Waiter, there's some mixed greens in my pie!
In a classic case of "me too," it seems as if the pizza delivery specialists are taking note of fast food's salad days. After watching Wendy's (NYSE:WEN) and McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) strike it rich by tacking on grilled chicken salads to the menu, Domino's (NYSE:DPZ) is looking to set aside the dough long enough to make some dough with premium salads.
Amazin' Greens -- that's what Domino's is calling the offering that it is introducing into a few test markets -- may seem odd at first. It's not as if you can really picture your local Domino's tossing pies and leafy greens at the same time. Most Domino's have never even offered tomatoes as a topping -- which is probably the only reason I sometimes cave in and go with Yum! Brands' (NYSE:YUM) Pizza Hut -- so it's hard to imagine them suddenly loading up on grape tomatoes.
Do folks really want a chicken Caesar salad to go with that thin-crust pepperoni pizza? Is Amazin' Greens one evolutionary step from Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Greens?
I hope not. However, you can't fault Domino's for trying. It's been a rough go for the pizza delivery chains as Domino's and Papa John's (NASDAQ:PZZA) have been squeezed from both ends. Cheese prices have soared while the carb-evasive mindset has scaled back on wolfing down pizza.
That's why this move is actually pretty darn brilliant. It helps Domino's on both fronts. Yes, produce prices fluctuate wildly, but at least the company is no longer as reliant on the "moo'd" swings of dairy products. Yet it also helps it overcome the veto factor. With home delivery, sometimes all it takes is one person to back off on endorsing pizza as a dinner option to call off the entire order. Offering salads is great, assuming they are tasty (and, let's face it, it's pretty hard to ruin a salad as long as the veggies are fresh). It will help grow the number of orders as well as the average tab on each order.
The salads are now being featured prominently on the company's website, so it may be simply a matter of time before the healthier tossed creations go nationwide. For a company such as Domino's that has had a rough go of it since going public earlier this year, perhaps its salad days have finally arrived.
Will salads at Domino's help you stick to your diet? Why do so many chains offer fatty salad dressings with what they profess to be healthy salads? Are any of the latest fad diets working for you? All this and more in the Fools Fighting Fat discussion board. Only on Fool.com.Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has been known to share a Domino's pie every once in a while, and he'll give the salads the benefit of the doubt (at least once). He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story.
