Pizza Facts
In America today, pizza has been taken from its original venue in one-of-a-kind, mom and pop pizzerias to challenging and taming the fast food market. Many fast food pizza chains, too numerous to name, have become staples of today’s most popular stop-and-go joints. Pizza Hut, founded in 1958 by the Carney brothers has become one of the most popular of fast food pizza chains. It is the largest purveyor of pizza in the world. Pizza Hut has 12,583 total restaurants and combination delivery/takeout units in not only the United States, but 90 other countries as well. Of these over 12,000 restaurants, over 6,000 are company-owned. Pizza Hut has previously generated approximately 7.7 billion dollars annually. As for the world leader in delivery, Domino’s takes that category. They have 5,500 stores in 46 international markets. Domino’s has generated sales of 2.8 billion dollars annually. Papa John’s, another large franchise, is considered the fastest growing franchises in the country.
There are approximately 31,386 pizza franchise units in the United States. Of these, roughly 80% (24,381) offer delivery, 91% offer take-out, and 51% offer an option for dine-in service.
Different pizzas have different crusts. America’s favorite crust is regular thin crust. Regular thin crust is preferred by 61% of the population. Thick crust and deep dish crusts tied in the poll at 14% of the population. This leaves 11% for those who like extra thin crust.
Popularity of Pizza
While pizza is eaten like crazy in the U.S., there are certain times of year that pizzas literally fly out of the ovens of restaurants everywhere. Three of the top 10 weeks of pizza consumption numbers occur in January, and more pizza is consumed during Super Bowl week than any other week of the year. During recent years, the pizza has outpaced the growth rate of all other food service items averaging 11% growth per year. This makes pizza the Number 2 food item in food service after burgers. Overall, pizza is the 2nd most popular take out food, after chicken in the U.S. among the over-50 market.
In conclusion, these pizza facts show that pizza, even though it was brought from Italy and was obscure in the early 1900’s, it has clearly become a popular American favorite these days.