The Domino’s Pizza Tracker Theory of Everything
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What is the Domino’s Pizza Tracker Theory of Everything and why does it matter?
This is Ira Glass. On This American Life, we tell stories about when things change. Like for this guy, David, whose entire life took a sharp, unexpected, and very unpleasant turn. And it did take me a while to realize it's basically because the monkey pressed the button. That's right. Because the monkey pressed the button. Surprising stories every week, wherever you get your podcasts.
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I think we all do. But recently I heard a theory about how our relationship with waiting has been totally transformed in the last 20 years. It was a story about how an IT department of a pizza restaurant completely changed how we wait and how we feel when we wait. I heard it from none other than Alex Mayossi. Take it away, Alex.
Okay. For all intents and purposes, the story starts when David Haubenstricker got a job at Domino's in IT. And at the time, the company was in a kind of crisis. See, for a long time, Domino's was known for one thing.
They were known for their fast delivery. It was like, if you wanted your pizza fast, you ordered it from Domino's. If
you
wanted good pizza. If you wanted good pizza,
there were other places you would go. They were so into their speedy delivery thing that for many years, they even guaranteed it.
If they didn't get the pizza to your door in 30 minutes, you'd get it free.
But the guarantee led to problems. It pushed delivery drivers to be reckless. People died. There were lawsuits and eventually Domino's had to give up on the guarantee.
And all the industry pundits said, Domino's is now dead. Wow. They were basically saying, without the guarantee, who's going to order Domino's pizza?
Right. You know? Yeah, David says losing the guarantee was bad. They were ceding market share to the likes of Papa John's and Pizza Hut. And David had this theory of the 30-minute guarantee. Which is that it wasn't just popular because it got people their pizzas fast. It was popular for a slightly squishier reason. It had given people a sense of
control. This idea was backed up by evidence. Around this time in the early 2000s, Domino's had actually commissioned a study that mapped the way people felt when they ordered a pizza. And what they learned was it was a psychological rollercoaster.
Yeah, you're desperately hungry. And so you're like, I want pizza. I want pizza. And so you go and you place your order. And it's like, oh, yes, I've got pizza coming. And you're excited. I've done it. I've
ordered pizza. This was the top of the roller coaster. And things really went downhill after that.
It's completely out of your control
at this
point. You're like, where is it? Where is it? I'm hungry. Where is it? Especially with kids, you know, where is it, mom? Where is it, mom? Where is it, mom? You know, it's coming. It's coming. You have no idea where it is. Have they lost my
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the Domino’s Pizza Tracker Theory of Everything and why does it matter?
0:00–10:16
2
How did Domino’s 30‑minute guarantee create a crisis that led to the tracker idea?
10:16–17:54
3
What was the internal process that turned a simple status screen into the Pizza Tracker?
17:54–24:17
4
Why did Domino’s choose the Super Bowl as the launch moment for the tracker?
24:17–31:05
5
How did the hosts test the tracker’s accuracy with a real pizza order?
31:05–35:45