Emphasis on the "no's"... Shares of Michigan-based Domino's (mozzarella is stretchier in the Midwest) fell 9% on word that sales growth slowed to just 3% for restaurants in the US (it was even worse internationally). Domino's tech-savviness helped it get pizza to people faster and shot the stock up over 3,300% in just 10 years. But now new technology is attacking it.
"Aggressive activity from 3rd-party delivery aggregators"... The Domino's CEO gave DoorDash, Postmates, Uber Eats, and GrubHub the Voldemort treatment — He dropped "3rd-party aggregators" 19 times in the earnings call with analysts yesterday. Instead of even mentioning the Big Four food delivery apps, he bemoaned the promotions they're all giving away to entice orders.
- The Big Four have democratized access to delivery from McDonald's to Chipotle to Sweetgreen to Shake Shack to a bodega.
- Domino's is trying to be more like the Silicon Valley darlings — it just added "track my pizza" with GPS.
Domino's isn't a pizza company — it's a delivery company... And the delivery competition is on its A-game. In the past, we were typically limited to pizza or Chinese when it came to staying in and ordering delivery. Now, the Big Four delivery apps have deconstructed that, and Domino's faces delivery competition from any place with a stove and plastic to-go containers.