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Domino's Pizza unveils U.S. infrastructure project filling potholes
- bobthepanda 8y agoHorrifying that the state of public works in America has come to this.
- fein 8y agoYour comment is proof that Domino's marketing team is pretty good. Hell, even the existence of this post on HN is basically some confirmation that hail corporate bullshit slips past this crowd. Don't buy the PR wank folks, this is just an ad masquerading as some noble effort.
- pavel_lishin 8y agoWhat are you on about? The person you're responding to isn't running out to get a Domino's tattoo; they're pointing out that there are places in America that are cash-strapped enough that they're willing to accept corporate sponsorship to provide basic government services.
- fein 8y agoOP's comment is indicative of the exact demographic that is being targeted with this ad. Not only does the comment depict a complete lack of understanding of infrastructure in the US and the upkeep challenges, but it helps to magnify Domino's marketing by providing an effectively useless contribution to the discussion.
- tzakrajs 8y agoNo, they are fear mongering ("horrifying") because one is able to find cities that will accept handouts. Never mind the fact that these cities have no reputation to lose for accepting handouts. What is horrifying about this?
- SOLAR_FIELDS 8y agoMaybe not cash-strapped. In my experience (I worked for local government for several years), road funding is always at the bottom of the political campaign list because it's one of those problems that is very easy to just kick down the road (no pun intended). In my jurisdiction, we wasted hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars repaving the roads every 3 years or so with the cheap stuff instead of tearing up the road entirely and rebuilding it properly to last 20 years for only double the price of the 3 year repavement. So I see this from the perspective of allowing lazy politics to continue in these towns.
- 8u23u0893290u 8y agoPerhaps they felt the OP was being earnest, and disabusing any notion that this is "real" when it's plainly a PR stunt America hasn't been "reduced to this" because it's not actually happening, except as a gag
- ribs 8y agoThe roads were shitty when I was a kid and they’re shitty now. No big apparent change to me.
- untog 8y agoAnecdotes are not data
- tbirrell 8y agoYou say this like they are trying to trick me out of my money. If something like this boosted the price of pizza significantly, then perhaps I might care, but it's likely that this came from their marketing budget, and if I have a choice between Domino's and an equivalent chain, I'll probably get Domino's because it will encourage them to put more money into their marketing budget, and thus into things that benefit me as well. Plus, if other business see this as being successful for Domino's it will encourage them to invest in similar projects.
- fein 8y agoWhy would you be buying chain pizza instead of putting money into your local mom n pop pizza shops? The best thing you can do to fix your infrastructure is invest in your own community.
- tbirrell 8y agoBecause its still cheaper and easier to get a pizza from Domino's at 3am than it is from a mom n pop.
- nicoburns 8y agoInteresting, becauee here in the UK, pretty much every pizza place is cheaper than dominoes. The only advantage they have is they tend to be open more often.
- jonknee 8y agoIt's absurdly cheap in the US. Looking at their homepage a carryout large 3 topping pizza for $7.99 (about 6 pounds).
- cirgue 8y agoI don't whose ire you've drawn, but you're right. This is absolutely PR wank (albiet cheeky and well-executed). It's not like Dominos has a pile of cash big enough to make a serious dent in municipal infrastructure, but they do have a big enough pile of cash to make it to the front page of HN with a clever stunt.
- gascan 8y agoMy question is what's the core goal. Is the primary objective sales? Or is the primary objective shaming cities into actually funding their road maintenance budgets.
- fein 8y agoThe objective is sales. This is email address harvesting for marketing pushes. It's also corporate PR.
- brosirmandude 8y ago>shaming cities into actually funding their road maintenance budgets This would be what I tell myself is a noble goal while working on this project. >Is the primary objective sales? Yes, but indirectly. Primary goal here is likely brand awareness and keeping the brand in the public consciousness for awhile. They want people who notice that that one nasty pothole on their way to work is fixed thinking "Huh, I wonder if Domino's paid for that to be fixed."
- peatmoss 8y ago> shaming cities into actually funding their road maintenance budgets. This makes it sound as if there aren’t hard choices to be made and that budgets aren’t tight. Would you rather have smooth roads, clean water, or low taxes? Road maintenance is expensive, and tends to get deferred because of lack of funds or more important priorities. This means that road maintenance gets even more expensive. People then like to criticize the city for not fixing things when it would have been cheaper. We like the narrative that government is wasteful and stupid and has all the money it needs to maintain everything in the city. Sometimes it is lazy and stupid, but mostly (especially at the city level) it is not. When there isn’t money to do work, the government doesn’t do work—even if there’s work to do. Until we allow enslavement of government workers, this will continue.
- drivingmenuts 8y ago> Your comment is proof that Domino's marketing team is pretty good. No, not really - it's more an indicator of how a lot of people in the US (myself included) have no idea how our tax dollars are spent, if they are spent wisely and if we're even paying the right amount in the first place. Its our own damn fault, really. We let government slide on a lot of this stuff because we can't be arsed to demand accountability. If we do, then the first loudmouthed activist, polemicist or even vaguely interesting squirrel that wanders by captures our attention instead. Sometimes even the vicissitudes of daily life are too much of a distraction. I don't know that I'd consider this ad wankery or noble effort - at least someone is trying something. However, I'll deduct points for it being advertising. That stuff can burn in Hell.
- Thriptic 8y agoI don't think anyone believes the hype here. The parent was simply pointing out that it's pathetic that this marketing vector for Domino's is actually viable and value adding to some extent, and I agree with them.
- bobthepanda 8y agoIt's not even noble. The corporatist, starve-the-beast strain of politician has succeeded in their goal. I'm not buying this marketing as good at all. This kind of marketing shouldn't even work, because we should be a first-rate nation that actually maintains the infrastructure.
- cjmcqueen 8y agoSlow clap... Great marketing effort to collect email accounts. I hope some more towns get help too with pothole filling. Very creative.
- padobson 8y agoI like the leadership of Domino's here. As logistics focus more on the home as the final destination, companies like Amazon, FedEx, Uber, or even Postmates are going to have to look at infrastructure conditions as a threat to their business. Rather than lobbying to increase gas taxes and funnel more cash into various government bureaucracies, Domino's is trying to address the problem directly, by getting the money directly to the local agencies that actually fix the roads. I hope others follow suit.
- ocdtrekkie 8y agoGiven how poorly your packages get handled, given various videos of TVs thrown over fences and the like, I doubt shipping companies have a significantly greater need for good roads: You pack under the assumption it will get jostled significantly. The interest shipping companies would have, therefore, would be the same as literally any company which has fleet vehicles: Damage to the fleet caused by the road conditions.
- atlasunshrugged 8y agoI agree, it's a really smart move and a good pre-emptive tactic for PR purposes because invariably towns are going to be looking for more money for infrastructure development as gas tax revenues decrease with more EVs and fuel efficient vehicles on the road so companies like Domino's that depend on public infrastructure will probably end up paying down the road anyways. Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-02-15/gas-taxes-aren-t-paying-the-bills-for-roads-anymore https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-02-15/gas-taxes...
- gascan 8y agoDirect funding is good- but ultimately the road is a (very expensive) public good, and Domino's can't fund full maintenance all by itself nor does it reap all the benefit. Public funding has always made sense for road repair because (generally) everyone benefits, and roads are expensive, so everyone pays. To be clear- direct action is laudable, and it's a neat project, but big picture, we need many orders of magnitude more money on the problem than Domino's can ever provide.
- ocdtrekkie 8y agoWhile mostly just a PR play, this almost sounds like an experiment in what libertarians I've seen suggest road maintenance should be: That businesses that benefit from roads should be left to improve said roads if its useful to their business.
- ggg9990 8y agoLOL. American towns have to get corporate handouts from a pizza chain to fix their roads, and then have to go on the record with an endorsement to keep the funds rolling in. This is why my daughter will be learning Chinese.
- rmason 8y agoThey'd have much better success finding a way to improve the ride of their delivery vehicles. They could spend their entire 'paving' budget here in Michigan where they're headquartered and it would be barely noticeable.
- mrguyorama 8y agoAIUI, their delivery vehicles are simply privately owned transportation of their employees
- asdsa5325 8y agoNot in most places. They have specially delivery cars that are compact and have a built in pizza heater on the side.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- berbec 8y agoFormer franchisee here - absolutely not true. The vast majority of Domino's are owned by individual franchisees and almost none of them had a corporate car.
- tzakrajs 8y agoAgreed. This is oddly political and dare I say passive-aggressive. Are they trying to cash in on a popular movement for infrastructure?
- dsfyu404ed 8y agoWho says they have to spend it on paving? If they spend the budget trying to convince the product managers at the big three that American consumers want vehicles that float over potholed dirt roads at any speed the result will probably be noticeable. It'll take 20yr for the up-travel and fat sidewalls to filter down to the average delivery driver though.
- 8y ago
- jotto 8y agoReminds me of how Stephenson describes Los Angeles in Snow Crash "Los Angeles is no longer part of the United States, as the federal government of the United States has ceded most of its power and territory to private organizations and entrepreneurs" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash
- iamjaredwalters 8y agoOff topic, I only recently found out about this book and it might be my favorite read in recent memory. Love seeing it mentioned in the wild.
- Jaruzel 8y agoIf you liked Snow Crash, give The Diamond Age a go.
- peatmoss 8y agoI can’t second this enough. Snow Crash and Diamond Age were fun page-turners. I slogged through Cryptonomicon, but beyond that I haven’t been able to finish anything else. I’ve heard good things about Seveneves, but I’m a little hesitant to pick it up given that it’s huge and there are thousands of other books to read.
- samatman 8y agoPick up Anathem before trying Seveneves. Anathem might be his strongest novel, and it's the only one that holds up to Snow Crash and Diamond Age in my estimation. I adore Zodiac as well but am in a decided minority in that regard.
- bstamour 8y ago> I adore Zodiac as well but am in a decided minority in that regard. We're in the same camp, friend. Zodiac was my favourite novel of his.
- keeganjw 8y agoOnly in America should be playing in the background of this article.
- Simulacra 8y agoI live in the richest county in America. We don't need help filling potholes, but a whollleee lot of underprivileged, cash strapped rural and low income communities DO. I say forget nominations. Go forth and fill the holes in the most needy communities ASAP!
- csteubs 8y agoLoudoun?
- OnMyPhone 8y agoI wish more people thought like this. I worked for one of those poorer counties, and money was 100% the issue every department had every single year. The highway dept's budget shrank before it would even get approved by the board. One of the first things the Finance Dept would ask is what roads absolutely cannot wait until next year. If they spent a lot of money to make one road good for 10+ years, then they wouldn't be able to do anything to the roads that were actually a hazard for drivers. So they would only get enough money to band-aide some roads. Now the situation is that it's better to band-aid a road for a year or maybe two than it is to not have any money to do anything to the road. (We have a lot of bad roads, have cold winters usually and deal with farmers / truck drivers that can't read the weight limits on the roads)
- clay_to_n 8y agoI do like this, but wouldn't gyroscopic stabilizers to hold the pizza be cheaper? Apparently they've tried them in the past: https://www.adweek.com/creativity/dominos-wants-roll-out-gyroscopic-pizza-delivery-system-worldwide-158098/ https://www.adweek.com/creativity/dominos-wants-roll-out-gyr...
- reustle 8y agoThey have (had) scooters in Japan with stabilizers on the back do your noodles didn't spill during delivery. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8c/f9/25/8cf9256a7ae56d1186cc0086f4b44749.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8c/f9/25/8cf9256a7ae56d1186cc...
- DonHopkins 8y agoSpeaking of spinning pizzas, I think Dominos needs to work on their pizza ordering user interface. https://medium.com/@donhopkins/the-story-of-sun-microsystems-pizzatool-2a7992b4c797 https://medium.com/@donhopkins/the-story-of-sun-microsystems...
- psergeant 8y agoCute PR move but what an indictment of American local governance
- basementcat 8y agoWhile Domino's shareholders are free to run their company the way they wish, I would prefer that they invest their capital toward developing yummy pizza that is less unhealthy instead of filling potholes and lobbying against proposed rules to post calorie counts, etc. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-03-03/junk-food-s-last-stand-the-pizza-lobby-is-not-backing-down https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-03-03/junk-food...
- jessaustin 8y agoI would have suggested "filling potholes" as a better use for their pizza than "eating"...
- gamblor956 8y agoThis almost certainly came out of their marketing budget. Considering the amount of free press they received, the relatively minuscule cost of fixing 50 potholes was a very efficient use of their marketing spend. On top of that, stuff like that builds brand awareness and brand loyalty, driving repeat customers.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- brianbreslin 8y agoI was hoping this was some new tech they had added to their delivery cars to fill potholes as they drove by. Using them to at least log and identify potholes would be a smart move.
- walterbell 8y agoWhile we’re here, Strong Towns is doing good work and needs your help, https://www.strongtowns.org/mission/ https://www.strongtowns.org/mission/ > The mission of Strong Towns is to support a model of development that allows America's cities, towns and neighborhoods to become financially strong and resilient. For the United States to be a prosperous country, it must have strong cities, towns and neighborhoods. Enduring prosperity for our communities cannot be artificially created from the outside but must be built from within, incrementally over time.
- xkcd-sucks 8y agoAs a reminder, repairing potholes yourself can be very low effort; modern materials obviate the use of hot asphalt. Buy some kind of "Pothole Cold Patch" compound at your local home improvement store and dump it in the hole. In this way you can fix the holes on your local street/commute route without waiting for the city.
- err4nt 8y agoWow TIL. I even looked it up and $13 buys you enough cold-patch to fill in a few holes it looks like. Thanks for sharing, if I'm ever bothered by a pothole I'll just fill it myself now that I know!
- acct1771 8y agoThis attitude is how we shift to more self-sustainability and voluntary governance. Thank you.
- himom 8y agoFirst world problem but south/east-bound El Camino Real from Page Mill until San Antonio Rd has some rough edges. - Pothole so deep, it would swallow a bicycle, skateboard, motorcycle or Ferrari near Military Way, Palo Alto, CA 94306 https://goo.gl/maps/rJjpmYL9Nnk https://goo.gl/maps/rJjpmYL9Nnk Another: Unnamed Road, Palo Alto, CA 94306 https://goo.gl/maps/MQ5sCZ5p6Vz https://goo.gl/maps/MQ5sCZ5p6Vz Worse, there are several left-turn prox sensors permanently false positive such that if you miss the timing, you’ll be stuck waiting for the Godot ghostrider. And in CA, it’s illegal to run a malfunctioning red traffic signal, because cities need fund$ from “guilty, next” traffic kangaroo court.
- User23 8y agoIn other words local government is no longer fit for purpose.
- moltar 8y agoThey’d go bankrupt in Montreal.
- beenBoutIT 8y agoAs much as I like what Domino's is doing here, it irks me that they didn't flush the idea all-the-way out. Domino's could have easily made an app that would allow users to manually fill-in potholes in exchange for piping-hot Domino's Pizza and sides. Imagine chronically unemployed individuals from all walks of life diligently scouring the streets looking for potholes. Documenting, geotagging and filling them in with non-Newtonian fluid repair packs. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2012/04/silly-putty-potholes https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2012/04/silly-putty-potholes