I ordered my daughter a pizza, something I don't usually do. I got Domino's smallest size with two toppings. I got her cheese sticks and two sauces and tipped the driver 20%. $31.07.
I ordered my daughter a pizza, something I don't usually do. I got Domino's smallest size with two toppings. I got her cheese sticks and two sauces and tipped the driver 20%. $31.07.
Note I did not buy any food for myself.
To head off questions:
-
No, I couldn't cook for her. I'm suffering from a long-term illness where I can't eat solid foods and am extremely smell sensitive. My wife is at a funeral, so I had to order food.
-
She's extremely picky and refused to let me order anything but pizza.
-
We live outside of town, in a not very big town, with very few pizza delivery options, and they're all at least this expensive.
-
No, I didn't also have to buy her the cheesy bread or the second topping or the sauces, but it's nice to get my daughter a treat and that is no excuse for the order being that expensive.
-
We're in Indiana, so this should be ludicrous in terms of pricing. This used to be the pricing I would expect when we lived in L.A. and ordered from a good local place rather than a chain.
Edit: Turns out what I should have been infuriated about is people repeatedly telling me to get takeout and having to repeatedly explain why that wasn't an option, having people not believe I'm sick, and being repeatedly berated for not magically knowing food coupons exist on the internet when I never order food on the internet. Oh right, and also being a bad parent for not forcing food my daughter doesn't like down her throat or starving her if she won't eat it.
By the way, I have another thing to be infuriated about. A huge storm came in and this happened to our trees. I assume I will start being berated for not cutting them down before that happened, but because I have no power or internet at home and have to go to the library to post, your further posts telling me what an idiot I am and how I'm an awful parent and how I'm not really sick will take me a while to read. Sorry to ruin your day. Maybe you'll find someone else to treat like shit.
Anyway, have fun telling me I'm the worst person on Lemmy, just don't expect a quick reply.
Oh, and do tell me how stupid I am for not knowing that people who clear up and fix such damage have coupons on their website.
I guess the best option is frozen food?
I felt bad reading this. Fast food is way too expensive here in 2024. And then you had to write an essay justifying yourself because of all the pedantic jerks who love to pounce on the smallest of things.
The thing about inflation is the food is not expensive, its the value of money that's gone down. Its salaries that are way too low to afford the new prices. The food isn't too expensive - employees are being underpaid.
people love acting like they're perfect and always make perfect decisions in these posts. like, you can easily advise the OP and sympathize but people love to be smug instead
Ain't that the truth.
Yea, pizza places have gotten out of hand in recent years.
Adding a delivery fee (which doesn't go to the driver) from locations that only do delivery.
How about fuck you and your delivery fee. Which is why I refuse to have pizza delivered any more. Plus they invariably get lost, though we're a few hundred yards from their store.
Little Seizures sells the same pizza for half the price, or less, than Papa John's, before those fees are tacked on.
The only LC here is inside a gas station, but I used to love their crazy bread years ago.
I've always been too much of a cheapskate curmudgeon to pay for food delivery and I've been increasingly baffled by people who pay hundreds of dollars a month to have cold, soggy fast food delivered at an eye watering premium.
I get laziness, I really do. For me, personally, going to pick up food is the lazy option.
Completely agree here. If I do order delivery and it’s a third party delivering I always tip a fortune because I know otherwise they won’t care — and yet it still comes back nasty and cold.
I’m kind of the opposite. The only places that tend to have their own delivery drivers now are pizza joints.
I cannot stand DoorDash, the delivery always sucks but I really don’t blame the drivers. The restaurants that say “we deliver” but then offload that shit to DoorDash, take 50% of the tip piss me off the most. And now the food is nasty because some dude in his car is working up a sweat trying to deliver 16,000 other orders at the same time.
I'm sad you didn't use my household's name for the Papa: Poopy John's
The driver still gets an hourly wage, so they still need to pay them for delivering. I don't understand how you expect delivery to be the same price as pick up.
Why would you need to defend yourself for ordering a pizza and being shocked by the high price? Sometimes I think I've gotten too old for the internet. People should be allowed to order a pizza every once in a while and not have to formulate a 5 point list of the reasons why it's okay for them to order pizza.
Have you seen the responses here? Paints a picture on why they felt the need to defend themselves.
Well he didn't just get takeout for some reason /s
Why would I care what the internet loser has to say about my life? Why should that impact my behavior in any way?
I am also highly irritated by the way this post was formulated. It feels like, having the need to post personal information to justify ordering a pizza so he can ramble about the price.
How can a grown ass man be so insecure about himself. Like what's the problem with saying fuck I ordered a pizza and damn those fuckers got expensive? Where are we heading, that a grown adult needs to intro everyone with a letter long disclaimer, to justify he bought a pizza.
A whole bunch of people have come in to tell me why I should have done things that I already said I wouldn't be able to do based on those five points, so I suppose you could argue that it wasn't worth giving them, although I have a feeling even more people would have said "just get takeout" or whatever. Someone even now is telling me to get takeout just put the pizza in a Ziplock.
Just ignore the trolls, they have meaningless little lives and nothing better to do than try and make a random person online feel like shit so the trolls can feel like their existence matters in any significant way. Which sucks, as they could probably better focus that time constructively, but instead....this.
If you want to get a fair price at Dominos, you have to play their game. At least look through the website for special offers on pizza, because the "menu prices" are 2.5x higher than the average price a person pays. After that, if you still want a lower price, search the Internet for coupons (although that doesn't work as well nowadays since they use account-locked rewards systems instead of coupons).
Even if you play the game, it will still be more expensive than you remember, due to massive inflation.
I don't go to Dominos any more due to repeated bad customer service, their website malfunctioning in a lot of ways, and the last time I visited the store it smelled strongly like ammonia.
Wow. That's some bullshit, but I'll remember that if I have to do this again.
Yeah Domino's is one of those places that the price with a coupon, is the regular price. And the food's not terribly worth it even then IMO.
Yeah, Domino's is only worth it if you do the coupon shit right. I got me and my roomie a pizza each, Parmesan bites, and cinnamon twists the other day for $20 + a fiver for the driver.
What's mildly infuriating here is OP... People are trying to explain how you could have saved almost 1/3 of your purchase price and you just argue with them and keep shouting from your soapbox.
Unfortunately, price shopping is a part of every transaction if you are trying to get the best deal. If you aren't invested enough to read the largest banner on the shop website to save almost 1/3 of your total, then getting the best price was clearly not a concern when you ordered. Yes, you are expected to do that yourself, just like buying anything else in the commerce system we have been using for decades. It's real boomer/privileged energy expecting that to just be done for you.
I hear you, but OP already said he didn't use the internet to make the purchase. Honestly, even as a millennial I order out so infrequently that I probably wouldn't use their site either. Yes, the economic system that has created this reality is the main issue, but that doesn't mean it's incorrect to be frustrated at Dominos.
Because I wasn't trying to get the best deal, I just wanted some damn pizza and, as I have already said, why can't Domino's just charge that price? Why is a coupon needed? Please explain to me why that should be necessary rather than Domino's just charging the lower price, since they obviously can afford to?
It’s real boomer/privileged energy expecting that to just be done for you.
I never asked anyone to do it for me. So I didn't expect anything.
Is it privileged to have people do it for you when you never asked them to?
Never order dominos without coupons. It’s exponentially more expensive than anything you can get with a coupon.
Dominos largest profit margins are on orders exactly like this. It’s often more economical to order more food at a cheaper price.
You fucked up by not using the coupons
Edit: sorry not trying to blame you, you wouldn't know they do it this way, but they have extra high prices with really good coupons that are always active and can be used over and over. The best is the mix and match for $6.99.
I'm not downloading an app just to buy a pizza. I have 10 local pizza joints in my town of 17,000 people. Stop buying from national chains.
You don't need the app, you can use the coupon via the web site.
Kinda shitty that Dominos has it set up so that tip is calculated on top of the delivery and service fees. Tipping on the value of food, I understand. Tipping on the cost of those other fees is double dipping and bad faith in my opinion.
Seriously, "y'all charged me a service fee to deliver my food? Cool! Let me tip you for that!"
Having done time in the service industry, I have no problem tipping where it's warranted, but you're tipping the Dominos corporation for their fuckery at that point, not the driver
That's like 50% of all tip calculations nowadays. It's really obnoxious and feels like it's trying to make you feel guilty for tipping an appropriate amount, but taxes and service charges aren't part of the service.
Dominoes has their own cars tho so the delivery fee is in theory for car wear
Maybe this is a regional thing, but every pizza place that I’m aware of which delivers requires the delivery driver to use their personal vehicle… and does not reimburse for wear and tear.
Reading the comments about Domino's coupon obsession, I feel like giving an economics story about when JC Penney said nuts to sales and coupons and nearly went bankrupt.
Corpos in food and retail found that overpricing things then hitting you with deals and coupons caused American audiences to feel like they were getting a good deal. 15 buck pizza for only 6 dollars? Sounds like a deal until you realize that it's really cheap to make thanks to suppliers and premade frozen pizzas. But if they always price it at 6 bucks, you're gonna raise an eyebrow.
What if you don't do that? JC Penney had that idea a few years ago, since their industry basically priced jeans for 100 bucks and then said they were 70% off almost every day. So they tried everyday low prices and... they nearly bankrupted themselves. Lots of factors, but their main factor was their usual clientele thought they weren't getting a deal even though the prices were cheaper than competitors (while not really attracting a new audience savvy enough to know sales are a scam).
Point is, Domino's is in a cycle of coupons or bust. It's a shame you don't have good pizza options at reasonable prices nearby, though, and a shame the good old days of free delivery seem behind us.
I hate how people mix up correlation and causation with JC Penney and it's couponless trial. The company was ALREADY very much on a fast track to bankruptcy when it decided to try removing coupons - that's why they tried it. It didn't make enough of a difference to pull them out of the nosedive they were in.
It's not that not doing coupons doesn't work, it just didn't save a failing business.
Doesn't matter, actually. Now the idea is ingrained in the MBA equivalent of a brain, it will be a generation before anyone tries again.
It certainly wasn't a thriving business, but I don't think it's purely a correlation isn't causation situation. The points about clientele not adapting are probably valid, given the evidence suggests that they lost those loyalists on top of their nose dive.
And yes, it can work if you are consistent. Trader Joes is a good example, they are thriving and haven't once did sales while virtually every other grocer does. Domino's is set in their ways, though, although they'd probably survive if they blundered.
My God if I have to listen to my mother in law brag about how good of a "deal" her $10 (made up "retail", $26) Tommy Bahama hand towels from TJ Max were one more time....
Well, TJMaxx and Marshalls is different. Those items are mostly close out, clearance, etc brought in from other retail chains. So on most things there yes it's some expensive brand you're getting for a fraction. Unfortunately both those stores (Same company) have also narrowed that margin as of the last few years.
I feel like all food is moving to JC Penny sales tactics. In what world is a box of cereal $8 but you can get 4 of those same boxes for $9. Same with soda prices. Every other week they run these sales.
I used to work at a Dominos, and their side items have been ludicrously priced for a good while. There's usually a "coupon" in their app with a substantial discount on pizza, it's the only way I'd order from them.
There’s a reason for this, they want you to download the app because you’re paying for that coupon via primary access to your personal data. Dominos isn’t just a pizza company, for a long time now they have been a data broker too.
Which I guess isn’t surprising, everyone and their mother wants to be a data broker today. It’s a good reason not to install any apps from anyone though.
I have questions about how useful the basic information Dominos gets from me from their app will be to anyone. Android doesn't let them just harvest roaming data any more.
In Canada we still Domino's have coupons on the website and sometimes they are even mailed out.
And yeah, to get a decent deal you have to only order the pizza, pick it up yourself, get drinks and sides anywhere else if you want them. I'm a sucker for cinnamon sticks and icing that many chains offer.
The best deals you usually only get 2 or 3 toppings as well.
I can make a nice pizza with 3, but 2 often feels lacking.
there were coupons on the website he ordered from. He chose to ignore them and pay extra so he could make a post on Lemmy to drive up engagement (I am presuming, at this point)
Never buy chain pizza at menu price. They all run specials all the time, that are around half off. They keep menu prices high so that they can constantly run buy one get one promos and specials to make you think you're getting a deal. They also happen to gouge people who won't bother checking the deals section
And similarly don't order fast food without using the app for promos and deals.
I went online to place an order for pizza recently. Jets pizza. Everything was super overpriced and so one small pizza and 6 piece wings was $50 after tax and fees, not including tip which I usually do $10. So $60 for one person. I scoffed at the price then hit ‘submit’.
I was then hit with the ‘order does not meet minimum for delivery’. They had a $40 minimum which does not include delivery fee, tax, and tip - I was at $38 something.
I almost added some dipping sauce and sent it through but I felt so violated by the $40 minimum which was actually a $60 minimum that I just gave up.
Their minimum saved you from giving their corporate executive a hard earned bonus for enacting that policy
Yup. I deliberately avoid this place now and I am getting better at planning ahead so I am not in the position where I need to rely on overpriced delivery.
The Jets near me closed. I miss that Detroit style deep dish 😞
Do you live in an uber-HCOL area? I ordered Jets the other day and it was not nearly this expensive... I just priced out a delivery for your order and it came to $34.07 w/ taxes and fees, less tip. Even opted for the bone-in wings.
If you want quality, as far as corporate pizza is concerned, jet's is your place. Otherwise little Caesars, Marcos, pizza hut, dominos is your bang for buck..I really like Papa Murphy's when I don't mind heating the kitchen up with the oven.
The only way to order from Dominos is to use coupons, and even them I feel like I always spent more than I intend to. I remember a handful of years ago they were putting flyers on the pizza box saying that the delivery few doesn't count as a tip. Then what's the delivery fee for???
Um....delivering?
Maybe I'm missing the point as I'm not from the US (and I assume from your content that you are) - but here we pay a delivery fee which covers the cost of delivery, and a tip is an optional bonus for the delivery person if you feel like they went beyond.
In the US, delivery drivers are paid below minimum wage, not to mention they're usually using their own cars, so it is expected to tip them to make up the difference. The flyer was saying that the delivery fee doesn't directly go to drivers, if it did then the tip would actually be optional.
Not particularly helpful for you, but this seemed like the thread to chime in that in general with pizza, it's always MUCH better to go big. Pi*r2, folks. A single 14" Dominos is already pretty much identical to two 10" mediums, and that's only if you like to eat the crust. Always do your math by dollars per area, not diameter.
absolutely. not only that, but it's even worse once you factor in the crust::body& topping ratio.
smaller pizzas have more crust area to topping area. So if you like dry bread, get smaller pizzas. If you like sauce and cheese, get a larger pizza.
i had a kid workin at dominoes fairly recently. the margin is insane, and they were always understaffed. in our area they also pay the least of any restuarant. kids make more working at walmart.
the franchise owner was just a douchebag who didnt care because he knew people would keep ordering.
Also in Indiana. Pre-pandemic you could get two pizzas, bread sticks and a 2-liter of soda for that price.
Right? I moved back here in 2012 and probably last ordered a pizza before the pandemic. This was just shocking.
I live in one of Germany's largest cities, and while this is high, it's not outrageously high.
I guess to me what sticks out the most is the expected 20% surcharge for "tips" (that get collected by the bosses indirectly anyways as they just underpay their slaves enough to make up for the tips they're getting). That's not normal here. You tip for good service, if you pay in cash you also tip to round usually, and you tip if there's some other outstandingly positive thing about it. I really hate how in the US it's become so expected to tip, while also having fuck all protection for the delivery drivers, who ought to get a wage where tips are a bonus, not an expectation. It's just a delivery fee at this point, let's be honest.
Although I will also say that since I live basically next door to a Dominos, I always pick up, which is ~25%-30% cheaper than delivery. Plus no delivery charge, but that's based on distance I imagine.
German here as well. From the pizza place of my choice, I usually order a large pizza (36cm) and some extra pizza rolls. 22 Euros in total, delivery included. I usually tip around 10%, so rounded up 25 Euros. And that's considered expensive where I come from. I remember it being way lower.
I live in one of Germany’s largest cities
Yeah but this guy lives in Indiana.
I live in SF and this would be a pretty good price here but that literally doesn't matter at all. To someone in rural India this would be like a week's wage. Also doesn't matter.
You have to look at it in the context of its area's cost of living.
Skill issue.
Check the deals tab on the website, you could have gotten a medium and cheesy bread for at least $10 less that what you paid for this.
Don't blame the restaurant when you won't even try to save money.
Learning to "life-hack" a web site for deals (especially when in a crisis) shouldn't be a prerequisite for purchasing food at a reasonable price. The onus should not be on the consumer to not get ripped off by the seller.
This is just a continuation of systemic failure of business running rampant on the web without any reasonable regulation to prevent it.
This isn't like, basic necessities food. This fast food.
The cost is the manpower and prep involved in being able to deliver food, fast.
The deals are there to make you check the rest of the website and be acquainted with their products, in exchange you get a price reduction.
There is no ripping off, you're just not doing an additional bit of trading. If you don't want food at the price Domino's offers nobody says you must purchase from them.
Reading the top bar of a website is not a "life hack" it should be common sense. Generally the "deals" tab is right next to the "menu" tab.
Pizza places don't hide their deals, they want you to use them and if you call the restaurant and aren't a jerk the person on the phone they will likely apply a deal that fits your order and saves you a ton.
Sorry, why is it my fault to know that they offered discounts? Why should they offer them in the first place? Why not just charge that amount if they can afford to? Is it because you have to enter extra information for those coupons to work for them to harvest your data?
In my experience, damn near every pizza place has had combo deals and coupons and stuff. And no, I never had to give any extra information or data or app install or whatever that I wouldn't have had to give for the order anyway. Just say "yeah, add that special to the cart"
Kinda like if you order a cheeseburger, fries, and drink instead of a #1 combo.
i always start ordering something for delivery and then get to the checkout screen and see the price and am like LOL NOPE CANNED BEANS AGAIN
I sure don't blame you! If I could cook, she would be getting a cooked meal.
I wish I had your self control, cravings ruin me. But I am trying to be better lol.
it helps me to think that someone somewhere is getting paid by corporate to go through all the data from website analysis and heatmaps etc, and seeing that i added a whole bunch of shit to the cart only to nope the fuck out at the very end when they show the total
You tipped 20%? If that's the case they're calculating the tip on the taxes and delivery charge as well
A. Should have done the 6.99/7.99 buy two or more deals off the app. B. That cheesy bread got yo ass play. Next time use the app though, that's where all the coupons from the advertisements went. Fr fr bussin 128/10.
National
Just another company thats created two price levels:
- Pay full price and dont use the app
- Use the app and always ALWAYS get a discount, but we will partner with amazon and google to gather and sell your data to make up the costs of the discounts.
I know 2 is preferable to some but I'm against it purely because of how deceptive it is, so I'm stuck with option 1.
I dont think thats what happened to the OP here, but just wanted to add why the cheaper option isnt always better.
Hell, not even the app. Their website advertises that deal everywhere. OP must have been blind.
My wife suggested I should have used the app too, but I do not want to have to download an app to do something I almost never do and, more importantly, I also don't want to give corporations even more of a chance to mine my data. That shouldn't be considered as an option IMO. I used to take my daughter to Taco Bell fairly regularly and yes, I could have saved some money using their app. But there's a reason you're saving that money and it's not out of the kindness of their hearts.
You don't have to use the app, the website is fine. However, with dominos if you aren't using one of their coupon "deals" you're overpaying for their food.
Their whole gimic is how the "coupons" save you money, but it's not fast food prices without them.
While I agree you shouldn't have to use their shitty app, thats just how the world works right now. Until we get any legislation to combat these shitty practices we can either boycott, or conform. And not downloading their app but giving them more money is still conforming.
That is totally valid, I also don't have a lot of apps on my phone. See buddy, when we were young, back in the good days, they actually invented the internet. So I was 18 when websites started to hit the every day market. Everyone and their mother had a website. I ordered a pizza from pizza hut in 1994 via their fucking website. You are 3 years younger than me or something. I was literally going through my prime as a human with web and networking exploding on the side. People like us built a lot of these damn websites.
I don't understand why everyone nowadays wants to download software to their phones full of private data to display a website. I get that part. It's frustrating. But man stop arguing like your dad gosh ohhh wHaT tHe FuCk iS a WeBsItE I'm nOt A pIzZa oRdErInG eXpErT you make me shake my head... You try to cover up with your age on these young folks, decepting them in favour of hiding your incompetence which you are fully aware of and embarrassed about to a point it makes you act up like this. You can just go on the damn website and redeem their goddamn coupons. There are fucking coupons on their shitty site and there are even more fucking shit sites only providing coupons as their ungodly content.
Just knock it off and own up man. It's not too late. Don't pull your age on this. Leave us out of this mess. Yeah you are not a boomer, but you sure act like one. People like you are the reason all these young people coming through at the company always assume I'm an idiot from the last century. Your behavior in this thread makes me shiver.
We order dominos kinda regularly. Check their coupons next time. I can tell you that I'll get a large 5 topping, stuffed cheesy bread and wings for that price or cheaper. And I'm your friendly neighbor to the west, not in a major or midsized area.
This is pretty much true of any of the large pizza chains. Watch the specials, use coupons, take advantage of discounts for things like ordering through the app or texting (because reasons). It's dumb, but you have to play their game to get a decent price.
That said, I can't fault OP at all. Trying to grab a quick meal for a kid means you can't spend the time to piss around and try to get a better deal.
When I tip the driver in a delivery I literally just give them cash when they deliver (and only if they actually arrive with some promptness, not if they come half an hour late with a cold pizza).
It's a habit I got into when living in the UK because there, like in the US, lots of companies just take the "tip" money and keep it if you tip whilst paying with card.
Granted, I like to pay stuff with cash, both for privacy reasons and because it has actually been shown that people in average spend less if they pay in cash (something to do with the feeling of giving something physical away), so I almost always have some cash to pay and tip.
I like the idea in theory, but ever since COVID, I've preferred to have deliveries left outside the door with no contact between myself and the delivery driver if possible.
It just seems more sensible in general.
Well, if you tip because you care enough about the person on the other side, you might want to try and come up with a way to leave them a tip somehow so that there is no risk it's taken away from them, assuming that you can. Put $5 under the rug and let them know, or something.
If you can't, you can't, and I'm hardly going to criticize you for not wanting to catch an airborne infectious disease.
I was pretty miffed in the UK (years ago) when it came out that lots of companies (there it was mainly restaurants) were just keeping the tip money when people payed by card and filled-in a tip amount, so I very much made an effort to as much as possible make sure the actual people got the tip directly - even if I stood out from the crowd by doing it - as I don't see the point in tipping the company.
I think it's interesting to see the US cost of living catching up to that of my country (Norway). I've always looked at US prices and envied them, but now I'm just like "Whey! That's a normal price!". Based on what I'm reading I'm guessing wages aren't keeping up in the same manner though...
lol, except the high prices in your country provide welfare and health benefits to everyone, a safety net for less privileged. High prices in US allow billionaires to buy their 4th yacht
Oh yeah for sure, the situation in the US is something I dread. The fact that the cost of living in the US is near the equal to ours is mind-blowing to me when I read about their average wage level.
The issue isn't the prices. It's that the prices go up but income doesn't. Get out the pitchforks, but let's go after the real villains.
And the timespan of the increased cost of everything.
Since the pandemic, construction ply more than tripled in price and isn't going down.
That's insane. Income can't keep up with that.
Your income maybe didn't go up, but this isn't true in general
Curious what shift there has been in full time/part time numbers. Full time wages going up is great for those who are experiencing it, but if there are less actual full timers, is that an improvement?
The art of a good statistician is to make sure what their numbers are saying is an actual reflection of reality. I'm not saying this graph is falsified, I don't know. But numbers can be made to say anything. I learned this years ago in arguments about what "unemployment" meant. It's much more complex than a single number, but a single number is used in the media because it's easier to paint the picture wanted.
My delivery charge is $4.99
Edit: I’m also in indiana
FYI the value size pizza is almost always the largest one they have.
Dominos is outrageously expensive if you don’t shop the deals.
When I was in college, I’d get dominos with my roommates when they had the 20$ special, which would be about 30$ after tip and delivery. The special had 2 medium pizzas, garlic knots, cinnamon twists, and soda.
After I moved back home, I learned my local dominos doesn’t always have that deal. I’d get something similar to what you got and I’d be upset that I got less food for a bit more…
Now what really pisses me off is the high end neopolitan place near me is cheaper on their dinner special days, where you can get 2 personal pizzas that taste so good I’d accept it as proof that god is real for about 25$ including tips and gas money.
They have small frozen pizzas that are in a cardboard box at places like Aldi's and Walmart. They're good, they actually have crust, and cheap. $8 for a supreme. I just get one of those sometimes.
I also ordered a small pizza and wings this past weekend from the pizza place in my area. $27, for take out. It's like fast food and pizza joints are competing to see who can get more expensive.
Just bought an ALDIs 16” pizza last night for $8.
It's not too bad, right? It's actually got dough in it.
Even with an insane 20% tip I don't think you've worked it out right. A 20% tip on the food (because why would you tip on a service charge??) comes to 4.09
If you can tip a delivery driver $4 with a straight face I feel bad for you. $8 minimum for direct-to-doorstep food, regardless of the cost of the food.
If you are paying separately for the delivery, what is the tip for?
Stop paying your employees with this one weird trick
The poorly-paid driver, who doesn't get any of that delivery fee. I'm fine paying that part, but the delivery fee is bullshit.
Most people have already pointed it out, but I must say, I don't recall the last time I ordered pizza and didn't use a coupon.
Those mailer coupons are the only reason I ever order a pizza delivery anymore. The cost of delivery fees, tips, and the food itself keeps going up and it's becoming harder to justify the purchase unless I'm getting a significant discount somehow.
I used to order pizza fairly frequently, too. Like once every 2-3 weeks or so. But it's just so expensive now, I think it's been probably 3 years since I've ordered one.
Food is crazy. My wife went to jersey mikes and got a sandwich for herself. It came out to $17.50!
Fastfood lost their fucking minds lol
Next time buy her a large 1 topping and pick it up for $7.99.
Yeah the delivery stuff was a quarter of the price at least, and depending on how they ordered it the base prices could have been inflated too.
Sending hugs my airborne cephalopod.
Devil's advocate:
That's $24.85 before tip. I don't know how much tax was or if you tipped on top of tax.
I was curious so went to their website for where I live. I live in a high/average cost of living place:
Small Pizza w/2 toppings - $13.49
Stuffed Cheesy Bread - $8.99
2 sauces - $1.58
20% tip - $4.81Total for me without tax would be $28.87. Add tax (call it 7%?) on the subtotal only (not the tip), and the total (including tip) is $30.55.
Food - $24.06
Tax - $1.68
Tip - 4.81I guess the question is, is $13.50 expensive for a small pizza? A local joint near me charges $22 for a small with two toppings. The pizza is $14, and toppings are $4 each.
A small pizza and a cheesy bread is a LOT of food for one person, so you could argue that even though you didn't order food for yourself, you'll be able to eat some leftovers, so that's a plus.
You're missing things- There's the $3.49 delivery charge. There's the fact that each sauce cost $0.75 when you could get at least one for free pre-COVID. Also pre-COVID, I could get this pizza for significantly below $10. There is no reason for it to have gotten this much more expensive in 10 years.
Also, tax is on the image. It was $1.92.
Dominoes has a choose any 2 or more for $6.99 each which includes medium 2 topping pizza, bread, chicken etc…. Check the coupons page next time https://www.dominos.com/en/pages/order/coupon
Me, living in Japan: that's cheap for pizza and a side!
Not even any places deliver to where I live now so I have to drive a couple towns over.
Not even 5 years ago it would have been maybe $20 here.
In general, people don't live in Indiana because it's a great place to live. People live here because it's affordable. In our case, it's our elderly parents, but the fact that things used to be cheaper here is another reason we moved back.
Forget everything you said. Forget the prices. Forget the experience you had.
My first question is......why would you willingly order Dominoes? This is ghe same chain that just 2 years ago had a series of commercials where the core theme of the commetcials was "Hey, we know our pizzas taste like cardboard and are universally hated buuuuuuut, maybe buy a pizza? We're self aware of our awfulness, and we'll try to do better maybe!"
Dominos turned their shit around like, I dunno, 15 years ago or so. When they started making oven baked sandwiches.
I honestly really like some of their pizzas. It’s not bad. They just know that it used to be, many years ago.
It’s like when Buick made those commercials about how their new cars actually look good so people don’t realize they’re Buicks. When you have a reputation, sometimes it’s a good idea to acknowledge it.
Eh, they don't suck as much now.
They're on par with any of the shitty chains tbh. Crust is okay, but not much more than that even with the various options for it. Sauce is acceptable, cheese is good, some of the toppings even can be called good to great for a chain pizza. Still not my top pick of the chains, but not as bad as Caesar's at all lol. Better than freezer pizzas at least, though digiorno does a good enough stuffed crust if that's your bag.
There was a time dominoes was worse than Caesar's. By a big margin, depending on the store.
I'm not a huge pizza person but paid $30 for a 9 inch from a pizzeria in Chicago a couple of months ago. It was tasty so I didn't mind but it did seem quite a bit higher than the last time I had pizza.
I'd never give Domino's that much for a pizza though, from what I recall their offerings are subpar.
I expect that kind of price from a real pizza place; not from Dominos, Pizza Hut or Little Caesars. None of those pizzas are worth even half this ridiculous price. They're good (not great, but pretty decent) for $5-6. They're awful for anything more.
1-2 people ordering out doesn’t make sense anymore sadly. It’s just too expensive. You need 4+ people typically dividing the cost to justify it now.
Dominos is really only worth it if you’re doing the 2 for $5.99 each deal. Although I think that’s even up to $6.99 now lol
799 large one topping gang!
I was just talking to my friends about this and the related food theory video on pizza chains.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT4AffJJugs
I might also recommend instacart from a restaurant supply store like restaurant depot. You can find a lot of interesting things there in the frozen section.
A domino's employee told me to use coupon code 9193 at checkout, he said it's the best one that all the employees use. Hope it helps y'all 🤷
I don't think I've ever seen a pizza place sell small pizzas for a decent value. They price them to not sell. I'm guessing because they aren't as predictable for the amount of volume you might need.
It wouldn't have been cheaper to go for bigger (ignoring deals), but it wouldn't have been much more and you'd have leftover pizza for lunch the next day.
This is why I always get a Costco 18" pizza for $10 every time I'm at the store. Yes, the pizza quality is not great, but neither are any of these other chains that charge 3x (or more) for less pizza of similar quality.
WinCo actually has good pizza for not only hella cheap, they will accept food stamps for them by selling you an uncooked pie and then offering to cook it for free after you pay.
That's devious and I like it
Did you order online?
Did you ignore the deal they shove in your face as soon as you visit the website that would have made the order much cheaper?
By utilizing the Choose 2 combo, the total cost (assuming same delivery cost and adjusted tax) would be about $25 dollars including a 20% tip (based on total and not subtotal, as in the picture). However, that would include a medium pizza instead of a small pizza.
It's not a massive difference. It is definitely a meaningful difference, but it's still pretty costly for 2 meals worth of food.
You mean the deal where I have to order two of something and pay $7 for each one? That would have been more expensive and a waste of food.
But in the picture you can see CHEESEY BREAD is among the options you can choose along with pizza. So the TWO THINGS you did order would count for the TWO THINGS you need. It would therefore be cheaper and the same amount of food. You're getting mad at people in the comments because you didn't take the time to read, nay, even LOOK AT THE DAMN PICTURES of the deal.
That's disgusting. We do get take out sometimes from local restaurants, but I'm in a city and we have lots of options, and I don't mind paying a higher price for supporting them. But for some chain restaurant, that's obscene. My SO went to Burger King the other night to try one of the whopper melts they have right now, and that plus fries and an Oreo shake thing was 19 dollars. Glad I'm vegan time and again.
Checked my local good pizza place. Made same pizza, the one you did but med instead. Local place was only $2 more: $17.50 vs $16.
It's pretty much the same to order delivery from local or nicer places these days rather than the big chains.
Yeah, fast food decided to go for good restaurant prices. Fuck you McDonald's, if I wanted to pay $25 for a burger and fries there are awesome local joints I can go to that make much better burgers
25 cm pizze for about 1000 roubles? What the fuck? I can order 30 cm for 580 roubles (about 6$). Maybe even cheaper from other source.
8 dollars for bread and cheese is beyond "mildly" infuriating.
Pizza prices shot through the roof and I honestly can't say they are better than throwing a frozen pizza with some mozzarella added into the oven for less than half the total price. I don't think I have made photos, but I legit had "pizzas" where the outer 2-3 inches had no toppings, just tomato sauce burnt onto the dough.
this is central europe so frozen pizza is between 2-4 euros, 1 euro for mozzarella vs 8-10 euros for take out pizza.
it's also a lesser serving, so healthier.
My family have explicitly stopped ordering from Dominoes because of how insane their pricing has gotten. We have lots of significantly cheaper pizza options in my area that that are as good or are better.
Use coupons. Dominos is the cheapest around. And they don't force you to download a privacy invading app to get the coupons either.
I paid $13.30 Canadian for a small Pepperoni pizza and cinnastix like 2 nights ago, that price seems nuts
Yeah, my local Domino's had a banger deal this past weekend too, was $15 after tax for a 1-topping large and cinnamon sticks. (~11 USD).
I went to check the prices here in Iceland for a similar order to find to my complete surprise that your order was slightly more expensive, when I expected it to be half the local price. That’s crazy.
Wow! That is crazy! I can't imagine anything on her pizza had to be imported and I'm guessing a lot of it has to be in Iceland.
Thats why I always go for a local shop, it ends up being the same price and better
Wow that is outrageous. I paid the Brazilian equivalent for that amount yesterday on a 16 slice pizza with four different flavors and a white chocolate border + an 8 slice small sweet one from a local shop with delivery services and all.
No wonder these companies don’t see the financial benefit for bringing their operations to the country…
Any pizza can be a 16 slice pizza
That’s fair, but measuring the diameter of pizzas isn’t really something I do tbh and I don’t know the US equivalent of what we call “family sized” around here
Do you have grocery delivery in your area? If she isn't picky with the brand of pizza, maybe a $6 frozen pizza heated in the oven would be an alternative. Not sure if you have to tip, I haven't tried it myself.
For the price, pizza always seems like the cheapest “eating out” option compared to others. Our cheapest I’ve seen is $7.99 at Little Caesars for a pizza (“large round”), along with $3.99 for breadsticks. With 3 kids, that’s one of the best deals compared with everything else around (only ~$12). It doesn’t seem universal with all pizza places though, some are worse than others.
What did your order in seems to be the stuffed cheesy bread, dips, and the delivery tip, those ate up half your costs right there, but food prices in general have gone to shit. ~$12 for a combo meal at a fast food place is pretty typical in my area and made me question my receipt a few times during the pandemic when I first started seeing them that high. I just stopped eating out at most fast food places altogether and get by on a salad, shake, and protein bites for around $6 a day.
I agree with this, they made some pretty poor choices and then explained them away by saying they had no choice. The bread was unnecessary, and yes I have kids too. A very picky toddler in fact. You never have to spend a ton on food, they brow beat you because it works, not because they won't actually eat anything else.
Its still funny to me that kids are still tricking their parents into thinking they will starve to death if they don't get exactly the food they ask for.
This poster wanted pizza, and had expectations of it that weren't met, but she didn't have to do it, it wasn't forced. I think even your example via delivery with little ceasars would make more sense. Or just don't buy pizza if there's only expensive pizza near you. Pizza has always been a pricey dinner, only offset by the quantity of food just barely.
Around us, taco bell can be a great deal (and offers a vegan menu to an extent) as well but really this is more about not having enough time or know-how to reduce costs by cooking simple foods at home. A pack of taco tortillas, rice, beans, and vegetables to mix in is not expensive and makes a ton of food.
At over something like 2200 calories, that is 4 meals though, so like $7 per meal. Still horribly expensive for pizza though.
Pizza is overpriced for pizza though. I ordered from my non-chain local place. Everybody loves them. 2 pizzas, $90 before tip.
Last time I got domino's a single pizza was the same price as the 3 pizza menu (excluding upcharges). Maybe that's what's going on
I feel ya homie. I went from takeout everyday to diving in my freezer for whatever shit I got.
The "I eat out every day" people amaze me. How? It's SO EXPENSIVE! Even before the recent inflation.
It's a habit I learned from my dad 🤷♀️
Sadly, I do order from crap places like this more than I would like to admit. Key these days to keeping semi low prices or get more food for the price is to have an account and order from the app. You can see all the deals and pick one that may work best for you. Some places are better than others. Most of Domino's is a scam because the deal price should just be the real price. It basically penalizes people who don't go out of their way. Good luck next time!
I told my wife about the price and she said, "you should have used the coupons on the app!" And I was like, "why would I have the app? I almost never order pizza and I don't want them harvesting my data when I do." So I guess that's the trade-off now. Your data for lower prices.
You don't need the app for Dominos, unlike most other restaurants out there. I actually order from Dominos more than other places because of that.
Damn, that’s lame! Domino’s used to be cheaper than Pizza Hut and decent pizza. I’d be annoyed too. If not for the sensitivity to food smells, you’d have saved money!
I can pretty rarely get under $30 for just myself ($50 for two i consider quite the deal now) and we live in a city with many options, and most places i would order from are about a 10 minute drive. I'm not saying it's right or good, just that the prices you see are in line with what I've been seeing. Food is quite a bit more expensive right now.
Ordered pizza last saturday. Two large pies, one sau+pep, one pep+olives. $30.
Local joint/non-chain.It's a good 1/3 more expensive than it was pre-pandemic though. I could have gotten that order for $20 in 2019.
Absolutely. Pandemic "inflation" threw all kinds of prices too high and nothing is coming back down because most industries are so small that they're all essentially oligarchies now.
I am dead certain that the pandemic has actually put the US into a hard recession which the Fed has been covering up with various tricks. I'm pretty sure that after the presidential election, whichever way it goes, the economy is going to tank.
why is no one talking about how it adds up to 30.97 unless my head math is no longer sharp.
No, it's $31.07. You likely combined the 92 cents and 18 cents to a dollar instead of a dollar and 10 cents.
yes. that is exactly what I did.
I got $31.07 here using a calculator. Perhaps you've uncovered a plot perpetrated by Big Calculator. (A joke.)
It could be the "haven't been able to eat solid foods myself in over a month", but this post just reminded me of my favorite order from dominos that'd usually cover me for a couple nights
Cheesy breadsticks and a large thincrust with fixins, and now I'm doing the Homer Simpson drool, yes it was garbage pizza but it was good tasting garbage pizza to a lonely college student!
Almost a year, not over a month. Well, technically that's over a month, but yeah, it sucks not being able to eat when food is one of the most important things in pretty much every culture (unsurprisingly). You literally cannot escape food. It's everywhere. Restaurants, supermarkets, billboards, you name it. And when you can't eat it, it's just torture. Especially if you really want to eat it, which I do.
The 15% or 20% guidelines are based on the amount of work performed by the tipped employees (who earn less than minimum wage before tips.) the amount of the check correaponds pretty closely to how much time a waiter has to spend serving a table.
Drivers are not usually employees; they usually have $0/hr in wages, and pay their own fuel and vehicle expenses. Delivery services typically pay $2 per trip, and a trip will involve 2-4 stops. The base pay from the delivery service does not even cover fuel costs, let alone the driver's time.
The amount of work a delivery driver performs is not at all related to the amount of the check. The 15%/20% rules are not remotely close to the amount of work the driver performs. $8 on a $20 order is a garbage tip if it's a 10-mile delivery to a fourth-floor walkup. $4 on a $70 order might be a decent tip if it's a 1-mile delivery to a front porch.
The appropriate tip for delivery is based on mileage, not food price. $1 for pickup, $1 for dropoff, and $1 per mile is a pretty basic tip. A driver can complete about 3, $2 runs per hour. $3 tips gives him a gross income of about $15/hr, and he can net about $10-12 of that after expenses.
Not sure where based op, but a pizza counter top oven (5 minutes) is around €80 in Europe since inflation, but can still be found for around €60 in sales. I guess if there are similar ovens and similar prices that would mean if you find yourself getting pics more than 3 times a year from Dominos, then maybe buy one of those (e.g. Arieta 909 or G3ferrari) It would work out cheaper. Make the dough, buy the toppings put them all in the freezer. No smell other than the same smell from cooked pizza.
This is a gift that keeps on giving
You need to train your little slave how to run a gas powered chainsaw. I refuse to believe you didn't know that stores have apps that feature coupons... NERD 😝
Lol you're surprised at this? Don't come to Canada, your eyeballs will fall out of your sockets. I would have sent her money to go buy groceries instead.
Funny, considering someone else from Canada quoted at half the price of OP's.
people who pay full price for corporate pizzas and complain about it are hilarious.
you obviously have internet access. there is no excuse to pay so much. Use their website. Install their app. Even in the 90s pre-internet there were an endless supply of flyer-coupons/discounts.
Full price is a tax on stupid, gullible or the lazy. You paid the lazy tax. 🤷♂️
That all said: yes, the lazy tax / full price prices are insane. I have no idea why anyone would pay them, especially with the difference coupons makes.
also: 1) tipping is a good thing to do 2) if you can't afford to tip, don't tip. If you can, do. I don't factor BS into prices and complaints.
Apologies for being stupid, gullible and lazy for something I almost never do and haven't done in years. Clearly I should keep abreast with the latest pizza ordering trends.
Also, I used the internet to order the pizza, but I sure as hell am not installing their app.
And I did tip them and I can afford it and I wasn't complaining about the tip. Why would I have tipped 20% if I had a problem with tipping?
It's like you didn't read anything I wrote. I'm surprised you didn't tell me I should have gotten carry out.
and to bring up another reading failure on your part (geezus, squid), I didn't say "use the internet" I said "website". website or app, two different options. I didn't you should order both from the website (internet?) AND the app (there's those faulty logic operators again). Either option - one of which you used - would have had vouchers/coupons on banner ads around the page. Bundles listed in with the normal menu. And so on.
But mostly I'm facepalming for you having misread almost every single line in my comment - and then whining about ME not reading. 🤦♂️ ffs, squid.
I said "or", not "and", but if you want to claim all 3, that's up to you.
I didn't suggest you had a problem with tipping. You suggested you had a problem with paying too much overall, and included the tip as part of your rant.
Looks like you could have saved ten bucks by ordering a pick up order and not tipping. Welcome to the price of convenience.
That's what 3 days worth of unhealthy hot food, delivered to your door should cost. It's an extravagant service; it should be an extravagant price.
The real problem is that all those extra fees and expenses just go straight into owner pockets/shareholder value instead of providing the employees with medical care, proper insurance and a real retirement.
If you want to save money, teach your daughter how to safely cook a frozen pizza. If she's old enough to be home alone and answer the door when strangers show up, why can't she fed herself?
The only thing I see wrong with this is you let your daughter boss you around
Are you a parent? If so, I'd be very surprised you never encountered a situation where your kid was stubborn about something trivial like "no, I'm not going to eat Jimmy John's, I want pizza!" And if you punished them for it, you're a bad parent.
Giving a kid what they want when it doesn't matter is not letting them push you around.
Don't even give that troll the time of day, amigo.
I am a parent and have a toddler and a preteen, and yes you let your daughter boss you around in this instance. They won't starve to death and you don't need to punish them either. Its their choice to participate with the family in meal times. Its not reasonable that everyone gets exactly what they want when they want it and its wrong to give in to those types of attitudes. Kids can compromise, and its funny how the food becomes magically appetizing an hour later when their stomach is growling.
Yes parenting is hard, they are emotional terrorists, but you are implying you have no choice in the matter. I'm not saying you made a bad decision either, just blaming the kid for it is problematic.
You didn't head off the question as to why you didn't just pick it up. It looks your delivery costs were a whopping 28% of the total. If you ain't cooking, you've probably got the time to drive. Or better yet walk or bike (obviously only if it's close enough).
But that being said, I recommend always considering getting a large pie. Remember, the area grows with r2
So for 6 extra dollars (to get the 16 inch) you get the equivalent of 2.5 10" pizzas. And you have some leftovers. Granted this doesn't make sense if no one else is going to eat it but her, but even going to a medium, you get almost an extra half pizza for 2 dollars. That probably would buy at least a second meal out of it for her.
Also op paid almost $8 for cheesy bread and almost a buck for each of their two sauces.
This is not "just a pizza"
Op go to Little Caesars, get a $5 pizza and stfu
You didn’t head off the question as to why you didn’t just pick it up.
I didn't?
I’m suffering from a long-term illness where I can’t eat solid foods and am extremely smell sensitive.
I didn't really want to go into detail, but since you and others seem to need me to, here you go:
If I get in my car with a pizza that already makes me ill just smelling it while carrying it out of the pizza place which makes me ill by going into, I'll be lucky if I haven't already heaved three times. Then I have to pull over every few minutes to heave some more. Generally, drivers behind me don't care for that and I try to be polite as a driver.
I hope this clears things up for anyone, but if you still have questions about why I didn't put a pizza in my car anyway, I'll do my best to explain it to you, but I would suggest starting to answer that question by sticking your fingers down your throat in short intervals.
I didn’t?
No, you didn't. That was your explanation as to why you couldn't cook. I presumed one reason you got pizza was because it was a smell you could tolerate. Expecting people to understand that your reasoning for not cooking was the same reason for not driving is ridiculous.
I respect that and it makes sense. Why you had to be such a prick about it is beyond me.
She's extremely picky and refused to let me order anything but pizza.
Lol, with attitude like that she'll be a delightful adult
Edit: I'll accept these downvotes. So far all the replies have been "well I let my kid do whatever they want, whatcouldgowrong.jpg"
Look man, picky eating is way more complicated than, "just make the kid get over it."
Trying to force food choices isn't gonna do anything but give the kid complexes about trying new foods due to the high pressure they were taught to see those experiences as.
You don't have children, do you? She had the option of Pizza, Jimmy John's, Chinese or nothing. She said no Jimmy John's or Chinese.
Edit: I suppose technically I could have used Uber Eats or whatever, but that's even pricier.
Yeah, I wouldn't have gotten dinner as a kid if I was that picky.
I'm pretty much with you on this one. A lot of these people sound like they have terrible boundaries with their children. I get OP's in a difficult situation, but I don't get why they're complaining about spending $30 on pizza when they agreed to pay that before it was even delivered. I'm not saying OP should've been like "you will eat what I say or you will go without dinner," but really, as a parent you can give your child realistic options that don't require you hiding in the garage for a couple hours. Ham sandwiches don't smell, lots of foods don't smell. If they "refuse," they're still going to want to eat later when they're hungrier, and you make the same food choices available.
Also a large deep dish pizza from Jet's is like $18, and it's really hard to overstate how much more food and how much better their pizza is. Domino's is clearly preying on people who don't know any better or who don't have any other options.
Then look at the price before confirming doofus
OP is not complaining about accidentally buying something without checking the price. OP is very clearly complaining about insane inflation, which I will argue is completely manufactured by corporations, therefore warranting complaints from OP and the rest of us.
Frozen pizzas exist. If she won't eat frozen pizzas... just keep one pizza box from where she likes the most and put the frozen pizza in there after it's cooked.
Please read the body of the post.
Have you tried breathing through your mouth?
$5 is a pretty cheap tip for a delivery driver tbh
It was 20%. How much should I have tipped?
I’ll put it this way… for dine in tipping, 20% is fine. If you order a cheap meal by yourself at a restaurant, that $4 tip on a $20 meal is fine. The server probably didn’t have to spend more than a few minutes with you.
If you are a table of 5 with a bunch of drinks and a $200 tab, the server probably earned their 20% of $40.
For delivery, a flat rate makes more sense. If someone delivers 3 pizzas and some wings for $100, did that take much more effort than delivering 1 pizza for $20? Same number of steps taken, miles driven, gas used, time used, etc.
$8 to $10 makes sense for doorstep delivery in todays economy. $5 was fair pre-pandemic.
If you are getting a whole bunch of stuff delivered then I can see justifying a bigger tip, but probably not percentage based.
A $4 tip on delivery means the driver is taking a loss or maybe breaking even. They shouldn’t have to suffer because you had a small order.
The service you receive for delivery is not as directly correlated with the total ticket amount as much as dine in might be.
What are you complaining about? That's affordable! Don't you make 180k? Obviously not! You might wanna read my take on the economy.
You are the parent of your daughter.. yet she dictates to you what she eats?
There's your problem to begin with. You know what happened when I refused to eat what my mother made? Dealt with it.. by not eating anything.
Yeah yeah here comes the downvotes from non-parents and parents who don't know how to parent.
Also, thanks Biden. The economy is doing GRRRRRREAAT!
FJB.
