Chrissy Teigen was among the thousands of Twitter users shattered by the news that Pizza Hut is closing down 500 of its dine-in restaurants to focus on the growing carryout and delivery business. While fans will still be able to get their favorite Pizza Hut pizzas and snacks, there will be no more Pizza Hut pizza parties.
“F– this. I love them because I like to see my toppings on top of the cheese. long live the hut. but also let’s work on your sauces,” Teigen tweeted Wednesday after the news broke.
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“We never support s– til it’s gone and quite frankly I’m TIRED OF IT,” she added in another tweet.
we never support shit til it’s gone and quite frankly I’m TIRED OF IT
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) August 8, 2019
The people behind the Pizza Hut Twitter page quickly responded to Teigen to assure her that they are not going anywhere.
“Love you too! We’re not going anywhere. When’s pizza night?” the chain wrote, adding pizza and heart emojis.
“I love their sauce though,” one person wrote to Teigen.
“I guess I mean dips!” she replied.
“Oh okay I can let this one slide then,” the person wrote back.
Several other Twitter fans hijacked Teigen’s tweet to share their love for Pizza Hut as well.
This is the kind of bipartisan message that’ll heal this country.
— Andrew Moss (@andrew4duval) August 8, 2019
It was a treat. My aunt would take us and we’d act fancy by eating the pizza with a knife and folk 😂 pic.twitter.com/pz6XcFk9fb
— Queer RN. AKA Jeff Sandwich Guy (@znerdforever) August 8, 2019
Back on Wednesday, Pizza Hut’s parent company, Yum! Brands — the same company that owns KFC and Taco Bell – announced it will be closing underperforming dine-in restaurants within the next year. The number of Pizza Hut locations could drop to around 7,000 because of the move.
“Pizza Hut continues to develop tailored action plans for our largest dine-in markets, while at the same time transforming the estate for a more compelling off-premise focused asset strategy,” Yum! Brands CEO Greg Creed said during an earnings call on Aug. 1, reports Today.
Yum! COO David Gibbs told USA Today the decision will “strengthen” the Pizza Hut business in the U.S. for “a faster long-term growth.”
Pizza Hut will now focus even more of its energy on directly competing with Domino’s and Papa John’s, two national chains that also focus more on carryout and delivery than dine-in customers.
“It’s hard to estimate how soon the timing of when a store will close and then when the replaced unit will open,” Gibbs said. “There will be gaps on some of those, but certainly, our goal is to try to minimize those gaps.”
The decision to leave behind the dine-in experience comes as many sit-down restaurant chains continue to struggle against cheap fast food chains and fast-casual restaurants that offer healthier options.
Pizza Hut has more than 18,000 restaurants worldwide. Same store sales also climbed 2 percent, according to its most recent earnings report.
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