Little Caesars recently changed the way they do business and are likely ahead of the curve in doing so.

This weekend I tried to order pizza for my kids, who always request Little Caesars. It's their favorite. I probably shouldn't even waste my time asking them where they want pizza from, because the answer is always the same. This particular time they wanted a Deep Deep Dish Pizza and one with a thin-crust. I couldn't leave the house, so delivery was a must and there is a location right by me who usually gets the pizza there pretty quickly.

I immediately noticed a difference when I called the local store, as it went directly to an automated line instead of someone working at the location I called. The recording prompted me to press 1 for delivery, and that's what I did. I was then transferred to a live person who was ready to take my order. Based on his heavy accent and general awkwardness on the phone, I assumed I was speaking with someone who was not in the United States, but I can't 100% confirm that.

The order, though a little bit confusing for both of us at first, ended up not taking very long. I ordered the two pizzas and then gave them my card number. Before he put the charges through, he told me that the total was $40 and some change. I immediately asked him to repeat the total, then asked him if he was saying "$14" or "$40." Dumbfounded, I told him there was a mistake, and asked him to re-enter the order. He did and it was still $40.

At this point, I was pretty confused. This had gone from being a pretty easy and affordable dinner option to not being that pretty quickly. I knew this was not a $40 order, and I confirmed as much later by entering my order online. This is what I got:

Tree Riddle, TSM Flint
Tree Riddle, TSM Flint
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I told the gentleman on the phone I usually place my order with someone in the store, and asked him how I could do that. He told me to press 2 when calling the number, so I did. Once I had the in-store clerk on the line, I explained the situation and she told me that Genesee County locations no longer handle their own delivery, and it is now handled by a third-party service.

I assume that Little Caesars has employed DoorDash to handle their delivery, as I have recently seen them in the location near me. I remember thinking, "why would someone pay extra to have Doordash deliver pizza? Don't those idiots know Little C's handles delivery in-house?" Apparently, I was the idiot.

Little Caesars is likely ahead of the competition on this move. Food delivery services like these are becoming more commonplace every day, and I suspect it is much more cost-effective to let them handle deliveries than it is to employ a team of delivery drivers. It makes a ton of sense on paper and I wouldn't be surprised to see more pizza places take this approach in the near future.

Little Caesars has recently put a lot of emphasis on their new pizza portal system, which does streamline the ordering and pickup of your pizza quite nicely. You can now order, pay, and pick-up your pizza without even speaking to a person. I think that's the option I'll be going with moving forward.

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