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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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 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.
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
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???
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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...
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.
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
That's crazy... I can get more than 3 times as much food from Domino's in a HCOL area for less money just by paying attention to the online deals and picking it up instead of delivery.
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 - $4.81
Total 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 - 4.81
I 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.
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
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!"
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
Just bought some Domino's pizzas. $2.67usd inc tax each for a large pepperoni (pick up). Unusually cheap discount, and it worked on me. Buying some pizza!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.