Pizza...In...Space...
They still flip pizza dough the old-fashioned way – high in the air - at Domino’s Pizza in Kasson.
You can still call your order in, or stop by the store at 501 Mantorville Ave. S.
But the Domino’s app – that’s space-age stuff.
Grab your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Android and start clicking off choices: pizza size, crust, toppings, all sorts of ingredients. And don’t forget pasta, sandwiches, sides and a beverage.
Click the button and ... Zing!“It’s always amazing to me when
people come in and have a question,” store owner Marty Gritz said. “If they have a concern, they can just whip out their app. They can find it before we can find it.”
The high-tech offering conforms with Gritz’ motto: “Sell more pizza, have
more fun.”
Objective achieved.
Nearly 60 percent of orders at Domino’s in Kasson come from mobile apps (smart phones and tablets) and the Internet (dominos.com). That adds up to about 550 customers per week.
Gritz, who also owns Domino’s franchises in Rochester, Albert Lea, and Mason City, Iowa, said franchisees around the nation added advertising money to promote a Domino’s app around 2010, “and it’s just been growing like mad, ever since.
“I think they were starting to see declines in TV advertising and knew there were opportunities out there in digital,” he said. “It seems that we were right.”
Growth in “digital pizza” between stores in Rochester and Kasson seems to be spurred by tech-savvy young people – though older folks also use the app, store manager Russell Patschke said.
Gritz said they all seem to appreciate the Domino’s Rewards program.
Order six pizzas through your Domino’s app (for at least $10 per order), get one free medium two-topper.
“And we do lot of redemptions,” he said. “It’s fun to see, and we’re sure seeing a lot more of it.”
Gritz said he expects sales will increase even more in the fall, thanks to a store remodeling (with the addition of a new oven) about six months ago.
And it doesn’t hurt that about 11,600 vehicles travel daily down Mantorville Avenue, while more than 17,000 cruise by on Highway 14, according to loopnet.com, an online commercial real estate marketplace.
Domino’s sits, of course, at the intersection of Highway 14 and Mantorville Avenue.
“It’s a very convenient location,” Patschke said.
Many of those travelers are hungry. They have apps. And they will use them.
“It’s nice to get a timely, accurate order,” Gritz said. “All we have to do is make it and get it out. I’ve been with Domino’s since they had Diet Coke. There’ve been about 100 changes since then. It just keeps getting better.”