It's time for yet another of our fascinating Ask a (X) threads. Today, we have board member silentshadow56. Silentshadow56 claims expertise in the following areas: Pizza, specifically of the Domino's variety Being a Domino's Pizza manager The Pizza Delivery Business As always, we thank silentshadow56 for taking the time to enlighten all of us about a domain which many of us interact with frequently, but don't really know that much about. I'll get started with a few: 1. It seems that there are two types of customers for pizza delivery guys/gals: the ones that are just nameless, faceless delivery customers and the regulars. While there is an occasional weird story from the faceless customers, the most interesting weird and crazy stories come from the regulars. True? 2. Why does Domino's Pizza taste like cardboard wiped with margarine? I know they supposedly improved the formula recently, but my pizza dollar will go nearly anywhere else these days. 3. What inter-pizza-chain rivalries exist? Do/did you guys constantly make fun of the Round Table guys for using real cheese and fresh herbs in their pizza?
Couple obvious ones: 1. Have you ever had a porno-type experience? If so, describe... 2. What's a good tip for a pizza guy? I generally give $4+whatever the change is. 3. Will good tipping bring the delivery faster? (Does word of a good tipper get around and make people want to pick up that order?) 4. Do they pay you for gas and shit, or is that all on your own dime? Edit: Dominoes pizza no longer tastes like what he said. It's actually kinda good now. Have you noticed an uptick in business?
Getting the obvious out of the road (apart from iczorro's porn schtick... which was to be my first question): What's the weirdest topping request you've ever had?
Are there any pizza delivery women? I've never seen or heard of a woman delivering pizza in my life... granted I don't get pizza much and when I do I usually pick it up, but I've always wondered if there was some sort of unwritten code that only guys deliver pizza, be it because of sexism or they don't want to run the risk of a girl getting harassed or worst case scenario, raped.
Like every pizza delivery commercial suggests, do you actually get invited into the parties that you deliver pizza too? With tips and all, what can you expect to make per hour as a pizza delivery guy? Do regulars typically tip better, or are they just as cheap as everyone else?
Not trying to hijack the thread, but I've got some time to kill before an interview and I delivered pizza for a non-chain place for a couple years (Can anyone guess what part of my job history I don't mention in interviews?) 1. A 13 year old boy once exposed himself to me, does that count? 2. 4+ was great when I delivered pizza 4 or so years ago. Don't think that would have changed. Unless it was a big order a few bucks was always fine. It's not like I had to work very hard to bring you that pizza. 3. At the place I worked, there were regulars that always tipped very well. There was one guy who gave $10 minimum regardless of the order, which is absurd, but he always got his food about 6 minutes after it was out of the oven, so I guess that worked out for him. 4. I paid for my gas, but I covered a fairly small area. I doubt I ever burned more than a couple gallons during a shift. And I normally made $20+ an hour between tips and pay so it wasn't a big deal.
Dr Frylock: 1. I have a good deal of regulars that call for delivery and I feel like the best part about delivering pizzas is that you get to see people in their natural habitat. You get to see what kind of shit and muck the surround themselves with so def. we have more stories from the regulars than we do just the random faceless people that call in. One such memorable person was “the cat lady”. She would leave the front door unlocked and we were instructed to come in the front door. From what I heard there was just this crippled old lady hunched over in a chair chain smoking like a chimney. Everyone said there just used to be a haze of cigarette smoke that you had to waft through once stepping inside the house. If that wasn’t enough to kill you they said the smell of cat piss and shit that assaulted your nostrils next would certainly do you in. She would always get barbeque wings with extra sauce because aparantly she would just feed it to the cats and have it drip all over. I also have this one family that calls all the time and actually spends more money on soda than the do food. They will get maybe one pie and then 8 20 oz nesteas, 4 dr. peppers, and a coke. I have no idea why anyone needs to consume that much soda. Not to mention they order at least twice a week and always order soda in excess. 2. The taste of our product probably has to do with the fact that the ingredients are prepared fresh at our location they are delivered fresh. I don’t put together a bunch of ingredients and bring a pot to boil to make a bucket of sauce, hell I don’t even know how to make fucking sauce. We have drastically changed our pizza recipe and its met with a lot of praise and success. 3. I don’t think there are massive inter chain rivalries that exist other than the obvious ones. Papa John’s and Pizza Hut our are competitors and I think their product is shit compared to mine and to be absolutely honest I do believe there is a noticeable difference between our products. There is always the local places too, but I feel like were on a different playing field. You don’t go to mcdonalds and expect to get a $20 burger you go there to get a greasy roadkill patty. I feel like you go to dominos because you like the way we specifically make our pizza. I mean I still go out every once in awhile and just get a slice from a local pizzeria even though I can essentially free pizza whenever I want
Iczoro: 1. I’ve never had a porno type experience per say but I’ve been flashed once or twice and I’ve heard of other drivers being flashed as well. The opportunity for sexual offers doesn’t really pop up nearly as much as people might want it to… 2. $4 and change is a pretty good tip. I feel like $2.50 is the bare minimum that you should tip someone for coming out to deliver your pizza. 3. Word def. gets around about a good tipper and sometimes a bloodbath will ensue over who gets to deliver the pizza. We have a system which fairly assigns the deliveries to the drivers, but there are ways around it. Actually being a good tipper probably has an unrelated delivery going out a little later as people will sit with their delivery trying to wait for the other order to be ready so they can take them together… 4. We compensate our drivers for gas. They currently get I believe 85 cents for every delivery they take. We adjust it depending on the average cost of gas for the state at the beginning of the week. It def. adds up and your more than compensated for your gas at the end of the night…
Disgustipated PSACK That stands for Pepperoni, Sausage, Anchovies, Extra Cheese, and Bacon Guy would come in every friday at five o'clock and order it...
Frank I have def. had pizza delivery women before its just not as common. Pretty much every single one of them though has been or is a lesbian. That might have to do with the fact that before I took over the store I am working in now my boss was the biggest lesbian in the world and was like a magnet for other lesbians. I am mildly concerned with having women on the road and potentially being raped or something, but I work in a decent area and plus are you really going to rape someone when they have your name, address, and phone number? I also do have plenty of female employees that work for me inside most of which can make pizzas...
In college, I'd tip my delivery guy/gal with a beer and the occasional bowl hit. They were always happy with that. Have you ever received non-monetary tips? Were they sufficient, or was it something retarded?
JPrue 1. For some reason people love the pizza delivery guy. I've gone to plenty of parties where people are literally thrusting beers into my hand and arguing over who gets to do a shot with the dominos guy. I'm not certain that they factor in the fact that I drove a car there and have to drive a car back. I once actually had a group of kids that wouldn't pay me if I didn't smoke up with them and when I refused they came to the logical conclusion that they would just ride back to the store with me and hot box my car... 2. With tips and pay you can make anywhere from $10 - $15 an hour. You can certainly make more than that, but that number right there is the normal average. 3. Regulars don't tip any better or worse than anyone else really. Some of them tip well and some of them tip just enough. There are the rare few that are notorious for not tipping at all...
effinshenanigans As stated in the above post I have people over beers and weed as compensation plenty, I don't partake in it and I don't condone that my drivers do either. One memorable tip that a driver received was a zip lock bag that had a wrapper to a granola bar, a dog biscut, a kidz bop cd, and an assortment of other trinkets that I can't remember at this time. A driver also once received a t-ball set as a tip which we promptly set up and played inside the store for a couple of minutes, I wasn't a manager at the time and I was like 17 so I didn't feel to bad at the time...
Is it typical for notoriously bad tipper's food to be fucked with? Or would you at least take your time getting there? Or would you bust your ass to impress and try to get a tip? I probably wouldn't fuck with someone's order personally, but I can see the temptation, since you know in advance that there is a good chance that you'll get shorted for your delivery efforts.
So how much would it cost to get your largest sized pizza with everything? And I mean every topping that isn't nailed down. I have always wanted to order that, but don't know what the price would be.
JPrue: Is it typical for notoriously bad tipper's food to be fucked with? Or would you at least take your time getting there? Or would you bust your ass to impress and try to get a tip? I probably wouldn't fuck with someone's order personally, but I can see the temptation, since you know in advance that there is a good chance that you'll get shorted for your delivery efforts Seeing as how I'm the manager for my entire store I don't condone people fucking with the food or taking their sweet ass time to deliver it. I don't care if the customer is a schmuck they are still a paying customer. Typically the drivers are pretty good about getting the deliveries out the door regardless of who it is they are delivering too. Dominos is a bit different than your regular corner pizza store. On a busy friday I will have up to 12 drivers in the store so if they take their sweet ass time to screw a customer over they will only be hurting themselves because they will miss out on other deliveries. I've found that busting your ass trying to impress these people doesn't really help. It might make them smile or chuckle if you grab their newspaper and bring it up to at the door but it doesn't really translate to a better tip. Not to mention the drivers already know they're getting stiffed they aren't really going to go the extra mile
Are there any Dominos secret handshake or phrase to get a hidden special deal on a pizza? I know the pizza is already cheap, but around here there are some places that don't advertise some special offers.