The Death of Pizza Hut

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The last sit-down pizza hut buffet in the state is closing in less than 36 hours. I had many happy childhood memories from there so I wanted to go. I called on Friday to make a reservation. Booked out until close. We drove there on Saturday. It's on the other side of town but Jane and I drove there. No admittance without reservation.

I know they had already said they were booked out but I think there was a chance that if I just showed up they would let us in.

I should have booked earlier but I wasn't sure I could convince Jane to go. I heard they were closing 3 weeks ago. But it took until now to organise something.

I would have gone there a couple of years ago if I'd known they were closing.

I asked Jane a couple of years ago but Jane doesn't like pizza. I would have gone with some of my friends. I could have had my birthday there last year. Or the year before. Or the year before. Or the year before.

I remember the last time I went there, 4 years ago. I didn't go inside. I just waited outside for my date. She was supposed to meet me at noon. By 1pm she answered my message and said she had just gotten out of bed and she wouldn't be coming today because she couldn't be bothered. We planned a picnic for the next week but she got mad at me when I asked her to promise she would actually show up this time

I should have booked earlier.

I can't even look at pizza anymore. What's the point of going to Pizza Hut or Dominoes so that wait on row of little vinyl covered chairs by the front window next to the drinks fridge so they can hand me a couple of pizzas inside cardboard boxes so I can drive them home? What's the point of going to a place that has that much contempt for their customers?

And then after you've eaten your pizza out of a greasy cardboard box at home you get to have a tiny little dessert in a pre-packaged plastic cup with a foil lid. This $6.55 "dessert" is made all the more obscene for its vague resemblance to the mountains of soft serve and mouse and toppings you could poor into a bowl from the dessert bar.

I can't stop thinking about it. They killed pizza and left a parody of pizza in its place.

I understand the sadness of a restaurant where you had some happy memories closing down. It's like a new era replacing an old one that you are attached to.

Does what you said mean non-sit-down or non-buffet Pizza Huts are still around in SA? I went to Pizza Hut many years ago. I did enjoy the buffet. There seem to be quite a few Pizza Huts still around where I live though I'm not sure if they have tables or buffets.

Nowadays even pizza costs so much that I'd rather spend my money on other types of food.

300 Pizza Huts are closing after a giant franchisee goes bankrupt

NPC International, which filed for Chapter 11 in July, announced an agreement Monday with Pizza Hut's owner Yum! Brands (YUM)to close roughly a quarter of its restaurants and sell the remaining locations. Specific restaurants and timing have not yet been determined, but NPC said a "substantial majority" of affected locations have dining rooms.

The agreement provides NPC with "flexibility to explore options for achieving a value maximizing outcome as it seeks to finalize the terms of a comprehensive financial restructuring and emerge from Chapter 11," it said in a release. A perfect storm of coronavirus-related shutdowns, a massive debt burden of nearly $1 billion and rising labor and food costs tipped NPC into bankruptcy.

Pizza Hut said Monday that the 300 US locations "significantly underperform" compared with the rest of NPC's Pizza Hut locations, and it will help employees find jobs at nearby Pizza Hut restaurants. The chain has been shifting away from opening and operating restaurants with dining rooms. Instead, it is encouraging customers to order pick-up through its website or third-party apps.

Sad.

Pizza Hut sucks anyways. Not quite as bad as Little Caesars, but it's still garbage pizza. For chain stores, the best one we have here is Panago (formerly known as Panagopoulas) - way better quality. Other than that there are plenty of independent pizza shops of varying quality to support. Pizza Huts closing isn't really a big loss, IMO.. that's why they're closing - not enough people voting with their dollars to support them staying open.

Yes a new era replacing the old one that I'm attached too. The sad thing is, they might not even redevop the night. They might just leave the same building abandoned and decaying as they have done with other restaurants in SA.Scores of them. But they just feel like a shadow of their former selves. They're not restuarants, they're takeaways. Even McDonald's gives you a place to sit.I'm sure they're nice but I'm no more likely to find a Panago in SA then I am to find a Tim Hortons.

The two or three Pizza Huts that existed where I live closed down when I was still a little kid, so I really don't care.

I kinda hafta agree with you there.  Back in the early 1970's, Pizza Hut was THE hangout after every high-school football game, and if they were full, kids would walk across the bridge to the Tastee-Freez.  These were not the best places for food, but that is were everyone hung out.  More of a nostalgia thing now, rather than a food thing.

I don't think I've ever ordered pizza in a sit-down restaurant.

I don't like Pizza Hut because it's really greasy with whatever that stuff is they wipe on the crust?

I tried to order it once by phone and they could only connect me with a shop in Edmonton.

Let's just say that was thousands of km from home, and in a different province.

Olive oil.

I can relate.

I have happy memories of eating at Pizza Hut, too.

I like their pizza.

I like olive oil.
Theirs seems more like artificial butter.

Do you mean margarine?  You could be correct; but it was supposed to be olive oil.

No, I mean the fake butter that they use for popcorn at cinemas.

"Buttery Flavor Popcorn Topping", which is "Soybean Oil, Carotene, Artificial Butter Flavoring, TBHQ, and Citric Acid."

^

I do feel badly for Pizza Hut though.
My mother loves their pizza.

Are they going completely out of business or is it just the sit-down restaurants?
Can people still order delivery?

It look like just the sit-down (or "dine-in") restaurants, so people might be able to order for take-out or delivery, depending on the location (of which there will be fewer).