ALanHim Posted April 17 Member ID: 30793 Group: ** Registered Users Followers: 1 Topic Count: 14 Topics Per Day: 0.07 Content Count: 321 Content Per Day: 1.65 Reputation: 230 Achievement Points: 2434 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 2 Joined: 10/18/23 Status: Offline Last Seen: 5 hours ago Device: Windows Share Posted April 17 4 hours ago, TBB said: YO - @ALanHim ONE word!!! Underground Definition & Meaning Merriam-Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com › dictionary › under... underground 1 of 3 adverb underground 2 of 3 noun underground underground 3 of 3 adjective Damn English language.... by far the most hypocritical language on earth. OK you pass the Recount. I stand corrected. Let's keep this underground. TBB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALanHim Posted April 17 Member ID: 30793 Group: ** Registered Users Followers: 1 Topic Count: 14 Topics Per Day: 0.07 Content Count: 321 Content Per Day: 1.65 Reputation: 230 Achievement Points: 2434 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 2 Joined: 10/18/23 Status: Offline Last Seen: 5 hours ago Device: Windows Share Posted April 17 On 4/13/2024 at 11:00 AM, TBB said: All clocks in Pulp Fiction are set to 4:20. Some people state that there are two scenes where the clocks are not set to this. Watch the movie to figure out which scenes they were. It's the best two times of the day. @Crack's birthday is on 4-20... and it was my real anniversary so now I celebrate my divorce that day. On 4/13/2024 at 11:00 AM, TBB said: The eye of an ostrich is bigger than its brain. Its eyes are around the size of a billiard ball. One eye is also smaller than the other. Perhaps this is why they tend to run in circles. To better see it's brain of course. 42 minutes ago, Icequeen said: In an average lifetime people eat around 70 assorted insects while sleeping. And mostly spiders. The World Economic Forum wants everyone to eat bugs all the time for the Climate Hoax. Icequeen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALanHim Posted April 17 Member ID: 30793 Group: ** Registered Users Followers: 1 Topic Count: 14 Topics Per Day: 0.07 Content Count: 321 Content Per Day: 1.65 Reputation: 230 Achievement Points: 2434 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 2 Joined: 10/18/23 Status: Offline Last Seen: 5 hours ago Device: Windows Share Posted April 17 On 4/13/2024 at 10:59 AM, TBB said: There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. This includes change in dimes, quarters, and combinations of the two. Can you figure out all 293 combinations? If only the Dollar was worth 293 things. It ain't wroth shit today. BUDMAN and TBB 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icequeen Posted April 18 Member ID: 9264 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 89 Topic Count: 91 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 6097 Content Per Day: 1.52 Reputation: 7999 Achievement Points: 51495 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 54 Joined: 05/13/13 Status: Offline Last Seen: 10 hours ago Birthday: 07/13/1981 Device: Android Author Share Posted April 18 Dogs do have dreams. TBB and ALanHim 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
Icequeen Posted April 18 Member ID: 9264 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 89 Topic Count: 91 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 6097 Content Per Day: 1.52 Reputation: 7999 Achievement Points: 51495 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 54 Joined: 05/13/13 Status: Offline Last Seen: 10 hours ago Birthday: 07/13/1981 Device: Android Author Share Posted April 18 Honey never spoils. Archeologists have found honey in tombs dating as far back as ancient Egypt where honey was still very edible. BUDMAN and TBB 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
TBB Posted April 19 Member ID: 989 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 25 Topic Count: 265 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 18145 Content Per Day: 3.47 Reputation: 20164 Achievement Points: 132974 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 264 Joined: 01/07/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: 14 hours ago Birthday: 01/27/1946 Device: Windows Share Posted April 19 Penguins fly underwater. Rather, they swim so well underwater that it seems as if they are flying. Penguins can swim up to speeds of 25 mph. Icequeen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
TBB Posted April 19 Member ID: 989 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 25 Topic Count: 265 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 18145 Content Per Day: 3.47 Reputation: 20164 Achievement Points: 132974 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 264 Joined: 01/07/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: 14 hours ago Birthday: 01/27/1946 Device: Windows Share Posted April 19 Minnie the Mouse’s first name is not Minnie. It is Minerva. Minnie Mouse is a nickname that was given to the character by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney. Minnie’s actual name is rarely used. Icequeen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
TBB Posted April 19 Member ID: 989 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 25 Topic Count: 265 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 18145 Content Per Day: 3.47 Reputation: 20164 Achievement Points: 132974 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 264 Joined: 01/07/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: 14 hours ago Birthday: 01/27/1946 Device: Windows Share Posted April 19 Rudolph the Reindeer is female. This can be observed through their antlers. Female deer shed their antlers in the spring and grow them back into full size by winter. The male reindeer stops its growth during the winter. Icequeen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
TBB Posted April 19 Member ID: 989 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 25 Topic Count: 265 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 18145 Content Per Day: 3.47 Reputation: 20164 Achievement Points: 132974 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 264 Joined: 01/07/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: 14 hours ago Birthday: 01/27/1946 Device: Windows Share Posted April 19 A jiffy is a proper unit of time. It is exactly 1/100th of a second. This is slower than a Planck which is sextillion times faster. Icequeen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
Icequeen Posted April 21 Member ID: 9264 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 89 Topic Count: 91 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 6097 Content Per Day: 1.52 Reputation: 7999 Achievement Points: 51495 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 54 Joined: 05/13/13 Status: Offline Last Seen: 10 hours ago Birthday: 07/13/1981 Device: Android Author Share Posted April 21 Flamingos are born grey not pink. TBB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
Icequeen Posted April 21 Member ID: 9264 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 89 Topic Count: 91 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 6097 Content Per Day: 1.52 Reputation: 7999 Achievement Points: 51495 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 54 Joined: 05/13/13 Status: Offline Last Seen: 10 hours ago Birthday: 07/13/1981 Device: Android Author Share Posted April 21 A woodpeckers tongue actually wraps all the way around it's brain to protect it when it's doing all that hammering. BUDMAN and TBB 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
TBB Posted April 21 Member ID: 989 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 25 Topic Count: 265 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 18145 Content Per Day: 3.47 Reputation: 20164 Achievement Points: 132974 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 264 Joined: 01/07/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: 14 hours ago Birthday: 01/27/1946 Device: Windows Share Posted April 21 55 minutes ago, Icequeen said: A woodpeckers tongue actually wraps all the way around it's brain to protect it when it's doing all that hammering. Since Mother Nature made us >IDIOTS< we should have the same protection Icequeen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
TBB Posted April 22 Member ID: 989 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 25 Topic Count: 265 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 18145 Content Per Day: 3.47 Reputation: 20164 Achievement Points: 132974 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 264 Joined: 01/07/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: 14 hours ago Birthday: 01/27/1946 Device: Windows Share Posted April 22 April 11, 1954, was recorded as the most boring day in the world. Statistics show that no significant occurrences took place in the world. This was calculated by a computer search program. This program could calculate the number of important events that occur all over the world simultaneously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
TBB Posted April 22 Member ID: 989 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 25 Topic Count: 265 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 18145 Content Per Day: 3.47 Reputation: 20164 Achievement Points: 132974 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 264 Joined: 01/07/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: 14 hours ago Birthday: 01/27/1946 Device: Windows Share Posted April 22 Tiramisu translates to ‘take me to heaven’ in Italian. This implies that this dish is so good that it would take you to heaven. This Italian dessert is well-loved all over the world and has several alternative twists you can create. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
TBB Posted April 22 Member ID: 989 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 25 Topic Count: 265 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 18145 Content Per Day: 3.47 Reputation: 20164 Achievement Points: 132974 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 264 Joined: 01/07/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: 14 hours ago Birthday: 01/27/1946 Device: Windows Share Posted April 22 Buttermilk does not contain any butter. The butter in its name refers to the origins of the drink. Now that’s a confusing random fact you probably didn’t know. BUDMAN 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
TBB Posted April 22 Member ID: 989 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 25 Topic Count: 265 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 18145 Content Per Day: 3.47 Reputation: 20164 Achievement Points: 132974 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 264 Joined: 01/07/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: 14 hours ago Birthday: 01/27/1946 Device: Windows Share Posted April 22 Brunch was invented as a way of curing hangovers. This meal would be enjoyed as a late breakfast that leans more towards fatty foods. This came from the belief that alcohol causes cravings for greasy food to increase. BUDMAN 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
TBB Posted April 22 Member ID: 989 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 25 Topic Count: 265 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 18145 Content Per Day: 3.47 Reputation: 20164 Achievement Points: 132974 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 264 Joined: 01/07/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: 14 hours ago Birthday: 01/27/1946 Device: Windows Share Posted April 22 The continental plates move at the same rate that fingernails grow. Research suggests that in some time in the far future, a supercontinent may form. The continents are continuously moving a few centimeters a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
BUDMAN Posted April 22 Member ID: 800 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 152 Topic Count: 135 Topics Per Day: 0.03 Content Count: 6946 Content Per Day: 1.32 Reputation: 4490 Achievement Points: 58237 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 6 Joined: 11/27/09 Status: Online Last Seen: 3 minutes ago Birthday: 05/29/1957 Device: Windows Share Posted April 22 1 hour ago, TBB said: The continental plates move at the same rate that fingernails grow. Research suggests that in some time in the far future, a supercontinent may form. The continents are continuously moving a few centimeters a year. Icequeen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
TBB Posted April 22 Member ID: 989 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 25 Topic Count: 265 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 18145 Content Per Day: 3.47 Reputation: 20164 Achievement Points: 132974 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 264 Joined: 01/07/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: 14 hours ago Birthday: 01/27/1946 Device: Windows Share Posted April 22 Sailors working for the Royal Navy need special permission to grow their beards. Once this is approved, they are given two weeks to grow a full set before presenting himself to a Master at Arms. This person then decides if the beard looks presentable enough to keep. Icequeen and Bamm 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
TBB Posted April 22 Member ID: 989 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 25 Topic Count: 265 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 18145 Content Per Day: 3.47 Reputation: 20164 Achievement Points: 132974 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 264 Joined: 01/07/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: 14 hours ago Birthday: 01/27/1946 Device: Windows Share Posted April 22 There are fewer stars than there are trees on Earth. According to statistics, there are around 3 trillion trees on the planet and only about 400 billion stars in the Milky Way. Icequeen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
Icequeen Posted April 25 Member ID: 9264 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 89 Topic Count: 91 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 6097 Content Per Day: 1.52 Reputation: 7999 Achievement Points: 51495 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 54 Joined: 05/13/13 Status: Offline Last Seen: 10 hours ago Birthday: 07/13/1981 Device: Android Author Share Posted April 25 The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes bone in the ear. Surprisingly not your penis. ALanHim and TBB 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
KaptCrunch Posted April 25 Member ID: 389 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 45 Topic Count: 296 Topics Per Day: 0.06 Content Count: 4473 Content Per Day: 0.84 Reputation: 3635 Achievement Points: 36539 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 40 Joined: 09/14/09 Status: Offline Last Seen: 3 hours ago Birthday: 01/01/1970 Device: Windows Share Posted April 25 The failure of the Domino’s 30-minute delivery guarantee The failure of the Domino’s 30-minute delivery guarantee A spate of deaths and lawsuits ended the famous pizza marketing ploy. Is delivery any safer now? Dominos delivery car accident In October 1985, a teenage Domino’s driver was handed a pizza for delivery just outside Pittsburgh. It had been 23 minutes since the customer placed the order. He needed to hurry. He accelerated out of the restaurant parking lot and, without yielding, plowed into the car of Frank and Mary Jean Kranack, who suffered injuries. In the moments following the accident, a Domino’s manager allegedly grabbed the pizza from the driver’s car and passed it off to another delivery worker, with a message: There’s still time. “You had to wonder what kind of pressure was being placed on that manager and on the drivers that they felt compelled to put pizzas over someone’s life,” says the Kranacks’ lawyer, Kenneth Behrend, recalling the incident decades later. The pressure stemmed from a now-infamous Domino’s marketing campaign: guaranteed pizza delivery in 30 minutes or less. It was a policy that had helped establish Domino’s as one of America’s leading pizza chains — and, ultimately, nearly destroyed the company’s reputation. Making speed a guarantee In 1960, at the first location of what would become Domino’s, founder Thomas Monaghan, a former Marine and seminary school dropout, hired two unemployed factory workers to deliver pizzas. They drove the store’s Volkswagen Beetle and made 10 cents an hour plus commission. Soon, the typical Domino’s store had more delivery drivers than pizza makers, outfitted gas ovens to work in delivery cars, and made specialized boxes that folded faster than anyone else’s. Its restaurants sold just two sizes of pizza and soft drinks (no pasta or exotic Pizza Hut concoctions) and featured no tables to maintain a minimalist, delivery-centric aesthetic. That focus started to pay off in the 1980s as Americans got hooked on the concept of delivery: Women’s participation in the workforce was booming, creating a greater need for quick family meals. The rise of microwaves and frozen dinners made Americans more accustomed to convenience and averse to going out in public. (One food industry exec described these consumer habits as “cocooning.”) In 1985, Domino’s claimed a delivery customer could expect the staff to cook a pizza in seven minutes and have it arrive at their doorstep, on average, 28 minutes after they placed their phone call. That time wasn’t a ballpark estimate. Monaghan was serious about speed, recommending franchises offer free or discounted pizzas if they didn’t arrive in 30 minutes or less. By at least the mid-1980s, the 30-minute recommendation became a guarantee: Any pizza that took longer than 30 minutes was free. (It was later changed to a $3 discount. The restaurants didn’t live up to the guarantee every time (especially when cheap college students tormented drivers with imprecise directions). But the chain claimed it had a national success rate of 89% in 1984 and 95% in the late ’80s. A franchisee that operated 17 stores in Dayton, Ohio, set the company record by delivering 99% of its pizzas within 30 minutes. Corporate headquarters audited the stores’ performances by enlisting three mystery customers in every market. They’d order pizzas monthly, judge the timing and quality of the pie, and report back to corporate. Monaghan said Domino’s used these tests to evaluate employee compensation, bonuses, and promotions. As he described in his autobiography Pizza Tiger, he considered the 30-minute guarantee to be part of a “defensive mindset.” Instead of spending heavily on marketing, he believed that Domino’s would grow its base by consistently meeting customers’ expectations. He was right: In the 1980s, the Domino’s share of the US pizza industry increased from a small sliver to ~15%, growing from ~300 restaurants to more than 2k. Pizza Hut, pressured by its growing rival, introduced delivery in 1986, igniting the “Pizza Wars.” But Pizza Hut didn’t offer any timing guarantee, and analysts gave Domino’s the advantage. As Monaghan had put it a few years earlier, the chain focused on delivery “as if it was life or death.” Reckless driving, lawsuits, and pressure At a Domino’s restaurant outside Indianapolis, employees kept a tally of drivers who took longer than 30 minutes to deliver a pizza. Every week, the driver with the most late deliveries had to wear a badge that said “King of Lates.” Jesse Colson, a punctual teenage driver, never had to wear it. On a rainy Saturday night in early June 1989, Colson fatally crashed into a utility pole while speeding to deliver a pizza. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt — his girlfriend, a fellow employee, told the Indianapolis Star he may have done that to save a few precious seconds when he got out of the car at the customer’s house. A Domino’s delivery vehicle follows a rival from Pizza Hut in 1989. It wasn’t an uncommon scene in Midwestern and Sunbelt communities, strongholds for chain pizza restaurants. The night before, a Domino’s delivery driver was involved in a nonfatal crash in another Indianapolis suburb. “If anything good could come from my son’s death,” Colson’s mother told the Star, “I hope that Domino’s does away with that 30-minute or less delivery policy.” The chain wasn’t interested. Domino’s emphasized it didn’t ask deliverers to speed or drive recklessly and said the foundation of its delivery guarantee was its efficient cooking process. The company claimed it rejected two-thirds of driver applicants and its franchise manual contained an all-caps line that said: “FAST DELIVERY DOES NOT COME FROM SPEEDING AND RECKLESS DRIVING.” Domino’s confirmed it knew of 20 people who died in crashes involving its drivers in 1988 (the National Safe Workplace Institute would later claim Domino’s delivery drivers had about the same death rate as miners, who had a fatality rate of ~35 per 100k). In the company’s annual report that year, Monaghan described the failure to honor the 30-minute guarantee as “one of the big disappointments of 1987” and called it the restaurant’s biggest priority for the year ahead. But Colson’s death happened around the same time that Kenneth Behrend’s lawsuit for the crash involving Frank and Mary Jean Kranack made national news. Before Domino’s, Behrend’s most high-profile cases involved lawsuits against a prominent lender and a regional branch of the Bell System. But, with a degree from Cornell in hotel and restaurant administration, Behrend had a grasp on how the restaurant industry worked. He started the Delivery Services Negligence Litigation Group and took calls from attorneys across the country to explain how to structure their lawsuits using a negligent corporate policy claim, a tort technique he pioneered that would allow them to tie a car wreck from a franchisee back to the 30-minute corporate policy of Domino’s. “That was the heart and soul of their corporation,” Behrend says. “And their entire mantra, their entire business model, their entire focus of all operations was on 30-minute service.” Attorney Kenneth Behrend helped organize many lawsuits while representing the Kranacks in Pittsburgh. When he complained to the press that Domino’s wasn’t providing any data on its crashes, he’d receive packages filled with company documents in the mail from anonymous employees. He learned the most common crash happened when a driver overshot somebody’s house, put their car in reverse, and slammed into a car behind them. A 1984 company survey revealed that: 17% of Domino’s drivers felt stressed trying to reach their destination in under 30 minutes. 10% admitted to driving recklessly. By 1990, Behrend estimated at least 200 lawsuits had been filed against Domino’s, and pressure mounted from legislators and labor unions. In late 1993, a case for a woman who’d been struck by a Domino’s driver while taking her kid to a bowling alley went to trial. The jury found Domino’s liable for $750k in actual damages and $78m in punitive damages — the same amount the company lost in late fees to customers the prior year. (A settlement was eventually reached.) An announcement from Monaghan came shortly after the trial ended. Domino’s, which did not respond to interview questions from The Hustle, was ending the guarantee. In a prepared statement, he said that the restaurant chain had heard the message “loud and clear.” “No matter what we do in the areas of safety and training for our drivers, some of the public still have a negative perception about us because of the guarantee, so we are eliminating the element that creates that negative perception.” The new dangers of delivery driving Behrend says his Pittsburgh case, which had crawled through the court system, settled after the St. Louis decision. So did other lawsuits. But the Domino’s litigation, according to Behrend, also had an unintended consequence. He says baseline personal insurance policies stopped covering drivers who were using their cars for business purposes. That’s an important distinction today, with the US food delivery market having doubled during the pandemic and gig workers facing uncertainty over coverage. Depending on the app and the specific point in the delivery process, they may not be covered by insurance from the likes of DoorDash or Uber Eats and risk steep costs if they get in an accident — a too-frequent occurrence. Georgetown researcher Katie Wells, who wrote Disrupting D.C.: The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City, authored a report based on interviews with 41 gig delivery drivers in Washington DC, finding that roughly a quarter had been involved in a collision on the job. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the fatality rate of driver/sales workers (a group that includes delivery drivers) was 14.6 per 100k in 2022 — higher than the rate for protective services workers like police officers and firefighters (10.2 per 100k) and miners (11.7 per 100k). Gig drivers don’t face an edict for speed like past Domino’s drivers, but Wells says the requirement to be fast is built into the job, with drivers hurrying to make financial incentives, avoid bad ratings, and ensure the food is warm upon delivery. “Your livelihood depends on you getting somewhere and getting there fast,” she says. That kind of motivation can be dangerous. When Behrend was preparing his Domino’s case, he remembers speaking to behavioral scientists who explained that delivery drivers stressed by time constraints get a form of tunnel vision. They focus on their destination and less on the world around them, leaving themselves and everyone else vulnerable, because they must arrive a little bit faster. The 30-minute guarantee may have ended decades ago. But its legacy lives on. courtesy of Mark DentPublished: April 19, 2024 @ The Hustle for the pictures Icequeen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
KaptCrunch Posted April 25 Member ID: 389 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 45 Topic Count: 296 Topics Per Day: 0.06 Content Count: 4473 Content Per Day: 0.84 Reputation: 3635 Achievement Points: 36539 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 40 Joined: 09/14/09 Status: Offline Last Seen: 3 hours ago Birthday: 01/01/1970 Device: Windows Share Posted April 25 (edited) Fact That SPEED Kills The failure of the Domino’s 30-minute delivery guarantee A spate of deaths and lawsuits ended the famous pizza marketing ploy. Is delivery any safer now? Dominos delivery car accident In October 1985, a teenage Domino’s driver was handed a pizza for delivery just outside Pittsburgh. It had been 23 minutes since the customer placed the order. He needed to hurry. He accelerated out of the restaurant parking lot and, without yielding, plowed into the car of Frank and Mary Jean Kranack, who suffered injuries. In the moments following the accident, a Domino’s manager allegedly grabbed the pizza from the driver’s car and passed it off to another delivery worker, with a message: There’s still time. “You had to wonder what kind of pressure was being placed on that manager and on the drivers that they felt compelled to put pizzas over someone’s life,” says the Kranacks’ lawyer, Kenneth Behrend, recalling the incident decades later. The pressure stemmed from a now-infamous Domino’s marketing campaign: guaranteed pizza delivery in 30 minutes or less. It was a policy that had helped establish Domino’s as one of America’s leading pizza chains — and, ultimately, nearly destroyed the company’s reputation. Making speed a guarantee In 1960, at the first location of what would become Domino’s, founder Thomas Monaghan, a former Marine and seminary school dropout, hired two unemployed factory workers to deliver pizzas. They drove the store’s Volkswagen Beetle and made 10 cents an hour plus commission. Soon, the typical Domino’s store had more delivery drivers than pizza makers, outfitted gas ovens to work in delivery cars, and made specialized boxes that folded faster than anyone else’s. Its restaurants sold just two sizes of pizza and soft drinks (no pasta or exotic Pizza Hut concoctions) and featured no tables to maintain a minimalist, delivery-centric aesthetic. That focus started to pay off in the 1980s as Americans got hooked on the concept of delivery: Women’s participation in the workforce was booming, creating a greater need for quick family meals. The rise of microwaves and frozen dinners made Americans more accustomed to convenience and averse to going out in public. (One food industry exec described these consumer habits as “cocooning.”) In 1985, Domino’s claimed a delivery customer could expect the staff to cook a pizza in seven minutes and have it arrive at their doorstep, on average, 28 minutes after they placed their phone call. That time wasn’t a ballpark estimate. Monaghan was serious about speed, recommending franchises offer free or discounted pizzas if they didn’t arrive in 30 minutes or less. By at least the mid-1980s, the 30-minute recommendation became a guarantee: Any pizza that took longer than 30 minutes was free. (It was later changed to a $3 discount. The restaurants didn’t live up to the guarantee every time (especially when cheap college students tormented drivers with imprecise directions). But the chain claimed it had a national success rate of 89% in 1984 and 95% in the late ’80s. A franchisee that operated 17 stores in Dayton, Ohio, set the company record by delivering 99% of its pizzas within 30 minutes. Corporate headquarters audited the stores’ performances by enlisting three mystery customers in every market. They’d order pizzas monthly, judge the timing and quality of the pie, and report back to corporate. Monaghan said Domino’s used these tests to evaluate employee compensation, bonuses, and promotions. As he described in his autobiography Pizza Tiger, he considered the 30-minute guarantee to be part of a “defensive mindset.” Instead of spending heavily on marketing, he believed that Domino’s would grow its base by consistently meeting customers’ expectations. He was right: In the 1980s, the Domino’s share of the US pizza industry increased from a small sliver to ~15%, growing from ~300 restaurants to more than 2k. Pizza Hut, pressured by its growing rival, introduced delivery in 1986, igniting the “Pizza Wars.” But Pizza Hut didn’t offer any timing guarantee, and analysts gave Domino’s the advantage. As Monaghan had put it a few years earlier, the chain focused on delivery “as if it was life or death.” Reckless driving, lawsuits, and pressure At a Domino’s restaurant outside Indianapolis, employees kept a tally of drivers who took longer than 30 minutes to deliver a pizza. Every week, the driver with the most late deliveries had to wear a badge that said “King of Lates.” Jesse Colson, a punctual teenage driver, never had to wear it. On a rainy Saturday night in early June 1989, Colson fatally crashed into a utility pole while speeding to deliver a pizza. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt — his girlfriend, a fellow employee, told the Indianapolis Star he may have done that to save a few precious seconds when he got out of the car at the customer’s house. A Domino’s delivery vehicle follows a rival from Pizza Hut in 1989. It wasn’t an uncommon scene in Midwestern and Sunbelt communities, strongholds for chain pizza restaurants. The night before, a Domino’s delivery driver was involved in a nonfatal crash in another Indianapolis suburb. “If anything good could come from my son’s death,” Colson’s mother told the Star, “I hope that Domino’s does away with that 30-minute or less delivery policy.” The chain wasn’t interested. Domino’s emphasized it didn’t ask deliverers to speed or drive recklessly and said the foundation of its delivery guarantee was its efficient cooking process. The company claimed it rejected two-thirds of driver applicants and its franchise manual contained an all-caps line that said: “FAST DELIVERY DOES NOT COME FROM SPEEDING AND RECKLESS DRIVING.” Domino’s confirmed it knew of 20 people who died in crashes involving its drivers in 1988 (the National Safe Workplace Institute would later claim Domino’s delivery drivers had about the same death rate as miners, who had a fatality rate of ~35 per 100k). In the company’s annual report that year, Monaghan described the failure to honor the 30-minute guarantee as “one of the big disappointments of 1987” and called it the restaurant’s biggest priority for the year ahead. But Colson’s death happened around the same time that Kenneth Behrend’s lawsuit for the crash involving Frank and Mary Jean Kranack made national news. Before Domino’s, Behrend’s most high-profile cases involved lawsuits against a prominent lender and a regional branch of the Bell System. But, with a degree from Cornell in hotel and restaurant administration, Behrend had a grasp on how the restaurant industry worked. He started the Delivery Services Negligence Litigation Group and took calls from attorneys across the country to explain how to structure their lawsuits using a negligent corporate policy claim, a tort technique he pioneered that would allow them to tie a car wreck from a franchisee back to the 30-minute corporate policy of Domino’s. “That was the heart and soul of their corporation,” Behrend says. “And their entire mantra, their entire business model, their entire focus of all operations was on 30-minute service.” Attorney Kenneth Behrend helped organize many lawsuits while representing the Kranacks in Pittsburgh. When he complained to the press that Domino’s wasn’t providing any data on its crashes, he’d receive packages filled with company documents in the mail from anonymous employees. He learned the most common crash happened when a driver overshot somebody’s house, put their car in reverse, and slammed into a car behind them. A 1984 company survey revealed that: 17% of Domino’s drivers felt stressed trying to reach their destination in under 30 minutes. 10% admitted to driving recklessly. By 1990, Behrend estimated at least 200 lawsuits had been filed against Domino’s, and pressure mounted from legislators and labor unions. In late 1993, a case for a woman who’d been struck by a Domino’s driver while taking her kid to a bowling alley went to trial. The jury found Domino’s liable for $750k in actual damages and $78m in punitive damages — the same amount the company lost in late fees to customers the prior year. (A settlement was eventually reached.) An announcement from Monaghan came shortly after the trial ended. Domino’s, which did not respond to interview questions from The Hustle, was ending the guarantee. In a prepared statement, he said that the restaurant chain had heard the message “loud and clear.” “No matter what we do in the areas of safety and training for our drivers, some of the public still have a negative perception about us because of the guarantee, so we are eliminating the element that creates that negative perception.” The new dangers of delivery driving Behrend says his Pittsburgh case, which had crawled through the court system, settled after the St. Louis decision. So did other lawsuits. But the Domino’s litigation, according to Behrend, also had an unintended consequence. He says baseline personal insurance policies stopped covering drivers who were using their cars for business purposes. That’s an important distinction today, with the US food delivery market having doubled during the pandemic and gig workers facing uncertainty over coverage. Depending on the app and the specific point in the delivery process, they may not be covered by insurance from the likes of DoorDash or Uber Eats and risk steep costs if they get in an accident — a too-frequent occurrence. Georgetown researcher Katie Wells, who wrote Disrupting D.C.: The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City, authored a report based on interviews with 41 gig delivery drivers in Washington DC, finding that roughly a quarter had been involved in a collision on the job. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the fatality rate of driver/sales workers (a group that includes delivery drivers) was 14.6 per 100k in 2022 — higher than the rate for protective services workers like police officers and firefighters (10.2 per 100k) and miners (11.7 per 100k). Gig drivers don’t face an edict for speed like past Domino’s drivers, but Wells says the requirement to be fast is built into the job, with drivers hurrying to make financial incentives, avoid bad ratings, and ensure the food is warm upon delivery. “Your livelihood depends on you getting somewhere and getting there fast,” she says. That kind of motivation can be dangerous. When Behrend was preparing his Domino’s case, he remembers speaking to behavioral scientists who explained that delivery drivers stressed by time constraints get a form of tunnel vision. They focus on their destination and less on the world around them, leaving themselves and everyone else vulnerable, because they must arrive a little bit faster. The 30-minute guarantee may have ended decades ago. But its legacy lives on. courtesy of Mark DentPublished: April 19, 2024 @ The Hustle for the pictures Edited April 25 by KaptCrunch ALanHim and Icequeen 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
KaptCrunch Posted April 25 Member ID: 389 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 45 Topic Count: 296 Topics Per Day: 0.06 Content Count: 4473 Content Per Day: 0.84 Reputation: 3635 Achievement Points: 36539 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 40 Joined: 09/14/09 Status: Offline Last Seen: 3 hours ago Birthday: 01/01/1970 Device: Windows Share Posted April 25 5 hours ago, Icequeen said: The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes bone in the ear. Surprisingly not your penis. sorry to inform you the penis is flesh sack and the blood pressure make it hard like a boner when i see you LoL Fact for fluid is non-compressable and a ballon is compressable Icequeen and ALanHim 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
lTplkey336 Posted April 25 Member ID: 27768 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 10 Topic Count: 4 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 939 Content Per Day: 0.52 Reputation: 1139 Achievement Points: 7771 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 1 Joined: 05/18/19 Status: Offline Last Seen: 25 minutes ago Device: Windows Share Posted April 25 Crunch these are supposed to be little known facts, not war and piece sized novels. I had to get my reading glasses out for the dominos facts as I was starting to get eye strain lol. Was interesting though. Icequeen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Awards
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