Domino’s wants its customers to have snow-free streets this winter.
The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based pizza chain on Monday announced its “Plowing for Pizza” effort, in which it will give out $500,000 in grants to help cities improve their snow plowing. The company will give out $25,000 each to 20 cities.
But, notably, the company is highlighting the benefits not for delivery drivers who make up much of its business, but for the carryout customers.
The grants are “in the name of ensuring that hot pizzas are accessible for carryout customers this winter,” the company said in its press release.
“Nothing should stand in the way of getting a delicious pizza, including snowy, cold weather,” Joe Jordan, Domino’s president of U.S. and global services, said in a statement.
Customers can visit a website, plowingforpizza.com, to submit the zip code of their hometown for a grant. The company is accepting nominations from Dec. 4 through Jan. 21, with one submission per email address.
Domino’s will name selected towns on a rolling basis throughout the program to ensure grants are awarded during the winter season. Towns will be announced as soon as mid-January.
Domino’s has already worked with three municipalities this winter season: Erie, Penn., Marquette, Mich., and Manhattan, Mont.
Communities awarded the grants will not only get funds to pay for clearing snow, they’ll receive hats, scarves, snow measuring sticks, signs, vehicle magnets and other items, including $200 in Domino’s gift cards for plow drivers.
Domino’s has more aggressively pushed its carryout business over the past two years as its delivery sales have been weak. The company changed its loyalty program in part to reward more of its carryout customers, who tend to spend less.
Carryout same-store sales are up nearly 22% over 2019, while delivery same-store sales are down nearly 10% over the same time period. The company said it would “continue to lean in on both the marketing and the operations piece” of carryout, CEO Russell Weiner said in October.
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