The Pizza Hut Corporation has really changed for the worst in the last few years, and this store is just an example of what is happening in many of the stores in Atlanta.
About a year ago, Pizza Hut Delivery covertly increased prices of all delivered pizzas by adding a 50 cent delivery charge to each order. The company sent out a memorandum suggesting that csr's tell the customers that this charge was to offset the cost of gas for the ovens. But the 50 cent delivery charge was never rescinded when the cost of gas decreased. Whether the money was put into an escrow account to pay the gas charge is an unanswered question.
Customers are further being overcharged by omitting information about special offers on orders in effect. A current memo instructs csr's not to tell the customers about t.V. Special offers and to try and upsell wings and breadsticks.
The result is that many orders arrive at a customer's door and are ridiciously overpriced. Many repeat customers have simply changed to another pizza delivery company. Sales are down substantially year-over-year.
Rate of return on investment is declining precipitously because of these policies, yet these are not the most damaging policies promulgated by the current Pizza Hut management.
About six months ago, all drivers were instructed by memorandum which was posted on a prominent spot that they must put the Pizza Hut signs on their cars. The fact was that a driver could not work if he refused, even if he or she thought that this policy was dangerous because signs are an attractive nusicance for robbers. Shortly after this policy was implemented, a driver was strangled in a vacant suburban apartment. If the driver was ordered to place the sign on the car, Pizza Hut could be held liable by a court for his death in some part. This could be very expensive for stockholders.
The company has ripped off most of the employee benefit package from their employees, replacing Aetna health insurance with a sham insurance ripoff. They also discontinued a $50,000 group life insurance policy that employees could obtain. Further, they gutted the dental insurance program. The result is that the employees there are really demoralized.
To add insult to injury, Pizza Hut cut driver mileage reimbursement from $1.00 per delivery every day to 75 cents on Friday and Saturday, and 60 cents the other days.
The company has continued to violate federal labor law by refusing to pay the drivers for their breaks that they earn. If they clock out and go on a break, the time is deducted from their paychecks. I have proof of this, as well as the above allegations. If a driver clocks out, he is sent home.
Pizza Hut does not advise any employees of chances for advancement. No notices of management vacancies have ever been posted, only a statement that management opportunities exist. The company has even hired shift managers that are related to each other, thus engaging in nepotism.
Since being acquired by Tricon, Pizza Hut seems to have changed from a profit-center approach to a cover your ass approach on the part of management.
This might be the reason that Pizza Hut rankings by different restaurant associations have been precipitously falling over the last several years.
While Pizza Hut has the best pizzas, they constantly fail to properly train their cooks. Just order five pizzas and compare them to the pizzas that are pictured in the store's p.O.P. Material or in television ads.
Is Tricon trying to milk the cash cow dry?
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