You know the national-anthem controversy has reached it's limit when Papa John is involved. The founder of the pizza company John Schnatter is going after NFL commissioner Roger Goodwell. The article by Bloomberg quotes the CEO saying;
“The NFL has hurt us by not resolving the current debacle to the players’ and owners’ satisfaction,” Schnatter, who serves as the pizza chain’s chairman and chief executive officer, said on a conference call. “NFL leadership has hurt Papa John’s shareholders.”
While there wasn't much evidence that the NFL's viewership and Papa John's sales are positively correlated, Papa John did mention times of when NFL viewership increased and this resulted in Papa John's revenue increasing as well as evidence of correlation.
Do you monkeys believe that the national-anthem controversy is the reason that NFL viewership numbers are down, and that this could be the reason Papa John's growth has stunted.
Lastly, being a Canadian, I am unsure about the taste of Papa John's but I've heard that the quality has deteriorated and that's the reason why sales have dropped? Could someone confirm/deny this.
Source: Source
Possibly to a small extent.
I honestly the think main cause is the rise of food delivery services such as DoorDash and UberEats. Before, if you were to lazy to go out or eat, pizza was basically your only option. But now, given the largest selection of restaurants, pizza chains no longer monopolize the delivery market.
That's an interesting point you have. The rise in alternative food delivery services could definitely be a reason for the slow growth. Although, I think a lot of places had delivery before the popularization of UberEats These services were most likely more expensive compared to UberEats.
Not to mention that you can get actually good pizza delivered, or make a pizza on your own, and have it taste better than the standard American pizza chains from the 90's.
Lol Papa John's tastes like garbage
omg its amazing
The only good thing about Papa Johns is the garlic dipping sauce. Their pizza tastes like shit.
Yeah,, but you get a pepper and a cup of butter. I'm long Papa Johns for those two reasons alone.
I am sure they can YoY comp and find a strong correlation to NFL game days. But I imagine they have many other competitive pressures in new delivery competition, consumer tastes, and pricing.
Of the major delivery chains, Papa Johns seems to be the lower quality but lower price delivery option. However, I haven't had delivery in years once the delivery charges started... for mediocre quality pizza I can't justify paying $12 for something that doesn't taste better than a $7 frozen grocery store pizza, plus $4 for a "delivery fee" plus an expected tip. Might as well order something else if everyone has these extra charges.
What? No its not.
You're thinking of Dominos or something.
https://reviews.cheapism.com/pizza-chains/#pizza-chain-comparison
The pies we sampled from the top four pizza chains fell into a relatively cheap price range, costing as little as $5 and as much as $13 for a basic large (14-inch) cheese pizza. This variety was the least expensive all around and cheapest at Little Caesars, known for its $5 Hot-n-Ready cheese pizza. That compares with $10.99 at Pizza Hut, $11.99 at Domino’s Pizza, and $13.00 at Papa John’s.
Pizza Hut is somehow worse than Papa John's
Although all the pizzas were relatively cheap, it's rarely necessary to pay full price at any of the pizza chains we sampled. For example, a current Papa John’s promotion offers two pizzas for the price of one, and would bring a pie with two toppings down to $7.25.
Although, point taken, you got me on little caesars being cheaper...not sure on the dominos comment tho.
Price is being too scrutinized here, people don't give a fuck if one pizza place is $1.80 cheaper than another.
It's about the ordering EXPERIENCE. People are lazy and don't want to cook, drive to pick up orders, or talk to people on the phone. Domino's crushes it with their ordering system: their app is super easy (and even voice activiated), links payment info, and provides updates on every step of the delivery process. It tells you when Jose puts the fucking pizza in the oven ffs. Pizza Hut's ordering system is getting much better, but Papa John's hasn't invested enough in this avenue. They're a pain in the ass to deal with.
You should watch David Portnoy's review (Barstool's President, regularly does hilarious pizza reviews). He debunked this bs theory yesterday with a weak 4.2 / 10. On my life, I trust that man when it comes to pizza.
Portnoy is an idiot, I wouldn't trust him on anything. He's not brought Jake Paul into the fold.....wtf?
Yeah but he's right in that Totino's is always a 10/10
Papa Johns is being hurt by two things:
Declining quality (although it's still better than Little Cesars...Jesus, guys.)
Better local alternatives
So Papa Johns is shit compared to local places and shit compared to what it used to be. Not exactly a recipe for success.
Little Caesar's isn't that bad. Especially for the $5 it costs here.
I've only had Papa John's at the airport and it wasn't exactly terrible but was greasy AF.
As reported in a bunch of places, it's worth noting that Jerry Jones (owner of the Dallas Cowboys, vocal opponent of player protests) is one of the largest Papa John's franchisees (and, I believe, a major shareholder in the company). I'd be cautious taking their comments at face value.
Also note that many other restaurant and food delivery brands put up a decent comp this quarter.
No offense, but I would assume Papa Johns likely has enough data to provide a correlation. Perhaps your other anecdotal opinions about taste/quality relate to their performance too, but I doubt they're investing so many dollars without a pretty clear ROI.
I think it's just really about the amount of $ they're pouring into advertising. I know they spend a lot on NFL advertising and sponsorship deals with the likes of Peyton Manning. I get the feeling that's what the CEO is basing his statements off of.
I'm guessing they're looking at the lift from their ads and seeing a lower ROI after all the kneeling mess than before.
People are falling all over themselves trying to discredit the quality of the product and the rise of alternatives - this is about advertising spend. The fact is that viewership is down, so their advertising dollars are less effective. They'll likely reduce their advertising spend in the future as a result.
EDIT - Seems like someone was offended that I mentioned facts. Ok, sorry, you're right the product sucks anyway and tastes like garbage, lets not focus on the declining NFL viewership as the problem...
http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/news/nfl-tv-ratings-2017-through-week-7…</a">http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/news/nfl-tv-ratings-2017-through-week-7…
I didn't MS you, but does that really make sense? Wouldn't all pizza chains be underperforming then? Even if we assume that Papa John's is underperforming more so than other pizza chains because Papa John's relies more heavily on NFL viewers to see their advertisements and then order pizza, wouldn't this same company than can make that connection based on their data also be able to see this coming on and switch advertisements to other means or to times outside when NFL games take place?
I'm legitimately curious because I have friends who work at Papa John's, and we've been discussing this at great length the past day or so.
Maybe, but correlation does not equal causation. How could the NFL protests be affecting Papa John's business? That's a legitimate, not meant to be snarky, question because I really cannot see the logic coming from Papa John's here.
Advertising capital / dollar campaigns get allocated on an annual budget - $100M will go to NFL for this year for example. If NFL viewership is down 10%, then those dollars are less effective this year. These large consumer brands aren't nimble enough to shift advertising dollars that quickly, and likely because of contracts, aren't allowed to, particularly if you're the "official" sponsor.
Real ballers exclusively eat LITTLE CAESARS PIZZA!
Costco has by far the best commercially available pizza.
Take-n-bake squad.
Best comment in this entire damn thread.
The other thing to consider is that the pizza industry is one of the most competitive spaces in the restaurant industry. Look at the rise of chains like MOD Pizza, Blaze Pizza, Pizza Rev. All of these restaurants are taking a slice out of papa john's pie. They can blame the NFL, which is probably having a small impact, but the pizza industry is flooded with tough competitors right now
To add on to what has been said, based on my friends who work in the pizza industry, some of which at Papa John's specifically:
Papa John's generally prices itself above its competition. This is usually not a huge deterrent for customers as Papa John's has plenty of 25%-50% coupons floating around the Internet, but the thing is, many people (some of my friends claims most) order over the phone, and Papa John's does not give any of these discounts to phone orders. Not everyone can or wants to pay $20 for a large pizza.
Papa John's recently raised their delivery fee. This is a huge turnoff to people. Some people just go "whatever, I'll just tip less", but most people just do not order at all when they have to pay almost $4 just to get the pizza.
Any CEO, Democrat or Republican, who gets political, which John Schnatter has done numerous times, is bound to cost his/her company some money. People get mad and don't want to spent money at a business that so openly does not share their views.
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