Video by Cooper Slough
By James Bell
Hays Post
It’s a staple of college life, and in a college town like Hays, pizza delivery has a hard time not being popular. Now that popularity is being reflected in a major upgrade for Domino’s, 2505 Vine St., as they transition tonight, Feb. 8, from their former location at 501 Vine St.
Not only will the location be more convenient, it will bring some changes to the restaurant that are not typically associated with the 56-year-old pizza franchise.
“The new store will feature a 4,000 square foot pizza theater design which allows flexibility for a number of elements otherwise unheard of when it comes to the ‘traditional’ Domino’s store. Highlights include a comfortable lobby, open-area viewing of the food preparation process and the ability to track carryout orders electronically on a lobby screen,” according to a press release for the opening of the new location.
The new location will also feature big screen TVs, mobile charging stations and free Wi-Fi.
“We are so excited to offer our customers an even better, more interactive experience,” said Jeff Maddox, owner of the Hays franchise. “Now customers can actually watch and track their pizza being made, each step of the way.”
Maddox currently owns five locations throughout Kansas and has a long history with the company, working with Domino’s Pizza since 1987.
Daniel Brown, longtime Hays resident, currently serves as general manager in the Hays location after working through the ranks the last few years. He has visited the new site frequently during the construction and is excited to get moved into the new store and offer expanded services that will be provided in the new space, including full-service dining.
“We’re gonna have a little bit of service at first and then play it by ear,” Brown said. “The first few weeks…we’ll actually have people come to the table, take their order, just like a sit-down restaurant.”
If that feature proves favorable to diners, it may become permanent in the location.
While the new location will be ready for food service, the store plans to go through a soft-opening, allowing staff to learn the flow of the new location.
“We’re just going to quietly move,” Brown said. A grand opening is planned for around the first of March.
“We’ll actually open (the old) store until 10 p.m., then we will shut it down and everything, the food and (operational equipment) will be moved that night. Tuesday morning at 10 a.m., this (new) store will open.”
The move should make the location more prominent in town, and Brown is hopeful residents that have traditionally chosen other pizza options in Hays, will give Domino’s a chance to show how much things have changed.
“Even in that location I get a lot of people saying I don’t eat there, because of where it is at,” he said.
Locally, the move is a big change and fits with the overall Domino’s Pizza company’s process of reinventing itself in the last few years.
Domino’s Pizza launched a massive overhaul of the business in late 2009, known as the “Oh Yes We Did” campaign, which reworked the entire system. Since then the company has almost doubled its net income and stock prices in the company have soared from trading under $3 before the launch to trading around $110 today.
Since the ownership change a few years ago of the Hays location, and the re-launch of the brand, Brown said sales have been trending up and the new location is likely to help bring even more traffic to the restaurant.