Neal Freiman

OK, my dog of the week is Papa John's.

Things are not going well for the pizza father.

Facing slowing business, the chain said it's going to be closing hundreds of stores, cutting back on menu items, and laying off about 7% of its corporate staff.

Changes are certainly justified because last quarter profits fell 42% year over year and revenue dropped 6.1%.

Papa John's said it's going to close down 300 stores by the end of the year, most of which were not profitable and generated measly sales.

It's not the only pizza company going through it right now because the U.S.

is in a pizza depression, a pizza depressh.

As a category, pizza has gone from second place on the restaurant packing order in the 90s to sixth now.

There's been virtually no growth in U.S.

fast food pizza sales in the last two years, and as a result, there's going to be fewer of them.

Earlier this month, Pizza Hut said it would close about 250 underperforming U.S.

locations, while its owner Yum is exploring a sale.

And rumor is Papa John's is shopping itself around as well.

The stock fell nearly 9% yesterday, extending a years-long slide to the bottom.

Since peak COVID pizza delivery in 2021, Papa John's stock is down 75%.

Have they tried putting pineapple on it?

Some of the mistakes at Papa John's were pretty shocking.

This is crazy to me.

Different locations, different franchisees were cooking pizzas at different temperatures.

I thought this thing was completely standardized.