Domino's Pizza Is Losing Customers Due to Recent Price Hikes

If you thought that your latest trip to Domino's was unusually expensive, you weren't mistaken. The world's largest pizza chain has joined the trend of raising prices to combat high food and labor costs, and its customers are definitely taking notice.

Exactly how much have Domino's prices increased? Chain executives predicted in October that prices would rise about 7% in the final quarter of 2022. Domino's was contacted to confirm whether any fourth-quarter price increases matched that prediction.

Over the course of 2022, Domino's also targeted some of its most popular deals with price hikes and changes that left customers dissatisfied. The chain raised the price tag on its Mix and Match deal from $5.99 to $6.99 for delivery customers in March 2022. In October, it applied the same price increase on the Mix and Match deal for carryout orders as well.

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Domino's also made some key changes to its popular carryout deal, which currently offers customers a pizza, dip and bread combo, or wings for $7.99.

While Domino's didn't raise the price of the deal, it did reduce the number of wings it contains from 10 to eight. Additionally, it now only allows customers to order one topping on a pizza as part of the carryout deal when it previously allowed them to choose three toppings. The chain further limited this deal by turning it into a digital-only offering, excluding those ordering in person or over the phone.

Customers, expectedly, have not taken kindly to these changes. "Unfortunately it's now cheaper for me to buy my favorite frozen pizza than a Domino's pan pizza, so that's what I am doing going forward," one user wrote in a Reddit thread discussing the price hike on the Mix and Match deal.

"I only used to get food from there occasionally because of deals like this," another Reddit user wrote in a separate thread about the changes to the $7.99 carryout deal. "Nobody is going to pay normal pizza prices for Domino's."

Domino's fourth quarter earnings, released Feb. 23, seem to further demonstrate that customers may be put off by the chain's prices. The company missed expectations on same-store sales growth, and its stock shares dropped more than 11%.

Domino's did see same-store sales in the United States increase by 0.9% in the quarter, but that still fell short of predictions that the chain would see a 3.4% increase. In other words, established Domino's stores did not bring in as much revenue as anticipated in the quarter, indicating that customers aren't quite as willing to pay more for Domino's.

The number of delivery orders also fell in the fourth quarter, with delivery same-store sales dropping 6.6%.

Aside from losing customers, a shortage of delivery drivers has created additional difficulties for Domino's, negatively-impacting sales and delivery times. Though staffing levels are now upswing, Domino's acknowledged the ongoing struggles on its delivery side in the most recent earnings call.

"We expect the economy to be a headwind for our delivery business in 2023 … Every day, delivery customers will be deciding where to spend their hard-earned dollars," CEO Russell Weiner said.