According to a news report from nytimes.com, “It’s a tough time to be in the restaurant business unless, of course, the food on your menu is really cheap.”
“You might think that pizza would fall into that category. But, as it turns out, the nation’s largest pizza chains are being hammered by sluggish sales and runaway ingredient costs. It’s a bad time to be in a business where two of the main ingredients are cheese and dough. Dairy and wheat prices have skyrocketed in the last year,” said the story. “At Domino’s Pizza, sales at domestic stores are down, and David A. Brandon, the chairman and chief executive, bemoaned “the combination of unprecedented cost inflation and cautious consumer spending,” in a statement on Feb. 26. Yum Brands, the owner of Pizza Hut, has had its problems, too. Though the company, which also owns Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken, doesn’t break out sales for its different chains, a company spokesman said it was experiencing the same challenges as its competitors. Same-store or comparable-store sales, those for stores open at least a year, for all of Yum’s brands were flat last year.”
