Domino's Obituary

Domino’s was found dead in his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan yesterday from a massive heart attack.  He was just 51 years old.  He is survived by his only son, Domino's jr.  With the economy in dire straits the last couple of years, Domino’s had been feeling the stress and anxiety about declining sales.  He made many efforts to increase sales through better advertising and adding healthier ingredients to the items on his menu. He had high hopes of being the #1 pizza chain in the world. However, his heart could not handle the stress.  Domino's got his start many years ago making Pizzas and has been a staple in the hearts and stomachs of many people around the world since. He even added several items to his menu throughout the years including pastas and chicken wings.  Domino's spent many nights visiting with people around the world feeding them and making them happy.  Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, and Papa John’s pizza chains have responded about the news of Domino’s untimely death by heavily saturating the market with discounted pizza prices and coupons for free slices of their specialty pizzas.  It is an all out war between these companies to obtain the customers that Domino’s has now lost.  Who will take Domino’s place? Will Domino's jr. take over the company and continue his father's legacy within the Pizza industry? It remains to be seen. Domino’s will be missed by many college students, busy moms and hungry families all around the world.  Domino’s was working hard on a “come-back” in the pizza industry and was even consulting with and working with the NOID about doing some new commercials for Domino’s company in the coming year.  Rest in peace Domino’s – you almost made your come-back before your untimely passing.  Services will be held Friday at the Pizza Pie Funeral home. 

Domino's Pizza - Online ordering with delivery

I started my online ordering at 7:06pm tonight. I had just got back from taking my son to his baseball lesson and we were STARVING and ready to eat. 

The time I started looking at the website online

Normally, I would have just stopped by on the way home to get the pizza for carry out (instead of for delivery). I ordered 2 medium pizzas with 2 toppings with the $5.99 each promotion.  The kids helped me pick out the toppings and they thought it was cool that as soon as you added toppings, that it added it to the picture of your pizza on the screen.

Looking at the website

Honestly, the whole ordering process was fairly simple and painless. I finished my order at 7:19 (after looking around the site and completing my order). 

The tracker page at the end of my ordering process

The time when I finished my online ordering process

I do not like putting in my credit card information on any websites though. I feel better using Paypal. Perhaps that could be a consideration in the future with payment options. The tracker was really cool. It stated that the pizza(s) left the store at 7:31pm. We crossed our fingers that he would arrive within 10 minutes because I know how far the store is from our house (time wise).  The pizza(s) arrived at 7:41pm.

The tracker says it is ON THE WAY and out for delivery ~ yay!!!

The website was interesting. I really liked the calorie meter. I liked how it added and took off calories as you added and subtracted each item off the pizza. But, WOWZA on the calorie counts on each slice.  I knew pizza was super high in calories, but when you look at how each individual piece can be. Yikes.

I honestly thought with it being this late in the evening that the order would take much longer to get here than it did. I was VERY impressed that it took about 20 minutes. How did they do that? I did ask the guy if I could take a picture of him holding the pizzas. I felt a bit weird about that, but it was part of the “experience” with opening the door and him greeting us with Pizzas. He was pleasant enough and humored me.

Pizzas arrived at the door on time!

The time after the delivery guy left and the the pizza pies were on the table

The pizzas looked fantastic and smelled even better.  I liked that the pizza was full of the ingredients we ordered and not just sparse around the pie. The only problem I had was that one of the pizzas was not cut all the way through, so I had to get my own pizza cutter out so I could serve it.  I guess I would have had to get a knife out if I didn’t have that pizza cutter handy. 

Don't they look delish? They were generous with all ingredients!

A close up ~ you can see the garlic/butter crust

Another close-up to be fair to the other yummy pizza

I had a better experience with online ordering because the pizzas came without any problems (and the one I ordered for carry out was made wrong and had to be re-made while I waited). Add that to the fact that I got to wait in the comfort of my own home instead of sitting on uncomfortable chairs for 30+ minutes.  The only negatives were the feelings of a bit of anxiety putting my credit card information in and then having to re-cut the pizza while the kids were waiting.  I have never thought of pizza as being “healthy”.  I might think of it as healthy if it was made with whole wheat crust, had cheese made with skim milk (or reduced calorie milk) and fresh vegetable ingredients. Even though the crust was delish (hand tossed), I’m sure it was made with a lot of butter.  I had no idea that pizza delivery places added on delivery charges or maybe I have never really paid attention to that before.  But, seeing it on the computer screen made me want to calculate out if it was better (money wise) if I drove over myself and picked it up vs having it delivered and paying delivery +  plus tip.

Health and Wellness

Being a busy mom of three, I am at the mercy of just how little time I have each day to get everything that needs to be accomplished done within the daylight hours. Add that to the fact that all three of my kids are very picky eaters equals = frozen meals and eating out. Eating out, they can all order what they want. Frozen meals means they can pick what they want as well. Cooking a meal does not really work for me because someone (or two or three, etc) is not going to like it. So, I gave up on that a long time ago. The closest I get to a healthy home-cooked meal for them is breakfast for dinner (scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and biscuits). I sometimes struggle with the guilt factor of not being able to produce extremely healthy home cooked meals, but I would have to cook two or three separate meals a night to please everyone if I tried that route. My philosophy regarding health is to try and eat whole grain products whether I am eating at a restaurant, take out, fast-food or at home. It doesn’t always happen, but if the *option* is there to chose between wheat and white bread, I pick wheat. My children are a different story. I’ve mentioned that they have a very limited variety of items they will eat (basically hamburgers, French fries, chicken nuggets and pizza). However, at least they will eat wheat bread and a few other healthy options. 

my freezer is filled with frozen meals instead of meat or items to cook homecooked meals

I make sure that I have apples in my fridge at all times.  To make it easier, I also have an apple slicer (it encourages my son to eat the entire apple instead of just taking a bite or two out of a whole apple).

                                              apples in my fridge with the apple slicer we use

I have recently given up coffee because the caffeine affects my anxiety like a freight train.  It took me years before I realized just how much caffeine affected my body because I love coffee so much. I love the taste and the smell and the overall warm beverage of it. I still do have a coffee every once in awhile, but I brace myself because I know the rest of my day will be full of anxiety and headaches. My favorite is McDonald’s coffee. But, it probably does me more good that I am not consuming 2 sugars and 4 creams added to a drink everyday ;)

                                 a daily habit that I have had to give up because of health reasons

I got tired of having gym memberships and never using them. It was a total waste of money, so I bought a treadmill and a bigger T.V. for my bedroom. I multi-task while on the treadmill. I will walk, text, talk or get on the Internet on my cell phone and/or watch T.V. I do all of those things at the same time or any variety of them at the same time. It is also great that I can get on at any hour I wish without getting in my car and driving somewhere else and then driving home.

                                    the view from my treadmill when I workout (and watch T.V.)

There are a few things that over the years (and recently) that I have changed in order to eat a little healthier without putting a lot of extra effort into it. I buy sea salt instead of regular salt, extra virgin olive oil, agave nectar, and whole wheat bread. Although, I will admit that I have never really liked white bread because it sticks to the roof of your mouth, so wheat bread has always been a staple. But, more recently I have been buying 100% whole wheat for quick sandwiches (PJ&J).

                             a few items from my pantry: sea salt, agave nectar and olive oil

Overall, in the last several years I have chosen convenience over the time it takes to cook healthier meals.  I also take the lead on what my children want to eat because I refuse to force them into eating things they tell me that they do not like. I will ask them to try things more than once just to make sure they don't like it. But, after a time or two of telling me "no, I do not like this", I move onto the next choice. In a perfect world, healthy food would be an option and more accessible at all food places. I will continue to try and make little changes here and there to provide myself and my family with healthier options, but convenience outweighs the struggle of getting picky eaters to eat food that is wasted when they refuse to eat whatever they do not like.  As far as other health matters --- I'm not big on taking vitamins or supplements.  The best thing I do as far as health is that I drink a lot of water. That is the one thing I do that is guilt-free and makes me feel like I am doing something healthy each day.

Domino's Pizza

After a hectic day of running around from the break of day, I was more than ready to get food for dinner and be done with the last of my being out and about.  I swung by the house to drop the two younger children off and went to our local Domino's pizza place with my oldest daughter. Her birthday party is tomorrow, so we have been busy getting everything done for that today. I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but I noticed that most of the immediate parking in front of the store was taken up by the delivery drivers.  It did not bother me, but I did think about how the front two spots (especially at night) should be open to anyone picking up for a carry out order.  Upon stepping up to the front door, we were greeted by a yummy sign for the chocolate lava crunch cakes

We were also greeted by someone at the front counter and I let them know that we were in to order for carry out.  I looked at the front counters that had pizza information and pictures on the front for a minute or two and then asked the guy what he would suggest since we wanted to get something different besides our normal.  He was very helpful.  He listed off some specials and then directed us to the specialty pizzas (yum!) and we decided to try out the Honolulu Hawaiian for the first time. However, I wanted it without peppers.

The guy told me that it would be about a 10 minute wait and so we took a seat on the red bench that was to the right of the door when you enter the store.  The bench was very uncomfortable to me, even for a 10 minute stretch, so we moved to the 2 red chairs to the left of the benches on another wall. The chairs were more comfortable than the bench, but again, not something I want to sit in for a long stretch. When we sat down in the chairs and looked around more, I noticed how bare the walls were.  There was nothing up on the walls in the front at all. I feel that if they had big pictures of pizza or something, that it would feel more inviting and "warm". This is our view from sitting in the two red chairs (the entrance door is to the right, the counter is to the left and the uncomfortable bench in front of us). Oh, I almost forgot..when looking at the following pic, there is actually some kind of recessed picture (of pizza I think) in the wall to the left, but you would have to walk over there to get a look at it.



I took a few pictures of the front counter and the items on top of it. Looking at the pic with the plain wall behind the counter, you can tell how bland (and somewhat cold?) it makes it feel. Some pizza pictures or perhaps the sandwiches or the yummy chocolate crunch would warm it up a lot. The front area was tiny, but the unused space (in the pic above) to the right of the door is kind of odd. 

I was surprised that there was not a large soda machine inside. Instead there was a small soda display holding a few (warm) sodas on top of the counter to the left side. You can not really see it in this pic, but there is also a chip display on the floor behind the counter.

I was so delighted when the pizza indeed was ready in about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, it had peppers on it, so they had to re-make it. It wasn't a huge deal since I did not have somewhere to be right afterwards, but it did cross my mind how sometimes I pick up pizza before a baseball practice or game and that would have totally made me late. We waited on our pizza for a total of about 30 minutes. The guy was so polite and apologized several times.  But, I had expected to only be in there the 10 minutes he said it was going to take.

Overall, the environment and vibe was nice and professional (except the bland walls).  I observed the crew working in the back and they worked so smoothly together.  They spoke in very professional and respecful voices and tone to each other and were all busy doing something at all times.  Someone even came to the front and asked if we had been helped after we had been sitting for more than 10+ minutes. I liked how someone else noticed and wanted to make sure and check on us.

Once the pizza was ready, the guy opened the box and the mouth watering smell whooshed out and made both my daughter and I smile. It looked and smelled great! Off we headed back home to get dinner underway.  Once we arrived and I opened the box to the "new" pizza I have never ordered before, all the 'ooooooohs and ahhhhhhhs' started flowing from the children. The large pizza was gone within a matter of minutes (between 3 kids). My youngest daughter kept talking about the wonderful crust (and she usually leaves the crust behind). It was made to perfection according to my crew!

When comparing the experience of walking up and ordering with another pizza place I have ordered from, the service at Dominos was more friendly.  The other chain I sometimes order from seem to be a bit "robotic".  I felt that they guy behind the counter was engaged in helping me make a new selection and was not the least bit annoyed by all of my questions. I often like delivery better though because I can do other things around the house while I wait.  If I do a carry out, I prefer calling ahead.  I didn't enjoy having to wait longer for a second pizza to be made.  But, I know mistakes happen so I was not upset at all.  A big thumbs up for the Honolulu Hawaiian pizza comes from our house tonight. I'm so glad that they guy suggested it. I view the brand of Dominos as a no frills, get the point type of business that thrives on and delivers good customer service and tasty pizza. It totally works for busy moms like me who are running around with no time to spare and need a quick meal in no time for 3 hungry children.

Hello

Hello,
My name is Angela and I am from North Texas :)