Over 500 Pizza Hut locations in the US will be closing

https://www.delish.com/food-news/a28636780/pizza-hut-shutting-down-over-500-locations/

That's pretty crazy. I wonder if Canada will be affected. I live close to a dine-in Pizza Hut location, and I never actually see anybody eat there. They don't exactly have the best pizza, but their pasta, calzones, and boneless chicken wings are all really good. I much prefer Pizza Nova and Pizzaiolo, but I'd still be sad to see Pizza Hut completely go away for good. Love 'em or hate 'em, they're an undeniably important part of history. 

Remember the time they promoted an album and world tour starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? I owned that album. I was very proud of it. Things were so much simpler back then. I feel old.

I like Pizza Hut a lot but stopped ordering long ago. First off they closed down the dine-in location up the street from me. Used to go there a lot, now it's a bank. Second, the delivery location that's still in operation nearby is extremely slow. It was tiresome calling in with an order, only for there to be a two hour wait. What the hell? Dominos always has me covered in 30 minutes tops, 15 if I do carry-out, even when they are busy.

Their pizza went downhill in the late 90s/early 2000s and I stopped going then. I do have fond memories of going to their lunch buffet after school on a regular basis (I think there was some reading program at my school that gave Pizza Hut coupons if you read a lot). Loved their pizza back then and they'd always have a dessert pizza out. The location we always went to burned down a while back, though. All that remains is the charred street sign still standing in the parking lot. I have even earlier memories of the other location in town having sit-down arcade tables of like Pac-Man and Centipede. Those always fascinated me and I miss them.

Speaking of the Coming Out of Their Shells Tour, I saw that at the Paramount in Seattle when I was like 7. Went to a little restaurant afterwards that delivered your food by running a model train out to your table. That place no longer exists either...

I hope they don't plan on affecting the ones in the UK, it's a yearly tradition to have a Pizza Hut on my birthdays. Plus buffet or not, they're still awesome. Their dough though!

Pizza hut in Australia is terrible. I think Dominos is shit (their vegetarian pizzas are bearable) but pizza hut is even below them.

I did have fond memories as a child with their all-you-can-eat pizza and salad. Although they did have a bad habit of causing mild food poisoning.

It could be cause of my Italian background but I rather eat toast with tomato paste than have Pizza hut and Dominos. Cheaper and healthier too.

I hope this doesn't affect the UK either or we will be stuck with dominoes. 

I feel bad for all those employees who'll be out of a job too.

All the Pizza Huts in my area have been closed 10 - 15 years and they're now Mexican restaurants. However... there is one that's a hole in the wall delivery only sort of place. I had their pizza two weeks ago at a party, it felt very doughy and default.

Little Ceasars and it's $5 large pizzas have taken over and always jam packed full of people out the door. Dominos and it's $6 mediums can't compete either. We have two that are near one another and the Domino's one is in a better place, yet there's never anyone there. Then again, they could deliver and that's all their business.

Don't think I ever tried Pizza Hut.

Either way, this news worries me, more so for the thousands of people that're likely gonna lose their jobs.

Hahahaha, Burn in hell pizza devil!

I cook my own food.

Pizza FTW.. sorry to hear such news.

Good thing they are not shutting down chuck e cheeses, the pizza at that place is #1 in my book.

I think people's standards for what they consider good pizza have risen a lot in the past few years. When I think of Pizza Hut I think of the worst excesses of junk food - it seems like they've tried every trick they can imagine to stuff more cheese and grease into their food in the hopes that it will make a good advertising gimmick that will boost their sales. In the short term it probably works but in the long term it gives your brand a particular association that some people will find offputting. There are plenty of places to order pizza in my area and Pizza Hut isn't one I'd ever consider.

59 minutes ago, vanilla_d00m said:

Good thing they are not shutting down chuck e cheeses, the pizza at that place is #1 in my book.

It's been so long since I had pizza from Chuck E Cheese's, but damn, it's real good!

Damn I didn't even know Pizza Hut had a bad reputation. Honestly I rarely eat pizza, like, twice a year, I guess, but when I do I eat either Pizza Hut or Telepizza. I've never tried these new hip places that have raised the pizza standards among people.

That album has solid "Hair Rock" tracks honestly.

Don't worry...

love pizzahut.  way better than dominoes and papajohns imo.  their wings are actually fried.

chicken, bacon, & jalepenos with a bbq sauce base.

Pizza Hut's pizza is nowhere near as good as Domino's. I'm guessing Pizza Hut is different in America. The Pizza Hut close to me is very inconsistent with their pizzas. Sometimes they're good, and other times they have almost no cheese/sauce. Every pizza I've ever had at Domino's has been superb, though their pasta is some of the worst I've ever had.

Pizza Hut and Domino's are indistinguishable to me (in U.S.) and always have been, but I much prefer chain pizza places to little holes in the wall with Italian names. But then again, best yet is frozen.

Long live crapizza!

Dominoes is worse in Australia.

Finally they are fighting back against obesity in the US >:D

Sorry to hear that for you Pizza Hut fans :( (What a coincidence today i ate pizza from a local pizza place)

I use a lot of fake names when ordering food, that's how I know if I end up on a list somewhere. With the last Pizza Hut I ordered from myself 4 years ago (5 looking at it), I was a regular customer ordering once or more a week for $25+ and picking it up. I'd always use fake names like Alf, Alfie Fergisson, and Gordon Shumway. Well finally one of the managers got tired of it and yelled at me when I walked in that they almost didn't make the order... well I had been doing that for a full year, I felt I was lightening the mood on someone's rough work schedule. Plus it's their job to make me a pizza when I order it. There are people in the world named Alf and Alfie. After that I never returned.

Literally a post on it:

Apparently I talk about pizza hut a lot:

Oh and now some states have approved everyone in the state will get $15 minimum wage in the coming years as they work up to it. Awesome until you realize employees get paid more and robots will just replace us all. I can even tie this to Pizza Hut restaurants closing.

Anyway... rest in Pizza Hut.

6 hours ago, Scuba Steve said:

Now THAT'S some serious nostalgia.

That's the reading program I was remembering, isn't it?

11 hours ago, Ajora said:

Pizza Hut's pizza is nowhere near as good as Domino's. I'm guessing Pizza Hut is different in America. The Pizza Hut close to me is very inconsistent with their pizzas. Sometimes they're good, and other times they have almost no cheese/sauce. Every pizza I've ever had at Domino's has been superb, though their pasta is some of the worst I've ever had.

I do love a good Domino's. I actually very briefly worked for Domino's once, the time it takes to prepare the dough, put the toppings and all that on and then into the oven is seriously fast, takes no less than 3 minutes. And They have some sort of powder as well which they roll the dough into it probably gives it that awesome flavour. Their chicken kickers are a winner in my book as well. And the cookies.

Unless you're very unlucky, if there's a Pizza Hut near you, there's probably also a local pizza place that has way better pizza which you didn't even know about. Local pizza places are still better than Pizza Hut/Dominos at their worst, at least the ones I've had in Australia. IIRC the same was also true in Florida though. The pizza is almost guaranteed to be larger and taste better at the local place.

Shame as pizza hut is among the only pizza chains I like, though just for the cheese-stuffed crust. Hopefully domino's follows their example soon and I dont have to see that nasty pizza again. Agreed though that in most areas, at least in the US for non-rural areas, you can easily find a little italian hole in the wall that'll make pizza way better than any chain does. 

8 hours ago, Danarchy said:

That's the reading program I was remembering, isn't it?

Read X number of minutes and your teacher signs off saying "You've earned a free personal pan pizza." It was one of the most singularly brilliant marketing strategies; "Kids, read some books and get a free pizza that costs us nothing! Oh and while your family is here, order a large deepdish pizza, have a salad from the buffet, fountain drinks, and play arcade games."

2 hours ago, Doomkid said:

Unless you're very unlucky, if there's a Pizza Hut near you, there's probably also a local pizza place that has way better pizza which you didn't even know about. Local pizza places are still better than Pizza Hut/Dominos at their worst, at least the ones I've had in Australia. IIRC the same was also true in Florida though. The pizza is almost guaranteed to be larger and taste better at the local place.

this is definitely true. there's a local place near work that we tend to go to a lot, and their pizza is really good; no excess grease, affordable, and certain drinks are free of charge. that, and places like Dominos and Pizza Hut are predominantly American businesses anyway, which, in my experience, doesn't exist in any convenient locations nearby compared to other restaurants and fast food places.

55 minutes ago, Scuba Steve said:

 

Read X number of minutes and your teacher signs off saying "You've earned a free personal pan pizza." It was one of the most singularly brilliant marketing strategies; "Kids, read some books and get a free pizza that costs us nothing! Oh and while your family is here, order a large deepdish pizza, have a salad from the buffet, fountain drinks, and play arcade games."

Yep! That sounds about right. Always loved those things because I read stuff all the time when I was a kid anyway.