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Mrs_Pookie remembers...I remember when I was in junior high and high school we had personal Domino's pizzas at the snack bar. ... More »
Posted on 01/24/09
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It’s hard to imagine a world without the luxury of pizza delivery. It brings an inexpensive and satisfying hot meal to your home or office within minutes. Domino’s pizza might not have invented the delivery concept but they’ve sure done their part to ensure that, no matter where you live, a pizza is only a phone call away.
With over 5,000 stores in the U.S. and another 3,000 worldwide, Domino’s has certainly served up its share of pizzas, considering their humble beginnings in Ypsilanti, Michigan. In 1960, two brothers, Tom and James Monaghan, purchased an establishment named Dominick’s and set forth into the business of making pizzas. In a business deal that might very well go down in history as one of the bigger mistakes - 8 months after opening, James cashed in his pepperoni and traded his half of the business for a used Volkswagen Beetle. Tom quickly changed the name to Domino’s Pizza and in 1967, the new franchise opened. Expansion came swift for the growing company; a decade later, in 1978, the 200th Domino’s opened. And by 1983, the number had grown to over 1,000.
Much of Domino’s popularity could be attributed to an advertising campaign featuring The Noid. TV viewers were told that ordering Domino’s Pizza would help them to “Avoid the Noid,” a strange-looking, long-eared, clay animation villain. The commercials left a lasting impact on pop culture, immortalized on a few occasions by the popular animated sitcom, The Simpsons. In an effort to reach an even broader audience, Domino’s released a computer game in 1989 titled Avoid the Noid. Naturally, the object of the game was to deliver a pizza in a Noid-infested apartment building within the advertised half-hour time limit.
Like its archrival, Pizza Hut, Domino’s has made an indelible mark in the world of pizza delivery and has seen a lot of face time in the entertainment industry thanks to product placement. At the end of cult favorite, The Goonies, Chunk’s mom carries in a Domino’s pizza for him, apparently his “favorite!” And The Super Mario Bros. Super Show made it abundantly clear that Domino’s was Mario’s favorite – their plumbing business was absolutely filled with empty Domino’s boxes.
Today, you would be hard-pressed to find a place where a Domino’s pizza couldn’t be delivered to you, fixed up just the way you like it. Granted, they won’t guarantee a 30-minute delivery time anymore. That publicity stunt got them in a bit of trouble as their drivers were taking more than a few risks to pull it off. Still, it never really took much longer than that anyway, and it was always worth the wait. It’s just about the most convenient meal money can buy.
