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I am a big fan of pizzas. Especially pepperoni pizzas. The bigger, the better. With lots of cheese.
But in Bangalore, I don't get any pizza anymore.
Some time last year, the big pizza companies (Dominos and Pizza Hut) decided that they would no longer deliver outside a 4 km radius from outlets.
This ruled out both the areas from where I have been ordering Pizzas for years (running up impressive totals every month).
The only way I can get a decent pizza now is to go to their outlets (which are *just* outside the 4km radius, on Cunningham road), and pick up pizzas from there. By the time In get them home, they are cold and shaken up.
When they did this last year, Dominos promised that they would be opening up outlets in our areas. A year down the line, they have not only failed to do so, they seem to have shelved all plans as well.
Business must be bad for them.
No wonder, considering the fact that by adopting such ridiculous policies, they have essentially cut themselves off from a huge part of their market.
Their excuses ("bad roads, sir", "difficult to reach", "cannot maintain service quality") are meaningless: we have never received cold pizzas when we ordered in, and they have always been on time - even when it was pouring cats and dogs, Mekhri Underpass was still a completely dug up Mekhri Circle, and no landmarks existed to reach our place (today, we have a well known cinema right ourside our front door).
What we are left with are the smaller outfits, who have yet to learn how to make a pizza.
Case in point:
US Pizza, from whom I ordered the other day in sheer desperation (because of my eye problems, I cannot drive, so pickup is out of the question), had earlier stuck a pamphlet into our postbox, claiming that they take credit cards. I hadn't gone to an ATM for a while, so cash reserves at home were fairly low. But since they had advertised credit cards, that was no problem.
Yeah, right. Apparently that was a gimmick to get you to call. They didn't take credit cards.
We ordered anyway, and U.S.Pizza delivered to me what is a potential candidate for the worst pizza I have ever eaten - charred bottom, flat top, bitter cheese and pepperoni that was tasteless, dry and yuck.
Never again. Ever. Period.
Pizza Corner isn't much better. They have the greasiest pizzas in town, outrageously priced, small, fairly tasteless and they have perpetual delivery problems - you order one thing, you get something completely different.
They try to make good with extras - which are outrageously priced, small, fairly tasteless and have similar delivery problems. When I want pizza, I want a big pizza at a fair price, not a small pizza with badly done banana pies - priced to the moon.
Dominos and Pizza Hut make great pizzas, but given their apparent market savvy (zero) and ability to reach their customers/market (less than zero - the customers/markets are expected to come to them), there is little chance that they will expand in this market.
Bangalore is a growing city, rapidly growing. Lots of money floating around, and IT professionals have a genetic pre-disposition to ordering in pizza.
Not catering to areas where the paying janata lives is insane.
Dominos, Pizza Hut, can you hear me? Open up outlets in the north of Bangalore, or get real and drop your weird 4 KM delivery limits!
I want pizza!
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