PIZZA (?) Hut !!!

Are they trying to divert our attention from their, some say, hideous product by changing their name ???

The comments read like a Roadfood thread.

Brad

I loved the comment by Iowa: "....Even better, why not make "The Hut" the home to the entire Yum brand? Have your pizza, tacos, fish, coneys, chicken, etc. under one roof!  Think of the profitability of only advertising one line of stores!...."  That sounds a lot like the definition of an ordinary full-service variety restaurant or buffet to me.

I have always disliked Pizza Hut-dont care what they call it....

Does anyone know where I can get some coupons for Pizza Hut or Papa Johns?

You know how they can't call those bottled mixtures of concentrated fruit juice, water, Crisco oil, and corn syrup as 'fruit juice' but have to call them 'fruit drink?'

Maybe Pizza Hut's pizza no longer meets the legal of definition of pizza, so they can't call the place Pizza Hut anymore? One April Fool's day a few years ago, they ran TV ads saying they were changing  the name of the place to Pasta Hut.

This is just the latest in a series of silly marketing efforts by Yum Brands. The hoopla about moving the piece of paper with the KFC recipe on it, the free KFC Grilled Chicken promotion on Oprah that they piked on, LJS's offer of free Giant Shrimp if NASA found evidence of an ocean on Mars, etc.

I still want to know how the King from Burger King was able to get inside my house, into my bed next to me, and also have a piping hot croissandwich in hand ready for me when I woke up.

I thanked him for the Crossandwich as the cops cuffed and dragged him away on home invasion charges, btw. 

Our Pizza Hut just got a new sign, it's a Wing Street now.

I don't think they know what they want to be.

TJ Jackson


Does anyone know where I can get some coupons for Pizza Hut or Papa Johns?

in my newsparer recycling bin. they come every week
you'd better be kidding

rebranding junk
you can put listick on a pig on a pig & its still a pig
wheel of fortune... entertainment tonight....s*#@ty pizza, yeah they go together

sorry don''t know why thats in blue

YUM!

"This isn't the first time for Pizza Hut parent Yum Brands to change the branding of one of its iconic restaurant chains, which include Taco Bell. In 1991, the company rebranded Kentucky Fried Chicken as KFC. Recently, to highlight the company's healthier grilled chicken offerings, the company has referred to the KFC brand as KGC.

In other news related to YUM, two California residents are reportedly suing the KFC chain for failing to give them a free grilled chicken sandwich. The customers are claiming that a sandwich giveaway promoted by Oprah Winfrey was a "bait and switch" scheme aimed at getting folks in the door to buy other menu items, according to The Associated Press. KFCs were overwhelmed by demand for the sandwiches."

David_NYC


You know how they can't call those bottled mixtures of concentrated fruit juice, water, Crisco oil, and corn syrup as 'fruit juice' but have to call them 'fruit drink?'

Maybe Pizza Hut's pizza no longer meets the legal of definition of pizza, so they can't call the place Pizza Hut anymore? One April Fool's day a few years ago, they ran TV ads saying they were changing  the name of the place to Pasta Hut.

This is just the latest in a series of silly marketing efforts by Yum Brands. The hoopla about moving the piece of paper with the KFC recipe on it, the free KFC Grilled Chicken promotion on Oprah that they piked on, LJS's offer of free Giant Shrimp if NASA found evidence of an ocean on Mars, etc.

Pizza Hut meets the legal definition of pizza here in Kansas where the chain started.  It's an easy definition to meet in a State where people wouldn't know pizza if it bit them on the ass.

i used to like pizza hut thin & crispy, but the last few times i ordered it, it was nothing like pizza.... more like pizza toppings on a stale flour tortilla. nasty.....
 
 yum! brands has managed to wreck every fast-food chain they own. pizza hut and taco bell were tolerable when they were still owned by tri-con..... the worst, at least in my area, is long john silvers. their fish tastes like kfc original recipe, probably because they are frying in the wrong oil... this also confirms my belief that the secret kfc spices are mostly in the cooking oil, not the breading......

Niagara

Pizza Hut meets the legal definition of pizza here in Kansas where the chain started.  It's an easy definition to meet in a State where people wouldn't know pizza if it bit them on the ass.

 
Amen and agree 100% with that.  You have to really do some searching to find good pizza out here, but none of them come from a chain.  The best of the major chain pizzas I have found is Papa John's, but they are still more of a last resort for me.
 
I think what makes places like Pizza Hut, Papa John's, and Dominos so popular is they are in your face with commericials, coupons, special deals, and delivery service.  They have the largest share of voice and noise factor going on with their marketing.  They make it so easy for today's fast-paced, 'don't have time' society to get it with little hassle.  I remember the days when you drove to a Pizza Hut and you waited 20-25 minutes for your pizza to be cooked in a deck oven, there was only one type of crust, and it was made there on site, not frozen. 

collinf

Niagara

Pizza Hut meets the legal definition of pizza here in Kansas where the chain started.  It's an easy definition to meet in a State where people wouldn't know pizza if it bit them on the ass.

 
Amen and agree 100% with that.  You have to really do some searching to find good pizza out here, but none of them come from a chain.  The best of the major chain pizzas I have found is Papa John's, but they are still more of a last resort for me.
 
I think what makes places like Pizza Hut, Papa John's, and Dominos so popular is they are in your face with commericials, coupons, special deals, and delivery service.  They have the largest share of voice and noise factor going on with their marketing.  They make it so easy for today's fast-paced, 'don't have time' society to get it with little hassle.  I remember the days when you drove to a Pizza Hut and you waited 20-25 minutes for your pizza to be cooked in a deck oven, there was only one type of crust, and it was made there on site, not frozen. 

I think that what makes these restaurants popular is that they locate in places like Kansas where there aren't any local, family owned pizza joints, and the people don't know anything about pizza.
 
We don't have many of these back in New York where I grew up, because everyone goes to a neighborhood family run pizza place and gets real pizza made by Italians.
 

Set...Hut Hut

The NFL preseason starts next month!  

collinf
I remember the days when you drove to a Pizza Hut and you waited 20-25 minutes for your pizza to be cooked in a deck oven, there was only one type of crust, and it was made there on site, not frozen. 

Yeah apparently I stopped going to them for a few years.

I remember when they were decent and I liked to have a pan pizza every so often, maybe once a year, because it was like a different kind of food from regular pizza.

Now the pizza hut pizza is barely even on my list as food, much less pizza

I do not ever recall getting a pie from them worth eating.

Here in the greater Chicagoland area, we probably have close to two thousand independent pizza places ( more or less ), and yet Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's are all over the place and seem to be doing reasonably well. Figure that one out if you can....    

Many consumers have never had great pizza and think these awful chain pies are what pizza is supposed to be.

That is the way it is in Cincinnati and Dayton and probably most cities in the USA.

A minor tragedy.  Except for the really good independent pizza pie makers.

nocarolina


Here in the greater Chicagoland area, we probably have close to two thousand independent pizza places ( more or less ), and yet Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's are all over the place and seem to be doing reasonably well. Figure that one out if you can....    

I can't. Why would you go to Pizza Hut or Domino's when you could go to Lou Malnati's?

I've only eaten at Pizza The Hut about 2 or 3 times since they took the Priazzo off the menu. Well, now that I think about it, that's not true... when I lived outside of Seattle, Pizza Hut was the best pizza I could find for a while, until I found Jet City Pizza, which, while not that great, was still way better. Before that time, when I was too lazy to make it myself and had a jones for pizza, I'd get it from the Hut. Because sometimes iffy pizza can be better than no pizza.

Niagara

nocarolina


Here in the greater Chicagoland area, we probably have close to two thousand independent pizza places ( more or less ), and yet Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's are all over the place and seem to be doing reasonably well. Figure that one out if you can....    

I can't. Why would you go to Pizza Hut or Domino's when you could go to Lou Malnati's?

People not raised on great pizza know nothing about what it should be like - that is the only explanation - that is why so many chains have proliferated and prospered.

nocarolina


Here in the greater Chicagoland area, we probably have close to two thousand independent pizza places ( more or less ), and yet Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's are all over the place and seem to be doing reasonably well. Figure that one out if you can....    

I am sure that NYPizzaNut is correct that people who never were exposed to great pizza don't know what they are missing and so head, lemming-like, to what they know best, the chains.  I have also been puzzled by the number of chain Italian places in the Buffalo area when there are so many good local places.   We even have that great pretender for chicken wings, Quaker Steak and Lube.  (Now if someone really likes that place, please be aware that I have not been to it because there are too many other choices here: Duff's, Anchor Bar, Mazia's, Roman Cafe, ....  Maybe I am panning it unfairly.)

I suspect every place in the country can make a similar claim about chains.  Even New Haven, CT must have some Pizza Huts - excuse me, Huts.   (I think we kidded about that in a deleted chain recently.) Fortunately I was guided properly by Roadfooders on my trips to CT and so never went to the accursed places.

I had never been to Pizza Hut until earlier this year when I got sent a couple of 50% off vouchers, not one to turn down a cheap meal off we went. First time we went to go use the voucher we got told at the door they had run out of dough and we should come back 30 minutes later and they should be able to take us, went back 30 minutes later and they told us they were only serving non pizza items. We left it and went back the next night and actually got a table and were able to order pizza, but whilst we were finishing up our meal we watched as the waitresses informed customers who were seated they had run out of pizza dough, some of these people already had their appetizers and were waiting for their mains, luckily they got all their drinks and meals they did have free but should that really be happening in a restaurant??  The food was fine but it certainly didn't compete with a proper pizza from an Italian restaurant but I wasn't gonna complain when I was getting soft drinks, an appetizer, large pizza and dessert for £12.

We were in another branch a while later as we had another voucher to use and I ordered a chocolate cake dessert and surprise surprise they had ran out, the waitress brought us out a cookie dough dessert instead for no charge.

So from my two visits they just seemed unreliable and the food is expensive when you are having to pay full price.  A name change isn't gonna correct things, they need to look at their prices and how things are being run, a pizza restaurant shouldn't be running out of it's main ingredient on a regular basis.

kirstinem1


I had never been to Pizza Hut until earlier this year when I got sent a couple of 50% off vouchers, not one to turn down a cheap meal off we went. First time we went to go use the voucher we got told at the door they had run out of dough and we should come back 30 minutes later and they should be able to take us, went back 30 minutes later and they told us they were only serving non pizza items. We left it and went back the next night and actually got a table and were able to order pizza, but whilst we were finishing up our meal we watched as the waitresses informed customers who were seated they had run out of pizza dough, some of these people already had their appetizers and were waiting for their mains, luckily they got all their drinks and meals they did have free but should that really be happening in a restaurant??  The food was fine but it certainly didn't compete with a proper pizza from an Italian restaurant but I wasn't gonna complain when I was getting soft drinks, an appetizer, large pizza and dessert for £12.

We were in another branch a while later as we had another voucher to use and I ordered a chocolate cake dessert and surprise surprise they had ran out, the waitress brought us out a cookie dough dessert instead for no charge.

So from my two visits they just seemed unreliable and the food is expensive when you are having to pay full price.  A name change isn't gonna correct things, they need to look at their prices and how things are being run, a pizza restaurant shouldn't be running out of it's main ingredient on a regular basis.

Incompetence personified.

kirstinem1, your Pizza Hut experience is just incredible. What kind of brainless, incompetent idiot of a manager would allow something like this to happen? Not once, but two nights in a row. There are so many people working in the food service industry, especially in management, that shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a restaurant, except as a paying customer.

Food Hut

Incredible lack of competence by the manager.

Pizza Hut is to pizza as Jack Kevorkian is to the Medical profession.

NYPIzzaNut


Many consumers have never had great pizza and think these awful chain pies are what pizza is supposed to be.

That is the way it is in Cincinnati and Dayton and probably most cities in the USA.

A minor tragedy.  Except for the really good independent pizza pie makers.

It is more of a symptom of a larger problem - people as a group seem to factor quality into the equation less and less over time.  Not just on food, but on everything.

Price becomes not just the #1 criteria but the overriding criteria.  People are not equipped to judge  quality for whatever reason, so the compare the only known factors - price and convenience. 

We have takeout pizza on average twice a month and have to drive out of our way to do it.  I sometimes give a tip even though I am picking it up at the counter, to let them know much I appreciate their craft.

If I am somewhere and pizza is served I will almost always politely decline, not just from pizza hut but from most local joints here in Richmond

What I tell me friends who love how good the pizza tastes when  bring it to the  party is that if the place gives out a lot of coupons for pizza, they probably aren't going to taste that good.

Still, the cheaper pizzas have their uses - like for kids parties :D

NascarDad

....Still, the cheaper pizzas have their uses - like for kids parties :D

Don't even get me started on Chuck E Cheese.  It occupies an entire chapter in my Manifesto.

Niagara

nocarolina


Here in the greater Chicagoland area, we probably have close to two thousand independent pizza places ( more or less ), and yet Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's are all over the place and seem to be doing reasonably well. Figure that one out if you can....    

I can't. Why would you go to Pizza Hut or Domino's when you could go to Lou Malnati's?

Well, I saw a Food Network program about Lou Malnati's once, so I'd go get a peanut butter sandwich instead.

NascarDad

NYPIzzaNut


Many consumers have never had great pizza and think these awful chain pies are what pizza is supposed to be.

That is the way it is in Cincinnati and Dayton and probably most cities in the USA.

A minor tragedy.  Except for the really good independent pizza pie makers.

It is more of a symptom of a larger problem - people as a group seem to factor quality into the equation less and less over time.  Not just on food, but on everything.

Price becomes not just the #1 criteria but the overriding criteria.  People are not equipped to judge  quality for whatever reason, so the compare the only known factors - price and convenience. 

We have takeout pizza on average twice a month and have to drive out of our way to do it.  I sometimes give a tip even though I am picking it up at the counter, to let them know much I appreciate their craft.

If I am somewhere and pizza is served I will almost always politely decline, not just from pizza hut but from most local joints here in Richmond

What I tell me friends who love how good the pizza tastes when  bring it to the  party is that if the place gives out a lot of coupons for pizza, they probably aren't going to taste that good.

Still, the cheaper pizzas have their uses - like for kids parties :D

You can freeze them and roll down snow covered slopes with them also.

As someone from north Jersey who grew up here and practically lived on the awesome pizza around here, I can remember back in the 80s when there were maybe two Pizza Hut restaurants in my area (both are gone now).  Back then, you'd have to wait up to an hour just to get a table at one on a Friday night, they didn't deliver or offer carry-out, and pan pizza was your only choice, and it was so thick most people ate it with a knife and fork.  It was a novelty for Jersey I think, because thin crust is the rule here.  Now the restaurants that remain are ghost towns and they serve pan fried goo. 

It was the same out on Long Island. Sometime before 1973, a dozen Pizza Huts opened on Long Island. They did not carry the Thin and Crispy pizza popular in other parts of the country, just a deep dish and a knockoff of NY style pizza that was way off the mark. I don't think they were too successful. About 1975, they all closed. Most of the stores were taken over by independent restaurants. You can still recognize some of the buildings, even though they were remodeled. Then in 1980, Pizza Hut started up again on LI. The one in Westbury, which became an independent after the shutdown in 1975 or so, became a Pizza Hut yet again. Since 1980, many of those Pizza Hut restaurants again closed.

Pizza Hut on LI did run plenty of coupons in the newspapers. I think a lot of it was the novelty factor, as NJskeeter wrote. I went for the Thin and Crispy, which I developed a taste for while in the service. The quality control was non-existant; one time they were great, the next time greasy. soggy, and awful. I think they used better cheese and other ingredients back then as well.

Pizza Hut was the only restaurant in my hometown growing up.  I love it, still do. 

BTW, if you are in KC area you should check out.  Spin! Pizza it is pretty good. 

In many small towns in western Illinois Pizza Hut is often the only place in town.

how sad

kland01s


In many small towns in western Illinois Pizza Hut is often the only place in town.

Ain't that the truth.  Same through much of smalltown mid-west.  Here up in the northern tundra of ND, just north of town is a small town called "Ruthville".  Nothing more than 20-30 trailors, gas station, bar, and a... Pizza Hut. 
 

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Re:  Pizza Hut.  When I phoned in an order several months ago, I was connected to someone in India!  That's right, people in India, who don't know pizza from chapatie are taking your order.  I can't believe that Yum brands would outsource this to a place like that!  When I asked the person on the phone about extra cheeze, she had no idea what I was talking about.  Maybe they should combine their call center with GE, so when your GE oven shoots craps you can go ahead and order a pizza!

LOL. We heard about Pizza Hut closing its Kansas City call center last year and outsourcing, but we never heard who they outsourced it to. Individual franchisees might have to ability to pick their own call center, too. The biggest problem is for people whose street has not been entered into the map database they use, but that is a problem even with American call centers. The best bet is for people to record the calls, put them on Youtube, then notify Yum Brands or the franchisee of the URL of the video. Philips once outsourced electric shaver calls to India. The woman I talked to had no clue about shaving a face. A week later, I had a guy calling me from the Netherlands (Philips' home country) asking me about my experience with the call center. I had the guy in stitches. For grins and giggles, I called the call center again a month later. Different call center.

Do all Pizza Huts outsource the call handling?  Is this a recent development?  I'm pretty sure they still answer the phones in my local PH, but it's also been a decent while since I've been in there.

Brad

One I visit in New Jersey answers the phone in the restaurant, and I think it is a corporate-owned location.

I have only been to Pizza Hut once. It must have been a"War of the Roses" thing with my ex  years ago. During the visit someone in the kitchen had a heart attack...so I vowed never to say anything bad about Pizza Hut. They also let me have a very seasoned pan...which I still have today.

sk bob


how sad

Indubitably!

There are, to my knowledge, five places in my town where one can purchase pizza. Pizza Hut, Papa John's, and Dominos are three of them. The other two are a locally owned shop that makes very basic not-very-good pizza, but supports a lot of local sports teams and has lots of seating and TVs, and the other, Larienzo's Brick Oven Cafe, had real ovens. Unfortunately, they were in an historic building which couldn't take the heat, and the ovens burned the building down. This was two years ago. $4 million in damage, 6 businesses, and 5 apartments destroyed at 4:15 am. Nobody was hurt, fortunately.

Being so close to NYC I find it incredible you have such horrid choices for pizza!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't you go to nearby towns for good pizza???

I suppose I could truck half an hour up to Frederick, but that's a ways to go for pizza. Then, too, I'm not sure where's a good place to go up there. Now if only there were a website, where . . .

I have to drive 60 miles to Cincinnati or 85 miles to Kettering to get decent pizza - I live in the boonies of Brown County Ohio.