We would put it on sale for 25 cents off normal price ($11.99 vs $12.24) and people went crazy for it. Sold a hundred or more every single day. When the sale ended, demand for the Stuffed Crust would plummet to 20 or so a day. Customers stopped calling when their favorite pizza was not being advertised, even though we still had it and it was available every day for just 25 cents more.
Bigger problem is that Pizza has too many choices, some of which are very gimmicky. So as someone who hasn’t ordered there in a long long time I never think of them for something unique to them. They kinda just melt into a it’s a pizza place vs say a Papa Johns with their garlic butter that is addictive
Stuffed Crust Pizza was brilliant marketing. Loved it!
As a kid in the 70's, going to Pizza Hut was a beloved reward for good grades, winning a ball game, etc., and the pizza was delicious. The jukebox and pinball machines were great fun, and some friends even dared to buy cigarettes from the vending machine.
**That classic building is now a Mexican restaurant; and the former Pizza Hut where I now live is a vape shop...
I loved the buffet bar they had (and some still do). We used to go for lunch because no matter what your colleagues wanted, the buffet had a little for everyone. No worries about splitting a pizza that wasn't your first choice (or that you didn't even like).
But I agree with another commenter here, the difference in the quality and prep of the fresh ingredients vs the frozen ones was noticeable and I feel the biggest contributor to their decline.
Loved their lunch buffet back in the day. The salad bar was great! No more in my city 😣
It’s simple: first they got rid of their seasoned pans, then they got rid of their fresh dough ( switching to frozen discs), then they got rid of some of their sauces and they also downsized their salad bar which was very popular in the earlier years. Then of course they changed their entire restaurant look when the old style was beloved making it more modern and less unique. And yes they totally switched to this delivery/carry out style which is awful. When ever I do order Pizza Hut it’s from one of the few original sit down restaurant locations that are still open because swear to god the pizza tastes so much better.
I think they also switched their buffalo wings.
yo where can I find a list of their original sit-down restaurants, I’m interested!
Yeah Pizza Hut pizza tastes the best when it right off of the oven in the sit down restaurants
I suspected the crust was different! Nothing better than the Hut in the 90s. The crust was buttery and they gave you a free Nickelodeon magazine.
I know we're never getting salad bars back, but I feel like it was understated, what a loss that was. 😔
I was a huge pizza hut fan. As a kid my parents would take my sister and I there. My experience, and why I moved away from it, was a steady decline in quality (both food and restaurant) and customer service. Sad.
Yeah, what did it for me, was that I once ordered a pizza with extra cheese, and it had so little cheese and sauce it tasted like plain bread. There were some spots where you could see no cheese at all and even some where you could even see the bread. When i complained, because i ordered it with extra cheese, they said it looked right. And then I started looking at everyone else's pizzas and they looked so sad, with very little cheese and toppings. I have never eaten any pizza hut ever since.
I agree. They used to be the best pizza by far, exceptional buttery crust. Lately, the pizza is average at best. Every time I have tried them over the last 4 years, I have been disappointed. I think the problem is quality.
In the 1990s, my two daughters looked forward--and loved--the Personal Pan pizzas they got as part of that long-running book-reading program. And we loved to dine in at the Pizza Hut a few blocks from our home. Truth was when Pizza Hut closed that location--and the nearest sit-down location was 10 minutes from our home--we discovered Little Caesars, Domino's. and Papa Johns, not to mention a local chain that is known far from their home base of St. Louis for a distinctive pizza with a crisp cracker-like crust and square-cut slices. That local chain is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year and--frankly--is going stronger than ever before. It is our go-to pizza for my wife and me (the others will do for our grandchildren, but not our favorites)
My great grandmother, an Italian woman who made her own handmade pizza, loved Pizza Hut. It was always a treat and an event when we would all go.
I grew up with Pizza Hut. When I started driving, I could just pick up my pizza since it was just a short drive away and I could just avoid delivery fees and tips. Our local Pizza Hut started out as a restaurant, then it downsized to a Delco store, then it moved further south out of my neighborhood, so I started going to a local chain instead. I do remember the Flavor of Now deal, which I actually tried once, but it ended up feeling like a novelty, and I just went back to my simple order of a pepperoni pan pizza. I should also mention that I mostly just associate Pizza Hut with delivery, and only ate at the restaurant twice.
And now I want pizza.
Anecdotally, Pizza Hut's quality seems to have declined while Domino's quality has increased. I remember 10 years ago, Domino's pizza tasted like cardboard, but now it's not bad. The opposite seems to have happened to Pizza Hut. The last time I had Pizza Hut, the dough wasn't even fully cooked.
I remember Pizza Hut's pan pizzas tasted amazing in my childhood. Over a decade ago, I ate them again after not eating one in so long and it didn't taste as amazing. I've noticed Dominos pizza has improved as well.
I worked briefly for Domino's (do not recommend) and I totally get this. That's just one factor as to why I stick with them now despite the former
My mom used to call Dominos, "cardboard and ketchup". Now, while not the best, it's miles better than the Pizza Hut of today
What does your toilet look like after eating Domino's... I need a F5 Hurricane to get rid of the smell.
@@piratestation69 you should...probably report your local store(s) for health inspection, sounds like contaminated food
The problem wasn't the menu, it was the ambiance. It started to feel less like a sit down restaurant and more like a fast food joint. Bring back the dark lighting, the terrific salad bar, the sit down video game consoles. Bring back that family friendly atmosphere.
I think it's pizza itself and the way people look at pizza places, when was the last time you sat down at a restaurant (that it's not italian) to eat one? for me it's been over 6 years and it was indeed at a Pizza Hut in Quebec during a trip with my family. When people think pizza nowadays it's fast food that they'd rather have at home delivered or picked up. If it isn't like an iconic local restaurant of like a legit italian place almost no one will go. Pizza Hut here in Toronto has been slowly losing declining and it's that issue of having big locations to sit down instead of just small pickup location. Another reason is pricing, too expensive and the quality is not as good as it used to, I still love Pizza Hut but with cheaper options in the city it's no stranger why I see less and less of them
oh man, the old sit down video games....perfection!!!!!
THIS!!!!
I have a pizza hut near me and it's literally just a few chairs and tables for the sitting down area.
Feels like your average copy paste fast food restaurant now. It just feels like the restaurant is saying "Get the food and get out" to you
I remember what it was like before... Good times....
I worked at a pizza hut for 5 years around 2016/2020. During that time they switched their focus and wanted to be a place like newer domino stores. No servers, but there's still a sit down area. So all the newer stores they were opening followed that plan and they began slowly cutting back at older stores. It's was really sad.
agreed
There was a Pizza Hut just down the road from my parents business. It was the go to for birthdays and and family nights. Then something happened and basically all the pizza huts near me shut down. In some regard it's ended up being a net positive because when they came back they popping up in tons of places where there weren't any before. None of them dine in though.
The only problem is the terrible consistency of the breadsticks. Store to store and week to week, heck day to day even, in the same store. Sometimes fluffy and brown sometimes flat, yellow,and greasy. Perfect cheese or barely any. I know it's weird for those to be my favorite but still.
I worked at Pizza hut in the mid early/mid 90's. Started off as a dish rat then started making food. I remember working with the guy that made the dough for the next days pizza. I used to oil the pans up for him while he was running the dough mixer. The food was always so good, including the pasta. I remember prepping the stuffed crust with the large cheese string cheese stuff too. Loved the salad/pizza bar and the dessert pizza.
I remember back in the mid to late 80's when Pizza Hut provided a true in-person dining experience, like Olive Garden or Cracker Barrel. I remember when they had jukeboxes in the store, and you had a waiter come to your table. They should bring that back, along with quality pizza.
I agree with you. And a pizza fresh from the oven can't be beat. The pan pizza crust would have a nice buttery, crispy bottom. You just can't get that from delivery.
They can and they should. Quality over quantity. All they have to do is close a ton of these small pickup only locations and put that money to restaurant style dine ins like the old days which would be a lot less locations but at least the old style and quality would be back. It can be done but it probably never will though, not with Yum Brands Inc. in charge.
In the U.K now in Pizza Hut they don’t even take your order at the table. You have to order via that crappy phone app and it’s just plonked down in your table, which I hate because your so limited on what extras you can have or if you want less cheese and more sauce etc, you could request that when ordering at the table, now you don’t have that option..
Yes, with the salad buffet in the restaurant. I can smell it now...ahhh memories :)
And bring back the Ms. Pac-Man machines! lol
Pizza hut was my go to for the first 25 years of my life, but sometime in the early 2010s I think they changed an oil associated with their crust. The flavor of the grease started to have an artificial flavor that reminds me of imitation butter in store bought biscuit canisters. My pizzas were never soggy, but the crust has a bad flavor on the top and bottom. Someone mentioned in another comment that pizza hut went from making crust in the restaurant to using refrigerated crusts. That makes sense to me and I think that the flavor I don't like is whatever they put on the pan to make it non-stick seeping into the preprepared crust.
The fresh crusts were so much better
That would be around the time they went trans fat free, maybe you were tasting the non-TF oil. When you cut out the trans fats, you trade quality and flavor for better health.
I definitely noticed this as well. Those little pan pizzas I got for reading were amazing. Last time I had Pizza Hut I was so disgusted and disappointed I knew something had changed I just never knew exactly what it was. Luckily enough where I live there's plenty of other good pizza options besides the national chains.
@@mrgtoyz I don't think I've had Pizza Hut since the mid 2000s. I always associated them with gross, hyperprocessed, fast food pizza and preferred artisanal pizza chains like Blaze.
Pizza Hut has been using straight Frozen Crusts for years now, and as of at least a few years ago Domino’s got all of its dough sent in already made up in to Dough Balls that were never frozen, only refrigerated
I only recently parted with my old stolen pizza hut glass shakers
My local PH shut down when I was in middle school and became a diner. It's been doing solid business ever since. My local Domino's is now a shawarma place. Pizza chains have a lot of local competition on the east coast, where they're almost always seen as inferior options.
It isn't about menu items, or logos. It is 100% about reducing food quality, increasing prices, and having better alternatives competing against them. They need to go back to doing the basics right, or risk becoming the Sears of the pizza industry.
Right. But in the 90's a pizza was about $40 where I live, now they're $6.50 on tight arse tuesdays. That's 1/8th the price nearly. Would you say the taste / quality has reduced to 1/8th? I would say it's reduced by maybe 10-20% at best. We couldn't afford to eat at pizza hut, pizza was a rich persons game back in the 90's. Maybe Christmas, or a birthday! Now you could eat it every day and not go broke!
@@notimportant1404 But its garbage. The pizza hut nowadays doesn't even compare to the pizza hut from back in the day. You can get better pizza than pizza hut and not go broke also.
Yes I ordered them a. Couple weeks ago .pizza was sooo bland no flavor was awful. I prefer Domino's now at least the have some flavor.
I agree, but when a place like Dominos is excelling while having pizza that tastes like tomato sauce on cardboard, it can make one wonder.
@@notimportant1404 you've repeated this obvious lie several times in the comments here. Nowhere in the USA (except MAYBE the Aleutians or something lol) was a pizza hut pizza $40 in the 90s. Just stop.
RIP to the pizza hut lunch buffet. One of the highlights of my childhood. As a kid I would have dreams about that.
Oh man they abolished that? Shame, it was heaven.
No one will ever know how good their desert pizzas or mac n' cheese really were at the lunch buffet. I haven't had it in 20 years, and I still think about it, and crave it
@You Tube I kid you not. I've never heard of red baron. Don't have it where I lived. The pizza hut lunch buffet was fantastic though, at least the one in my region
@You Tube lol. That is hilarious. How or why do you know this?
@@Dukeflyhawker well, he calls herself CZcams, so they obviously know everything, whether it’s true or not.
I worked at pizza hut for about two years when I was young. They basically soaked the pizza crust in oil. I never ate there after seeing how the food is made.
I remember in the 80's their pizza had so much cheese there was never a need to order extra. Now it's a must to order extra cheese and it's still not that much.
Used to work at a Pizza Hut during highschool. Here are things I noticed: employee retention was very low. 10 total people were employed at my location at any given time and I had seen around 20 different people join and quit in under a year. Pay was only $2 higher than the state minimum wage. The regional supervisors were not personable and didn't really care about you, unless you were the restaurant manager. It also led me to discover that massive pay gaps existed. All of the ingredients were very cheap, came premade and frozen in boxes. The company forgot about things like work culture, authenticity, and customer satisfaction because they were so focused on reducing costs and making money.
This right here is very true! I worked at pizza Hut for about 6 months in 2018 as a driver. The place was being held together by one over worked Manger ( who basically lived there I never saw the poor dude take a day off except maybe once or twice). Also after seeing how pizza Hut made the pizzas I haven't eaten there since then.
Sadly this is the downfall of a lot of good companies… profits over service.
I currently work at a Pizza Hut and none of this has changed. I like it because delivering is a pretty good gig for a college student and I like a lot of my coworkers. Employee turnover is absolutely incredibly high. I've worked there for almost a year now and I'm about the 3rd/4th longest tenured person still there, and we usually keep 15-20 people on staff. My managers who work extremely hard barely make above starting pay. Dough comes in frozen little discs, ingredients come in white bags. Regional Manger/owner/whoever jerks our main managers around, we've gone through 5 since I've started. Despite that, we somehow have a pretty successful location. I put that on 2/3 higher up employees who every respects and works incredibly hard.
@@koyjosh94 This! My store does great because we had one manager work 40 straight days this summer and did everything. Now we still have two very good managers working at least 6 days a week keeping things going well.
I worked at pizza hut for a few years too, and quit because of poor pay, and questionable management. Then after I quit I got a check in the mail compensating my pay because they were not paying us right for deliveries. They got sued.
Pizza Hut was a chain I’d eat at as a kid. As an adult I found each location really varied in quality: some tasted like Little Cesar’s while others resembled Italian restaurant quality. Because this was so, I avoid them and just pay basically the same price for a local place that’s been in business for sixty years.
I actually think Little Cesar's tastes much better than Pizza Hut now. Pizza Hut and Dominos are both gross now.
@@itsnotthesamething Well I will say that out of the late '80s and early 90s I can remember Little Caesars being super good!
I’m inclined to agree. My husband and I talk about how Pizza Hut tasted better as children.
@@Lipstickandchampagne another thing could be taste buds but likely low
@@itsnotthesamething Pizza Hut and Dominos have definitely declined in ingredient quality in the last 20 years. But the biggest problem for me in all of the locations I've visited in the last 10 years or so is that the pizzas aren't cooked all the way through and are disgustingly doughy. I don't know for sure what their set up is in the kitchen, but I imagine it's a conveyor belt type oven that can cook a large volume of pizzas in a short time. Either the employees aren't using the proper settings, or the oven isn't getting hot enough because they're shoving too many pizzas through. Either way, the company is obviously cutting corners on training employees and maintaining equipment. The other main issue is that Dominos and Pizza Hut clearly use pre-shredded cheese, which is dusted with cellulose so it doesn't clump and negatively affects how the cheese melts.
Where I lived growing up, Pizza Hut had competition from Dominoe's, but there weren't any local independent establishments around. Now there are quite a few local establishments.
Furthermore, my first boss who hired me at Pizza Hut, I knew elsewhere prior. He TRIED to get other managers to help him run the store as his health was starting to decline. There's only so much one could do. Corporate would not allow it. Then he TRIED to promote from within his own staff. And STILL, corporate gave him crap about it, and essentially forced him to resign before they would have fired him. Corporate would rather lose competent employees treating everyone like shit, than to improve employee morale.
Interesting leadership technique. It's been tried on countless occasions by many companies who are either out of business or not otherwise doing well.
Back in the 80s, Pizza Hit was king and they had their own dough mixers in every store. Then they switched to cheaper, frozen dough. The taste suffered immensely. The declined taste and lousy employees (in my area anyway) made me give up on Pizza Hut years ago.
It was around 2008 or so that their pizzas started to suck.
Honestly we can't afford the labor go use anything other than disks
@@frescoservice5124 I think you are right, I remember them being good up to the early two thousands.
This is about Pizza HUT. Pizza Hit went downhill in the 1960s.
Then I got into fitness and stopped eating pizza so I don’t know which one is the best right now. Can you tell me what is you y’alls Favorite?
there are like 5 or 6 pizza hut places that use to be dine in that closed and opened into a new local shop in my town lol , the classic roof just gives it away and it's like a sushi spot or something else
The 2014-2019 Pizza Hut logo is still being used internationally. It’s just that the logo in 1974-1999 that returned in 2019 is exclusive to the US
So sad. As a child, I loved Pizza Hut in the 70s and 80s. Their pizza had a pizzeria taste and smell. The only downside was that it took a while for your order to be (freshly) made. When they started taking steps to cut corners and speed up the process, their pizza no longer tasted like quality pizza to me. R.I.P. Pizza Hut; I've only ordered from local pizzerias for many years now.
The ship their dough in now frozen.
I get you, but that's actually awesome. Supporting local businesses over a giant corporation is always a good thing.
This is exactly the right answer. In the 70s and 80s, the pizza was high quality and had that special taste and smell you mentioned. Then they changed everything that made them unique and great.
Yea local pizzerias that has 1 restaurant or 3 are so much better than domino,pizza hut, papa john.
back then then pan was great....now its maybye one step above a frozen digiorno....sad
I noticed their prices have nearly doubled in the last year. I used to spend $21 for 2 mediums. Now I'm spending $38 for 2 mediums. It's been a major deterrent for me.
They send coupons in the mail every week
Same. They wanted 48$ for a stuffed crust pizza delivered here in PA a few weeks ago after the delivery fees and all the extra stuff added. I cancelled the order and went to Dominoes.
Same here, when Dominos came to my city it offered much cheaper than Pizza Hut. No wonder people move away from them
They've been milking the Pizza Hut brand for all it's worth for the past 20 years.
@@Sentinel_ICBMthat’s probably because you ordered through ubereats or grubhub or
My Pizza Hut heyday was in the mid-90s when I had just graduated from college and I could get an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet with a trip to the salad bar for $3.99. Those were the days.
I have been to two Pizza Huts. One in Sulphur, Oklahoma last year and one in Clarendon, Texas yesterday. They both seemed to have good pizza.
They pretty much lost me as a customer when they started charging an extra dollar or two for extra cheese, even if it was the only topping on their 3-topping large special. They also started charging $2 more for their pan pizza crust. When I order from Pizza Hut I feel like I am nickled and dimed. I'll order from Dominos or Papa John's before ordering from Pizza Hut, every time.
Gosh, you literally nailed all of my reasons for turning away. I would just like to add, as if all you stated wasn't enough, the delivery fee that is added to a pizza order that will 9 times out of 10 not be of good quality once it arrives.
Don’t forget the charge for crushed peppers… freaking crushed peppers.
Yeh same here. I rarely go to Pizza Hut now as I find Papa Johns cheaper and their pizzas taste way better to the crap Pizza Hut serve today, plus all the extra charges on top for extra cheese, extra pepperoni it’s just a rip off!
Soo much this, 3 topping pizza deal, but extra chz doesnt count as a topping. Total BS
yeah, remember getting excited getting pizza using newspaper coupon- ended up paying more because of these bs add ons there werent included. i stopped buying pizzas from them .
Fun fact: Pizza Hut in Germany kept the name, but in German, "Hut" (pronounced "hoot") means "hat", so many think it's "Pizza Hat" and that red roof in the logo is a hat! That leaves many to wonder who'd ever wear pizza on their head... 😁
😆 haha this gave me a good laugh
Lol. You're right! Lived in Germany for several years and am married to a German. So many funny stories like this crack me up!
and to flip it, there is a catalog company in the US called Fingerhut. I always wondered what kind of a hut looked like a finger. Fingerhut means "thimble" in german - a hat for your finger.
@@MichaelJohnson-vi6eh 🤣👍
So there is still pizza hut in germany?
That logo you call the "old logo"...I always thought that was the new logo! Back in the 70s when I was a kid, they had an all caps logo. Also their buildings from that era had pizza-slice shaped windows and even pizza-slice shaped windows in their doors! You really knew you were walking into a pizza joint!
I always liked Pizza Hut's pizza, and it is the most nostalgic pizza for me as it is the first pizza restaraunt my parents used to take me to in the small town we lived in. As an adult, I always preferred a buffet to carry-out or table service, but sadly, Pizza Hut hasn't offered buffets very widely through their history. So I usually went to Cici's or Pizza Inn for pizza. These days I regrettably can't tolerate pizza as well as I used to.
The flavor changed. The dough changed. When I was little, a slice in the fridge overnight still tasted like awesome pizza. Last time I got it, it was cold dough. I miss them much and hope they return
Yea in later 2005/early 2006 they switched from fresh dough to frozen discs. And they later changed their sauces as well 2010
I knew it when i was a kid Pizza Hut was the best always ate it,i did the same thing i left it overnight just to eat it the next day i swear i thought it tasted just as good or better. I bought it recently and it did not taste the same honestly very disappointed im just a Dominos man now and its cheaper too
I remember as a kid, there was no cardboard box for carry-out. Pizza came in paper teepee, stapled at the top. I remember that smell to this day.
i ordered pizza hut the other day and it was fresh but it had no flavor, the wings were okay but not what i thought i would get for the money i spent for them.
If you want to eat something that hasn't changed eat a triple meat Whataburger with cheese in Texas
I'm a Pizza Hut cook from the mid to late 70's. I remember when we had the first pan pizza and it was baked in an actual pizza oven you find in many better pizza restaurants. Something about the way that oven cooked compared to the conveyor belt style pizza ovens seemed to make the pizza better too. The oven allowed for a pan pizza to be cooked completely as it should be. I ordered one in recent times and I can tell you the pizza was undercooked because the conveyor just doesn't seem to be able to time all types of pizza being cooked at the same time simply based upon time correctly. There's something about having a pizza oven with a floor and a experienced cook just knowing when the pizza is finished and pulling it at the right time. We did make all our dough and mix sauces in the store with spice bags. We also sliced our veggies in house. Meats were trucked in with the cheese which WAS frozen in the 70's. If you thought you were getting "fresh" cheese think again. I personally don't think freezing the cheese was a bad idea since it would keep longer and fresher between truck deliveries. Keep in mind you needed to keep much cheese on hand between deliveries so you didn't run out. We had cavatini pasta dishes, and some sandwiches such as ham/cheese and the Italian which were also good sellers. Pizza Hut in those days were a destination and I think the lack of competition for sit down pizza places really didn't exist as much. The reason I think pizza hut also did well during these times where I lived in Illinois in a small town is they were used as a place to take a date OUTSIDE of the home so you could be away from your parents. Weekend nights were really about having a cool place with other young people with that very special person or friends. It was also a time before cell phones and computers became distractors. I think many things have caused the demise of the original pizza hut model due to how young people have changed thanks to technology and sure I also agree with delivery pizza places. Now young people enjoy being at home to play games on computers with their friends or have 200 to 300 channels to watch movies on big screen tv's. Just perfect with a pizza right? We didn't have all those things to entertain us inside the home back when pizza hut was in its heyday so eating out may have made more sense. Change is inevitable and when it comes to any business seeing the handwriting on the wall earlier is better than later. Hopefully, if discovered early enough a business can stay relevant and survive. Lastly it's hard to jump from sit down restaurant real estate to smaller delivery pick-up type venues at the drop of a hat (no pun intended). Pizza Hut had all the wrong real estate to have that image of smaller delivery type venues that the video pointed out may appear more appealing to a customer seeking to get in and out quickly since that is the design of take out/delivery places. If you walk into a sit down pizza place you MIGHT have to wait for someone to get your pizza since dining in would likely be a priority. So, Pizza Hut essentially had to change from one model to another from their current real estate and I think they were reluctant to do that quickly (thinking as the video indicated some kind of revitalization with the OLD model). The Hut was a great experience for the time but times have changed due to all the things I've mentioned (and probably some I haven't thought of). Not sure what the Hut will look like in a few years from now but hopefully they can hold on to number two with some luck. The Pizza Hut of yester year is the End Of An Era.
Yeah... I mean, even as a kid from the early 2000s, we live in Portugal, a country where I feel many things had a bit of a delay compared to most of Europe... which already had a delay in some things from America. I still got to experience that... cozy Pizza Hut vibe.
The furniture was darker in color, it felt warm and had a fancier vibe to it. I dunno if, back then, the pizza was really better or not over here, or if nostalgia currently makes it look less greasy and more tasty, but we definitely had more choices regarding the food we could order.
Now? It all feels... standardized. Just another fast food joint.
Back in the 90s they also offered pitchers of soda and beer. Some restaurants also had a bar area for the adults.
It’s a completely different landscape. In my neighborhood alone the market is saturated with numerous pizza places; chains to independent, in every style. The closest Pizza Hut location is miles away…and the reviews aren’t good. Dominos and Little Caesars are surprisingly adapting, but all Pizza Hut has now is nostalgia.
I worked for Pizza Hut for nearly 2.5 years, 1988-1990 while attending high school. That was, by far, the most fun job I have ever had. Quality of the food and customer service really mattered.
We made all of the dough every morning before the restaurant opened. We also mixed all of the varieties of sauce by hand, every day as needed. Yeah, it was all premixed, but how it was handled is what counted. We hand chopped a lot of the vegetables, too. If you were a details oriented person and you loved pizza, it was a great place.
After I left high school and subsequently left Pizza Hut I kept in touch and found out that quality control was removed from the stores. All of the dough came from an outside contractor/bakery. All of the vegetables came pre chopped and in plastic bags. Quality was consistent, but it went down hill overall, in my opinion. Due to the handmade nature of the business during my time, maybe quality actually went up for some of the restaurants, who knows anymore? The people employed there went from being pizza makers to pizza "assemblers" and a lot of soul went out of the process. To me, it was always about the quality.
The biggest problem with large chain restaurants is that they're run by businessmen. Not chefs, or food enthusiasts. They have absolutely no idea on what it takes to be a proper restaurant. They too obsessed with numbers. Even if the court of public opinion is bad, they can shrug it off and say "the investors are happy".
People have realised this and moved on to smaller scale restaurants owned and ran by people who understood dining and food.
Agreed. I'll take a regional restaurant or one with only one location over any corporate restaurant any day of the week. There is too much emphasis on cutting overhead and uniformity amongst locations with corporate food. The quality almost always suffers.
:/
@@kryshalis agreed. The market is starting to shift from F&B establishments to privately owned small scale establishments when it comes to restaurant dining. When people dine in, they expect quality. The business approach we often see is always the same framework of that of a fast food chain. Which should never be the case. Good food, cannot be rushed.
As a cook who's spent a lot of time in corporate restaurants, I agree. Some of the places I've worked at would rather send people home during busy hours to cut costs, because corporate told them they have a "limit" to labor spending. What a ridiculous idea, to sacrifice quality for a few bucks. Many once delicious chains are now garbage for this reason.
One of the chains I used to work at was Joe's Crab Shack. When I was a kid, we used to go to the Shack over the Sacramento River once a year and I have very find memories of it. I was so excited when I, as an adult, had the opportunity to work at one. It took me too long to realize that they stopped caring about good food at some point. Obviously the point of a business is to make money, but without passion, a restaurant is doomed to fail. After working there for only 9 months, I will never eat at a Joe's again, and have advised my family to do the same. In fact, the one I worked at near where I live right now just announced they will be permanently closing in a few days. Good riddance.
It shows how out of touch these corporations are with the very product that keeps them afloat: food. The (former) customers have spoken, and thus they decline.
Yes but Dominos pizza is the same , it’s more like high tech company with their App …
For those that don't know this, the french fries are sold in bulk bags and shipped directly from Costco. Most the other ingredients are also likely frozen bulk bags from a foodservice company. No more pizza made in house, everything is all precooked just heat and eat.
I think where they went wrong is the ingredients they changed them. I remember getting pizza that the crust was like fried in butter had a satisfying crunch when you bit in. The ingredients taste muted now like no pizzazz
"The food got worse" would probably be reason #1. Ironically, there are only so many corners to cut when it comes to pizza.
When it's round, there's infinitely-many corners to cut 😉
They changed the dough and the sauce. No bueno. Never ordered again.
@@TechGorilla1987 yeah, apparently they claim it's the same recipe and never changed, which maybe is true, but if so they definitely reduced the quality of ingredients in the recipe.
I remember how their crusts used to taste. It was crunchy, it was greasy, it was amazingly perfect!
But not anymore. It's not just...blegh. Bland, flavorless. You're lucky to get a good crunch.
An d other stuff got better
I remember when Pizza Hut had dine-in pizza buffets. When you were a kid, that was a HUGE deal.
They still have them in Texas
Also a big deal for some of us who were young adults back then!
I loved those
Those were the days!
Some of them still do
I'm old enough to remember when pizza hut had toys for the kids meals. And actually sitting down in a pizza for full on dinner service. They had the "sald" and "hot bar: those two services where for my parents, and we got to order any pizza we wanted. I remeber when the Capser movie came out in the 90's Pizza hut had the toys in the kids meal.
The only reason I moved away from Pizza Hut is that they just closed so many stores in WA it became impossible for me to get home delivery, whereas Dominos seems to be most everywhere I have lived. I much preffered the Pizza Hut menu, but when they closed my local one down and I asked why the next nearest (5km away) wasn't taking up the delivery area I basically got told to go away and find another place....they just didn't care AT ALL, in fact most times I couldn't get a reply at all especially off the Facebook site.
Just like a lot of other people, I have a lot of fond memories of Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut + renting a Genesis game on a Friday night was perfect for me.
Fuck yes! I remember going to Blockbuster and renting games. I remember you could rent game systems from them, it came in a black briefcase looking container lol. Pizza Hut and games.
Quality over quantity. They need to go back to what originally worked. Family atmosphere. Fresh ingredients. Attentive service. If I could, I would open an old-school Pizza Hut building & run it like it in the late 70s early 80s.
People still flock to Disney (whatever) because of what Walt Disney said years ago "the hardest part and one of the higher cost items of the theme park is keeping it clean". A mantra in their operating system. Even after 50+ years they maintain a very clean and safe place for the family. All of the fast food chains that have grown and sold to others lose their owners passion of something that people came to expect under previous ownership. It's that simple. I went online to order a Pizza Hut pie and the delivery was 2+ hours out. I drove to my local private shop, picked up a pie and I was done eating in less than one hour. Unless you are bed ridden why bother with the delivery.
I was actually working at Pizza Hut when that “flavor of now” garbage started. I hated it. It was already difficult to do orders and get them out in a timely manner and then they overhaul EVERYTHING and change what our regular customers were used to and expected to get better results?! I knew and HOPED it would fail miserably. You wanna know what always worked and always got business??? Low prices!!! When Pizza Hut was doing that $10 any toppings deal, we couldn’t STOP working. It was order after order after order. Doesn’t matter the food, the service, etc if something is cheap, (mostly) no one cares about anything else and will give you their business.
which is why dominos is on the rise, their pizzas are cheaper than pizza huts, and on top of that they are just better
@@pyrokatarina and why little Cesar’s was always a good option, I think it’s safe to say that anyone can afford a 5 dollar pizza once in a while even if it’s not that great a pizza for 5 dollars has always been a decent deal
True. I go to a $50 whore. I'm not paying $300 for a good quality one.
Bro I remember that for like a week or so they had that deal for a $10 large custom but it was $5 instead and my dad bought 4 of them. First and only time I've eaten an entire pizza in one sitting. I felt so sick afterwards.
Interesting because I stopped going to Pizza Hut because the pizzas are just mediocre and I’d rather pay a couple bucks more and get really good pizza from a local place. If you’re going to race to the bottom you better be sure you’re the cheapest and Pizza Hut is not.
Pizza Hut's ingredients have gone so far downhill to the point it's not even edible anymore .I remember when Dominos made a commercial where they openly admitted their pizza sucked and posted reviews from their customers saying so. They said they heard, and have changed their ingredients and asked customers to try Dominos again. It worked. Pizza Hut could learn something from this. Or as Papa John's logo said "Better ingredients make better pizza"
I tried Dominos about a year ago here in Cleveland. Frozen pizza is better lol. I couldn't even finish a slice it was so foul. Went straight into the trash.
@@ahallock it could be delicious if they didn't have a bunch of young thugs working at my local dominos. It's always overcooked and cold and they mess up every single order. They don't take anything seriously so they take a mediocre food and make it so bad that it never gets fully eaten.
@@junehodge8027 "thugs", I'm sure. LOL sounds like you're just scared of youth. Are you sure your name isn't Karen?
@@junehodge8027 I grew up in the streets with real thugs in the streets - and I can guarantee you right now none of them would work at a pizza hut. Get the f*** out of here.
@@Pugetwitch grew up in the street's who the f would say that other then 15 year olds sound like some crap marky mark and v ice would say back in the day lmao
The old Pizza Hut place my family used to go to was soo nice and cool and magical to me as a kid. I miss it.
Helpful hint to viewers that grew up on The Hut- don't watch this at 10am when you're already hungry! Very informative!
They priced themselves out of my price range. When we first started ordering the large supreme it was $10, and now it's closer to $30. Now why pay $30 for a supreme pizza when you can go to Walmart and buy a large supreme for around $10? Also I am 71 years old and on a fixed income. Just can't afford Pizza Hut anymore!!
I understand you 100%! Where I live, a family lasagna was $20 5 years ago, then it raised to $22, which is understandable… but I ordered some weeks ago and it was almost $30 😭
Maybe it’s a sign to just make it myself at home.
Yea its shitty product at an expensive price. They're greedy mfs
i bought a large pizza the other day--took it home, and threw away all but two slices i ani't one to waste food --don't like papa murphy's either--what' a good one? somebody mentioned ken's the other day {east texas) i'll give it a try again--it's been years----anybody remember shakey's?
You’re 71 how’d you figure out how to use CZcams ol’ Philly?
Pizza Hut has always been more costly than its competitors. The difference is in the 80s and 90s the quality was better, the service was better, so the value was better. That and incomes were higher.
As time goes on, I see more and more of the iconic red-roofed buildings turned into other restaurants and businesses.
Mine is a Dominos. 😭
@@TheRealCountDancula sorry for your loss. yuck
The Pizza Hut where I used to live shut down, which I was shocked at as the food was pretty good. They just cost more than Dominoes and their $5.99 deal, so I didn't order from there as often. If memory serves me right, I think it became a KFCBell (KFC and Taco Bell, lol). I was sad but then I ordered from that KFC and damn, the chicken was truly seasoned in a way I hadn't tasted at Church's and what I thought was superior, Popeyes. So, it was a good tradeoff.
Shoutout to the "Used To Be A Pizza Hut" Twitter account, which is keeping track of that.
mine is now some market