Domino's Wing Deal Gets Clipped
Domino’s CEO Ritch Allison says "unprecedented" food costs have led to this decision.
Even though fast food is generally pretty affordable, fast food deals make ordering so much more enticing. Discounted combo meals, free fries—all that is enough to get people through the door sometimes. But due to cost increases across the board, promotions are starting to lose their profitability to many restaurants, and this includes Domino's, which is making a major change to one of its staple deals, Restaurant Business Online reports.
Domino's has a special $7.99 offer for carryout customers that includes a three-topping pizza, oven-baked dips (which we had strong opinions on), and a 10-piece order of chicken wings (which we also had strong opinions on).
During this year's ICR Conference last Tuesday, Domino's CEO Ritch Allison said that there will be changes to that deal. First off, the deals will move to digital orders only (so no call-ins or in-person orders), because online orders tend to yield larger overall quantities of food. And second of all, that 10-piece chicken deal is shrinking from 10 to eight wings. The changes will take place in a few weeks.
Domino's said that food costs will likely shoot up 8-10%, which is three or four times the usual amount of inflation it sees in a typical year.
"We expect unprecedented increases in our food cost basket versus 2021," Allison said at the conference. "I think many of you are aware of the significant inflation across the U.S. economy and how that is hitting many of the inputs that we have for our business, from meats to cheese to some of the grains that go into the production of our products."
Wage costs will also continue to be higher this year, which will also take more out of the bottom line. The promo prices themselves won't see an increase, however, even if the offerings might get tweaked.
I can't say I'm all that surprised, but it is interesting to be given a transparent view of the changes happening at a major company. Plus, pizza chain chicken wings are typically not the best anyway. Are you disappointed by this wing shrinkage? Sound off in the comments.