Is there a Domino's one? I want to try one of them pasta bread bowls.

They sometimes give you a 20% off coupon if you order online too.

OT: Did anyone else like Pizza Hut's original buffalo wings better than Wing Street?

For the record, ALL online orders are 20% off if you use the coupon code XA on their site. I just did it 2 days ago coupled with another coupon I got on their site to make my order even cheaper.

Domino's should take note. I almost ordered from my Tivo the other day, but no coupons were available there. I am not paying $22 for a large pizza and a coke.

Just to continue a previous conversation:

I refuse to use these automated functions that remove jobs from less skilled/younger workers. Why do you think its 20% off the first order? Because they save 40% off the order when you do it and they can fire someone from the store and they don't have to answer the phone.

The result of these conveniences is ultimately bad for the economy, workers, and you.

@Radi0logy:

So you're telling me you:

- refuse to use pay at the gas pump and always go inside
- refuse to put quarters into a dispensing machine
- refuse to engage in online banking and always visit your teller
- refuse to dial your own phone, and insist that the operator connect you
- refuse to buy a car unless it's made by hand, and as a result you built your own kit car

I gotta say, you've got way more resolve than I ever could. Good for you!

@Rectilinear Propagation:

I know I did! Sigh... missing them...

To quote the great Ron Bennington: "Every Italian in the world would have to die before I found myself going to Pizza Hut."

Crap. none of my friends have an iphone. I need to find someone willing to place an order for me :O

@Radi0logy: But building up a website and ordering system creates tech jobs. Maybe not all of them in the US, but do you really think they guy answering the phone is always a US citizen? Sorry, but I've had way too many botched orders after long waits on hold. Online ordering is teh awesome.

spicey? Isn't is spicy?

@Radi0logy: lol what?

Pizza places don't hire people with the job title of phone answerer. Usually anyone working there in the back or at front counter can take orders or ring-up a carryout.

I can see that same point used for those grocery store self-checkout machines (because it's typically 1 person monitoring many machines), but it's a stupid argument for this.

@Radi0logy: I'm sensing sarcasm?

@Radi0logy:

Do you live under a rock? There is no one standing at the phone just waiting for it to answer. A cook, waiter, or anyone with a free hand will grab it. You are essentially saving them tons of time and allowing them to spend more time on your food since they don't have to spend 5 minutes on the phone to you explaining every special, every size, blah blah.... instead they just get a printout of what you want. I'm going to go ahead and guess you never had a job until you graduated from college (which mom and dad undoubtedly paid for).

@MostlyHarmless:

Know anyone with an iPod Touch?

If only they would add online ordering to my local store. I can't even get coupons anymore because they replaced the printable coupons with a page that tells you to order online, but somehow, in 2009, my local store still doesn't support it.

I want a Papa Johns iPhone app.

I make my own pizza iPhone apps at home.

To quote the great Ron Bennington: "Every Italian in the world would have to die before I found myself going to Pizza Hut."

I work at Pizza Hut, and I can safely say we'd all breathe a sigh of relief if we knew for sure we wouldn't have to pick up the phone nearly as much. Well, you know, as long as business remains steady. These slower weekends lately have been a bit of a drag.

Too bad once you order it you'll end up with food from Pizza Hut. Sounds fun though.

@JRock: A+!

Is it better than their website? It's a pain in the butt to navigate and use.

@Radi0logy: I might be inclined to agree with at least the sentiment behind this statement...except that I've noticed a huge increase in order accuracy since I started ordering online vs. over the phone.

@parliboy: Dude, I still refuse to pump my own gas!

No, really, I'm been pumping it since 1994. But if we're trying to save low-level jobs ....

@Radi0logy: You'd have a point if the phone at Pizza Hut, or any pizza joint, was adequately staffed in the first place. As-is, I have to wait 5 minutes on hold to place an order on the phone. This is why I use web ordering whenever possible.

Now, if only Round Table had web ordering... *sigh*

@tekkierich: What the hell kind of large pizza were you ordering that it cost $22?!

@parliboy: Well I'm not 100% perfect about all of it, but I do try to do those things as I am able to do. I prefer to go inside instead of paying at the pump, I don't like using vending machines and instead prefer to buy from a person, the wife handles the finances, however, I prefer avoiding the atm as much as possible (bad bank hours makes this one pretty difficult), clearly the phone one and the car one are impossible and border on silly.

@HRHKingFridayXX: As an ex-employee of Pizza Hut I can safely say that their employees at the very least should be legal to work in the U.S., if not a citizen.

@Moosehawk: Incorrect. As an ex-employee of Pizza Hut, they hired people to only answer the phone. Less of these were employed there by the time I had graduated college than when I started.

@pb5000: Nope.

@xthexlanternx: "Do you live under a rock?" Nope. "There is no one standing at the phone just waiting for it to answer" Yes, there is. See above. "I'm going to go ahead and guess you never had a job until you graduated from college" Guess whatever you like about me, although I'm not sure how it is relevant.

@dark_inchworm: I agree with you, but not for the same reasons. When I first started working at Pizza Hut, there was no online ordering. So there were people permanently stationed at the phones. As Pizza Hut began to be able to get away from employing those specialized people, they just let the cooks/drivers/managers answer the lighter physical call volume and the other jobs slowly have been eliminated.

Its all quite obvious if you care to see it.

@tekkierich: Gotta say, though, until I get a chute to deliver food right to my couch*, if I can get up to open the door to receive num-nums I can get up to place the order. I really like Domino's web site ordering. That and Pizza Hut claims my house doesn't exist... even if I call in.

* Such a chute would be freaking awesome. TO THE PATENT OFFICE!

@Radi0logy: I can guarantee you almost any local pizza place and smaller chains have never and will never hire people to simply work phones. As an example, my best friend has an uncle that franchises a Carbones Pizzaeria here in the Twin Cities. He's never hired someone to just answer phones. Rocco's Pizza here does the same thing. So does Red's Savoy. I can go on.

If you think technology replacing employees with jobs of a lower understanding is ruining the economy you're delusional.

@ModernTenshi04: They probably put a topping on it.

@Rectilinear Propagation: I haven't had Pizza Hut wings in, literally, 10 years or so, but I remember them being some of the best wings I have ever tasted.

@Moosehawk: Oh so you mean a pizza chain that sells 12 pizzas a day doesn't need a dedicated phone person? I'm shocked.

"If you think technology replacing employees with jobs of a lower understanding is ruining the economy you're delusional."

This makes no sense.

But no, as an addendum, I am not an employee of these stores. They do not pay me, so I don't "check myself out". If you don't think corporations are excited about the prospects of unloading work from their employees onto their customers then you are quite delusional.

@Radi0logy: Ah. See, I wasn't around to see that. I've only been working there since April. I do live in a small enough area that I doubt we've ever had people man the phone at all times, but my general manager has been there since day 1 in the 80's, so I could ask him.

Not a fan of pizza hut.

This seems like another "the rich get richer" or "the rich get the price breaks" thing to me. Those of us with plain-vanilla basic cell phones, who can't afford iPhones and all their gadgetry, don't qualify for the discount. Boo!

@HeartBurnKid: Agent of R.O.A.C.H.: Oh yeah, and not to mention the obnoxious specials that are advertised while you're waiting.

@Radi0logy: Are you working for a pizza hut in a major city? Where I am, you're lucky if you can get someone that speaks english well. I'm not trying to turn this in to some Dobbsian argument, but if your job is to answer a phone, you should be able to understand basic english.

What's Pizza Hut? It sounds like a ripoff of that pizza joint called The Hut.

@ElizabethD: Some users upthread have said that you get a coupon sometimes for ordering online, too. And of course, there's the usual standby: COUPONS!

I have a lifetime 50% coupon from PH.

PH screwed up. As compensation the District Manager awarded me a lifetime coupon.

Yes, it was pretty big screwup. Actually a screwup one too many in a long line of screwups that resulted in a store manager being terminated for cause. Store manager is gone, everything is good.

BTW, the local Dominoes franchisee awarded me one year's worth of free pizzas. I nailed them on a violation of the no-call list. Gave them an option... free pizza for one year or cough up $11,000 fine. I got my free pizzas.

@ElizabethD:

Yep, seems discriminatory to me as well.

@Moosehawk: Thanks for clearing that up. Not everyone wants to be bound to AT&T's crappy coverage, even for cheaper pizza :)

@Radi0logy: For the record, Red's Savoy is one of the most popular and busy pizza places located right next to down town. Rocco's is also fairly busy in the suburb I live in. Even more busy than the pizza hut OR the domino's that are within a mile of it.

I'll make one last point that whether you like it or not, technology is the future. Businesses like it. Consumers like it.

@Rectilinear Propagation: Yep, first order online is 20 percent off. And by first, I mean first with that specific email address.

@Radi0logy: "Why do you think its 20% off the first order?"

First. If it was every order, I'd wholeheartedly agree with your point - they'd be trying to cut costs of phone answering or take away the need for paying for a person to do that job (that said every pizza place I've been to, be they chain or otherwise, doesn't have a dedicated phone answerer - or if they do, it's the same person running register and performing other tasks as well - so at most this would free up time, not eliminate jobs).

But since it's only one time, there's no incentive to keep doing so, and they won't retain enough people doing it without constant online only specials.

Furthermore, I'm assuming someone checks the order online, or something of the sort - it doesn't just make itself, so there's still someone doing that work.

@MostlyHarmless: If it's for the discount (which I assume it is, rather than playing with the app, since you said "for me") you get 20 percent off your first order on their site as well. And apparently this applies for each new email account you sign up there.

@ElizabethD: Your first order online is 20 percent off. I suspect the iphone thing is similar..but I wouldn't know, no fancy pants phones here

@coren: Honestly I don't know what I can add here that doesn't beat the dead horse.

I know from personal experience that the workforce at Pizza Hut locations that I have worked at that they have shrunk with the advent of online ordering. I think everyone on the face of the planet has been in a Wal-Mart and silently screamed "WHY THE HELL ARE THERE ONLY 4 PEOPLE RUNNING REGISTERS AND 100 CUSTOMERS?????"... but of course the expanding self-checkout is bustling and tempting.

You only have to look at historical information, like grocery stores that used to have employees walk with the customers to help them find what they needed. Now you're lucky if you can find a single rude stock guy anywhere in the store.

"I'll make one last point that whether you like it or not, technology is the future. Businesses like it. Consumers like it."

Please don't make this a rant about technology, because it isn't. Corporations will do whatever they need to cut costs, and if that means getting their customers to work for them in the store then that is what they will do. The method they use to achieve that goal is mostly moot. It's usually technology, but that is mostly incidental.

@Radi0logy: I think online ordering and self checkout are two different beasts. I think we've moved away, unless it's a giant location, from one dedicated phone answering person at pizza places (or most other food places, unless their job is to do reservations - which is an entirely different ball game). Whereas at Wal Mart (or anywhere else with self checkout) I wholeheartedly agree - those are cost cutting, job cutting innovations. I think your experience at Pizza Hut is the minority, and maybe that's due to how long ago it was (I have no idea) or where it was (again, no idea) but like I said I've never been to any pizza joint (or really, any place that served food at all, or any store that didn't already have a customer service desk where the job was to handle inquiries) that had one person whos dedicated job it is.

(I also have little trouble finding someone to help me in a grocery store and actually usually turn down at least a couple friendly offers to help me find something)