Post #1

I went to Domino's Pizza tonight with my 2 sons (ages 11 and 13).  The 13 yr old had a 5PM baseball game (in the BITTER cold!), so a quick run to Domino's was perfect for a fast and easy dinner (especially considering it was 7:30PM and both boys still had homework to do).  We went to the Palatine, IL store.  It is on a very busy street, but is easy to locate with the bright Domino's sign.  The store appeared to be very clean, and I liked that I could see everything from the front counter to the food prep area, ovens, refrigerators, and even clear to the back of the store.  On the way there, all I could really focus on was thawing out from the baseball game, and on the way home, I just kept thinking about getting the boys fed, and getting homework done so they could get to bed. 

A few things I noticed while at Domino's:

• the man who took my order (not sure if he was the manager) was very pleasant with both walk-in customers and phone customers while I was there.  He told every customer approximately how many more minutes they would be waiting (which is REALLY nice when you are in a time crunch and I felt like he appreciated people's time).  He even offered 1 walk-in customer a 'carry out special' price for his order even though he wasn't asking for or expecting a reduced price.
• It smelled great in there and the photos/menus on the wall were very yummy looking!
• The employees were really hustling and the store was pretty busy, but they still appeared to be enjoying what they were doing.  I have been to other restaurants where the employees look miserable and act like they are doing you a favor by waiting on you. The employees were also very courteous and even guys coming in from a delivery would ask waiting customers if they had been helped, etc.
• While the menus on the wall and counter were nice looking, I found them difficult to read thru quickly and wound up using the menu flyer to figure out my order.  For example, I didn't see where the different crust types were explained on any displays, only in the flyer.
• I liked the order process flow.  It just seemed like a very well-oiled machine from man taking order, order printing on screen for pizza maker, box is labeled and put on rack for guy to put pizza in when it comes out of oven, etc.
• The pizza box sizes were displayed on the wall and clearly marked 'small, medium, large, xlarge' which is helpful for choosing the size you want.

I ordered 2 large thin crust pizzas, 1 cheese, 1 pepperoni.  I was really in a hurry and felt like these would take the least amount of time.  We brought them back home to eat (my sons and I, hubby was at a business dinner).  They both made it home safely and were very good.  I would probably order the hand-tossed next time since this was just a little to thin, but good!  I noticed the verbage on the box about why it is shaped the way it is and I think that's a neat touch.  Obviously, Domino's pays to have that printed on there, and it's important to them to tell their customer why they do what they do. Plus, sometimes it's fun just to know those little tidbits of information.