Dominos Experience

I went to Dominos on a Sunday afternoon at 4:30pm, right after my daughter's ballet class and my son's gymnastic class.  The first thing my daughter noticed was why we didn't have the pizza delivered, which is what we normally do with Dominos.  The first thing I noticed with this and all other Dominos is the delivery car with the Dominos sign on top of the car.  They seem to always find parking in front of the store, no matter if it's in a strip mall or if it's a stand-alone store on a busy street.  They must have some kind of positive parking karma. If only I should be so lucky.

The store was small and no frills. It was kept very clean.   There were two chairs for waiting customers.

I can see it getting pretty crowded during the prime lunch or dinner hour.  There was one other customer in the store, but he left and I had the opportunity to take this exciting picture of two empty chairs.

This is the second most convenient Domino's location to my house.  It is five minutes away by car. I've ordered from this Dominos before.  The one I normally go to is closed for 3 weeks for remodeling.  This Dominos is not out of the way as it is located in the same strip mall as the Safeway grocery store I go to every week, so I did some shopping as well before I ordered my pizza.  I do not know any of the workers there as I always order for delivery when ordering with Dominos.  There were four workers there at the time and they all said hi to me.  The guy who took my order said my pizza would be ready in ten minutes.  It came out eight minutes later in a piping hot box.  I almost dropped it!!  The box is never that hot when ordering for delivery.  I'll remember that next time I order in store.

All the employees were having a conversation about the NCAA basketball finals tomorrow night and how busy they would get before the game starts at 6:00 PDT.  They all waved at me as well when I joined on the conversation.  However, they did not want their pictures to be taken for my research. 

As for the store,I liked the layout.  The pizza menu was right in front of me at eye level and easy to read.  I didn't have to squint at a menu board that is far away from me.  My kids enjoyed that aspect too.  They thought it was a touch screen menu and that if you press the kind of pizza you want, the order would go through  to the employees making the pizza.  I told them Dominos wasn't that high tech.

I also liked how they separated the pizza menu from their chicken offerings.  It makes for a less cluttered menu and I didn't get confused and stand there looking lost (which has happened with other fast food chains I've been in.) I also thought the dipping sauces (the color coded sticker located to the right of the menu) was a nice touch.  Again, it makes for a clearer, easy to order from menu.

The only thing missing on the main menu was the chocolate lava cake.  I found that interesting.  They had it on an in store poster and the employee I asked said they do offer it.  I wondered why it wasn't to be found anywhere on the pricing menu.

I also saw neatly lined maps in the back of the store and a very clean working area for pizza making.  Small, Medium and Large boxes were neatly lined up.  I wanted to go in and take some pictures, but store policy prohibits customers from going past a certain part of the store.  What this tells me is the store takes cleanliness and emphasis on detail very seriously.  It makes for a pleasant looking store, one that you would definitely go back to.

I also like the tidbits on the side of the box.  One of my first questions when I first ordered Dominos was why the box is oddly shaped.  It is pretty well explained here.

And there was also this info on the other side of the box:

I like reading this kind of random info.

This particular order of a medium cheese pizza was piping hot and delicious.  It was for my daughter, son and myself.  Yummy!  It's not what I would normally order for myself, but it is my kids favorite type of pizza.  I got outnumbered this time.  We took it home and we finished it off in ten minutes.

The only question I've always had about Dominos is the was they cut their pizza.  They cut it in squares instead of triangles.  I always find myself finishing a small Dominos pizza by myself.  I never finish a small pizza that is cut normally in triangular shapes.  Is it perception?  I don't know.

Also, this location did not have any napkins, cheese, peppers and utensils for you to take.  You have to ask for it.  I left the store and had to go back in to get these items.  I felt there was plenty of room on the counter to put that stuff on for customers to take.

Overall, I had a very pleasant experience ordering from this Dominos and would go back for more.
As I've mentioned before, the pizza was very hot.  It was blistering through the box.  The first thing I noticed (with both the delivery and carry out option) is the coupon on top of the box.  I love that incentive.  I'm always looking for ways to save money and the Domino's coupons are one of the better ones.  It will definately keep me coming back for more.