Facing Driver Shortage, Domino's Pizza Pays Customers To Take Out vs Delivery

But isn't pizza delivery a Constitutionally protected right? JL  

Emily Heil reports in the Washington Post:

Faced with a shortage of workers, the chain this week began offering to pay its patrons to order carryout instead of delivery. The deal lets customers placing online orders claim a $3 credit toward a future online order. The novel move comes as the world’s largest pizza chain - like so many other businesses across the US - struggles to meets staffing needs. Domino’s. CEO partly blamed the lack of drivers for the company’s first decline in same-store sales in a decade, which led to a decline in the company’s share price.

Domino’s is giving $3 tips to pizza delivery drivers — that is, to its own customers. Faced with a shortage of workers, the chain this week began offering to pay its patrons to order carryout instead of delivery.

A new ad promoting the campaign shows a woman picking up pizza for her family. As she finishes the errand, she morphs into a Domino’s driver, complete with the familiar visor-topped uniform and a car decked with the company’s signature hood signage. “You’re no longer just a customer, you’re a delivery driver,” a narrator intones. “And we believe every great delivery driver deserves a tip.”

The deal lets customers placing online orders claim a $3 credit toward a future online order.

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The novel move comes as the world’s largest pizza chain — like so many other businesses across the United States — struggles to meet its staffing needs. Finding delivery drivers in particular has been a challenge for Domino’s. CEO Richard Allison last year partly blamed the lack of drivers for the company’s first decline in same-store sales in a decade, which led to a decline in the company’s share price.

 

In an October earnings call, Allison said Domino’s would focus on growing its carryout business, according to reports, in an effort to lessen its dependence on delivery. The chain’s delivery times “abruptly and surprisingly spiked 30%” over the summer, according to James Rutherford, an analyst for Stephens Inc. In a note to clients ahead of the release of Domino’s third-quarter results, Rutherford identified the problem as being caused by a driver shortage, since he noted that carryout times didn’t increase, Bloomberg News reported at the time.

Domino’s, which relies on its own drivers rather than such third-party delivery services as DoorDash or Grubhub, has previously used unusual marketing campaigns to highlight the delivery fees that such services charge. In November, it gave some of its own delivery customers gift certificates to be redeemed directly at independent restaurants nearby in an effort to call attention to the hit that mom-and-pop restaurants have taken due to the delivery fees, which eat into their profits.

And last year, Domino’s gave away menu items with some of its delivery orders, contrasting its “surprise frees” with the “surprise fees” associated with delivery services.

 

The Domino’s delivery driver dearth isn’t an anomaly. Businesses across the country are struggling to meet their labor needs amid what analysts are calling the “Great Resignation,” a phenomenon that saw 8 percent of the country’s workforce quit their jobs between August and October of last year. Workers have more job opportunities, and are often leaving jobs for those with better pay, benefits and flexibility. Many companies are responding by attempting to lessen their dependence on some workers, as Domino’s is with its drivers, and offer better pay or other incentives to attract and keep staff.