The pizza example only includes the websites of the big pizza delivery firms, and the delivery apps:
> This analysis is based on over 500,000 transactions from Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, UberEats, DoorDash, Postmates, and Grubhub (including Yelp, Seamless, Eat24, and Tapingo).
My son worked for a local pizza shop in high school and I once did free tech support for the owner (family friend). There are plenty of SaaS platforms geared toward independent shops that make them feature competitive with the big boys
Yeah, anecdotally I order pizza online all the time and it has been years since I've ordered from Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, or Dominos. By far the most popular pizza in my state comes from a local gas station chain, Casey's. And there are plenty of local pizza shops that get huge business from online sales. I'd be shocked if those three shops accounted for even half of the online pizza sales in my whole state.
Maybe those chains are much more popular elsewhere, but I really doubt it's enough to dominate the market as much as this article suggests.
>>Americans think they have a lot of choice - but most of the brands they buy are wholly or partially owned by only a handful of companies.
I mean, what? Sure, if I'm limited to only choosing from corporations. I can list off several local and regional pizza chains in my city, without even including broader restaurants that also serve pizza.
Flights? I feel like American, United, delta, southwest, frontier, Alaska, JetBlue, Allegiant plus numerous smaller specialty airlines... that's a reasonable amount of choice for a business as complex as passenger air travel.
Target, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Kroger, Autozone, Dollar General, Publix, Trader Joe's, Aldi.. just because Walmart competes across multiple business lines doesn't mean they are the only option.
Att is definitely a whale, but there are still options. most cities will have a cable provider, a few fiber entrants. 5g fixed internet service, served to you by Verizon's network of... privately owned towers. No choice except for T-Mobile, Verizon, sat options(?), MVNOs which are a weird bird in this case.
I'm so confused what this article is trying to communicate. Walmart is the only Walmart except for Target and also maybe Amazon? What's the story?
It's about all markets being cartels (at best) viewed from market share perspectives. These aren't arbitrarily constructed market views. They are "industry standard" defined segments analyzed by MBAs, marketing, operations, etc.
Do you disagree that media is controlled by three to four megacorps? That mobile telecom is controlled by three? That internet search is a monopoly? That there are only two mobile OSs that matter? That processed food are dominated by two or three companies, soda by two companies, healthcare by two (if you're lucky in your region), etc etc etc. CPUs, Video cards, DRAM. Beer and liquors.
Even commodities like agriculture are surprisingly controlled, because ADM and Cargill position themselves at key rent extraction points in the food supply chain.
My point is, the author grossly exaggerates the problem. There are large players dominating every industry (for now, those change out over time), and then there's myriad smaller players in most industries. I don't find anything unusual about a concentrated group of power players with the best offering at the moment gaining majority of market share, and a diversified group of secondary players that aren't as competitive.
I don't know anything about video cards, but here's the Wikipedia List of video card manufacturers. I assume some of these are not "real" but there's a lot of brands I recognize in that list.
Some of those are defunct like Hercules and S3 graphics. Some of those don't make cards either anymore like Diamond and EVGA. And most of them don't make their own video chips but assemble boards from AMD/Nvidia and I guess Intel now. So depending on how you define video card manufacturers there may only be 3.
A more accurate title would be, "Sure the mall seems to have like 100 stores, because it does. But all of them except 8 are owned by the same big 3 parent companies. And by 3 I mean 12"
That pizza graph is extremely misleading. It shows only online pizza sales, not in-person or phone sales. Of course that would be totally dominated by big brands, your local pizza shop can’t afford to develop a website or app for their business alone. But they still take calls, pick-ups, and dine-ins.
I work part time at a local pizza restaurant. We do not do business with any app-based delivery service. We have drivers on staff and that's it.
We tried DoorDash many years ago, but the DD drivers were always slower than our drivers and delivered cold pizza (because they cover a much larger delivery area). Then the customer complains and we have to give them a free pizza, and they still write a bad review for us because of something out of our control.
Selling on door dash or uber eats destroys the pizza business model. Pizza is one of the only foods that is profitable to deliver. A pizza is extremely cheap to produce with markup that can be in excess of 1000%. This allows the pizza maker to pay a driver to deliver the pizza. The driver doesn't make anywhere near the cut Uber takes from each order.
> pizza is extremely cheap to produce with markup that can be in excess of 1000%.
This is true, and more: pizza is well suited to delivery versus other foods. For example, french fries age quickly, becoming unappealing in 10 minutes[1]. Chicken katsu ("chicken cutlets") travels so poorly my local shop sells them to go uncut. Between the The end result is that Dominos Pizza Inc outperformed GOOG in the past 5y[2]
Unfortunately, Pizza's viability and profitability in delivery service also undercuts your argument. That mom & pop Curry Pizza place someone mentioned _is_ on ubereats. I spent 15 minutes looking for a pizza place near me that wasnt on uber and failed. Even places that normally don't deliver are on it: Pasqually's is a ghost kitchen selling pizza and wings that is just Chuck E Cheese rebranded[3]. The margins are so high the logic is pretty simple: selling a pizza for only 500% profit is better than no profit at all.
Because pizza is so cheap, you can undercut on price by not using Uber Eats. With other foods, they can't be delivered more cheaply than the Uber Eats price, so the only option for consumers is to pay the 30% markup + tip or not eat at all.
But a spot that does primarily in person sales before 2020 won't make a huge pivot to online sales just because they open a website.
I'm a software dev, I own a Fitbit and Alexa's, I still just call the local pizza place. It's just as fast as most apps and means better margins for a local businesses.
The article argues against deregulation and then cites a Delta Airlines ad that argues that the form of airline deregulation in the 70s is actually increased deregulation.
I don't really understand the point trying to be made.
And I haven’t heard anyone seriously argue that flying is worse or less accessible now than it was before deregulation.
AT&T is definitely not a monopoly. There are three major carriers with their own networks and they divested their entertainment assets earlier this year - because they failed in the market.
The business class offering is now equal to the old economy offering (alcohol, food and space to relax) and the economy offering is now some weird hunger games event where you are pushed to compete for who gets on first, who gets to put a carry on bag in the overhead with everything nickel and dimed to the nth. I literally hate traveling domestic US airlines.
People seem a little confused about this. So, things can be both cheaper and worse. Things being cheaper does not mean they are better.
So has flying become relatively cheaper - yes.
Has it become worse - yes it has.
Also, it's not clear that deregulation made flying cheaper. It's quite possible that flying would have become cheaper anyway as all of the large upfront costs of setting up a flying network had been paid.
Here is an article on the prices, seems like prices for domestic travel have fallen somewhat (about 25%) since the 60s. That is comparing economy. So if you compare business now to economy then I think the price has probably increased dramatically.
From everything I read, people don’t pay for business for the most part.
Meaning when a business class seat is purchased, it’s usually a reimbursable seat paid for by a company (unless you travel on behalf of the “frugal” FAANG - ask me how I know).
Other times, the seat is a free upgrade perk for people with status or the right card.
Honest question though, what is “business class” these days? Delta has basic, main, comfort+ and first.
I just started flying American so I haven’t paid any attention to it.
And how many people could actually afford to fly business? Economy class and price differentiating didn’t really start until after deregulation. For the occasional traveler, it’s much more attainable.
For the frequent traveler like me (see my other comment), I have the choice to get credit cards with airline I frequent that gives me airport lounge access, priority boarding, free checked bags, upgrades etc.
I get priority boarding class 4 out of 8 and free luggage with a $99 annual fee card with American.
While I do pay a $500 Annual Fee for a high end Amex Delta for lounge access, priority boarding, one free up to first class companion ticket, free bag check, etc.
But with lounge access to Delta lounges, Priority Pass lounges and Amex Centurion lounges with free alcohol, good with not drinking a few hours on the plane.
Huh? Prices are much less than the 1970s, despite all the inflation since. Sure you get less luxury for the dollar, but you can still fly first class if you have money.
> Support innovative, scrappy competitors. If it works for your budget, why not fly JetBlue instead of United?
Between doing the digital nomad thing flying across the US and flying for business 6-8 times a year, over the next year, I’ll probably be taking 30+ flights next year. Even before we started nomadding, I did over a dozen flights this past year.
JetBlue and the other smaller airlines nickel and dime you for everything - seat assignment, carryon luggage, etc.
When I fly Delta (with the Amex Delta Reserve Card), I have access to an extensive airport lounge network with free food and alcoholic drinks), free checked bags, priority boarding, and I can choose my seat without paying extra. It’s just a better experience.
I personally don’t have the high end card with American or United with lounge access. But even with those I don’t get nickel and dimed and I get priority boarding and free luggage check.
Hotels are the same - Hyatts, Hiltons and Marriotts give you a lot better experience than your mom and pop hotels. Even at lower end Hiltons like Homewood Suites and Home2Suites.
And then that’s not even to mention the benefits of loyalty programs.
> Or buy the Fairphone instead of a stock Android device
And then you also get a slower device with a much worse user experience.
People don’t choose the evil monopolist because they are forced to. People chose to go to Google because it was a much better choice. People watch Disney Marvel over an Indy film with amateur actors cosplaying because it’s better.
Who would choose Little Caesar’s over even Papa Johns?
The Delta Amex appears to have an annual fee of $550. Not sure what the cost over the various nickels and dimes are, but for most of us who don't fly often, I suspect they're cheaper. Frequently flyers like yourself may find more value in their programs.
I suspect the same goes for hotels, although I'm curious what sort of things you're counting towards your "better experience" with the larger chains that the "mom and pops" aren't offering, in my (limited) experience, the smaller places are often better, because they can't afford to lose the business and "go the extra mile."
I'm not super familiar with the Fairphones, but it seems you'd be more likely to have a better experience on (eg) FDroid, which is without the Google bloat. I will admit, I have not tried it, though. To the second half of that though, re:Disney/Marvel - they definitely have a bigger budget toward huge actions shots, but storywise, they are often pretty thin, imo.
For pizza - it seems this will vary hugely per person. For instance, my favorite pizza, across all I've ever tried, is still a frozen Jack's pizza. Not quite the cheapest available, but very close.
I guess my point is, the more expensive options can definitely have an appeal for various, valid reasons, but that doesn't invalidate the cheaper options as maybe "better" options for some people.
> The Delta Amex appears to have an annual fee of $550. Not sure what the cost over the various nickels and dimes are, but for most of us who don't fly often, I suspect they're cheaper. Frequently flyers like yourself may find more value in their programs.
My wife and I travel with two checked bags and a carryon - we literally live out of three suitcases. Two checked bags are $60. We also usually ended up spending at least $50 dollars on food and alcohol before we fly. We don’t anymore with the card.
That card also comes with one free domestic companion ticket per year up to first class. Even if you fly Main, that’s still worth around $400.
I’m going to downgrade to the cheaper Delta Platinum after this year (my first year having it). It’s $250 a year and you still get a main cabin companion ticket, free checked bags and priority boarding.
The Amex Platinum gives you access to Delta lounges when flying Delta and its own extensive lounge network.
> I suspect the same goes for hotels, although I'm curious what sort of things you're counting towards your "better experience" with the larger chains that the "mom and pops" aren't offering, in my (limited) experience, the smaller places are often better, because they can't afford to lose the business and "go the extra mile."
For hotels, for instance, while we mostly stay in extended stays, I stayed at the Parc 55 in Seattle when I was there visiting the corporate office (guess where I work). They gave me an upgrade to the “fitness room” for free. A room with a gym in the room (https://ik.imgkit.net/3vlqs5axxjf/external/ik-seo/http://med...)
But more importantly you get loyalty points for free nights. Next year I’ll be staying in various cities for free for a total of four weeks.
You get what ends up being 20% -30% back on free nights for each dollar you spend.
> JetBlue and the other smaller airlines nickel and dime you for everything - seat assignment, carryon luggage, etc.
Spirit, yes. Jetblue? Not my experience - unless things have changed in the last few years. It was like most other airlines. Carryon free, checked in luggage costs.
> When I fly Delta (with the Amex Delta Reserve Card), I have access to an extensive airport lounge network with free food and alcoholic drinks), free checked bags, priority boarding, and I can choose my seat without paying extra. It’s just a better experience.
That's because you use a special card. Most airlines give a similar option. The Reserve card gives only one checked bag, and costs $550/year.
> Who would choose Little Caesar’s over even Papa Johns?
If you look at the other comments, you'll see many people here usually get local pizza, myself included. To me, most of the big chains all taste the same.
Fwiw, having flown Delta within the last week for the first time in half a dozen years, via Expedia, I found out accidentally / after the fact that you no longer get "one free bag" if you are in their Delta Basic offering, where bags cost $30 per.
Edit: compared to my prior experience where one bag was free.
I agree with most of what you said, but as someone who recently switched from a Pixel 6 to a Fairphone 3, I just wanted to speak up for it. At this point, a phone is pretty much a phone, and I have no meaningful difference in UX experience. I mostly bought this one because I was quoted $300 for a screen replacement, and figured I'd rather have something that I can cheaply fix myself next time I drop it.
Hi, it's me. I grew up in Metro Detroit and the $5 hot-and-ready was a staple after a long day of school and after-school sports in the dark of winter. I will choose Little Caesar's over Papa John's every single time.
airline consolidation is largely driven by razor thin profit margins (low ticket prices, stratospherically high capital costs). one bad summer can knock an airline out of profitability forever.
consolidation is a big reason why i can fly to NYC from Houston for less than $300 round-trip but is also a big reason why flying with anyone but United is almost guaranteed to be a high-misery trip (because hubbing is extremely efficient compared to point-to-point or waypoints).
My guess is that the status quo helps consolidate and that helps the monied interests behind the scenes. Or they'd make sure the industry had a parachute, so to speak.
Airlines and their unions (there are many) have amazing lobbyists! Well, the big ones anyway!
A bad summer won't end legacy airlines (the big ones, like American or Air Canada), but you can bet on mass furloughs. Regional airlines are a different story. It feels like one bites the dust every few years despite getting flow from the legacies.
I honestly don't know the last time I had Pizza Hut, Dominos, or Papa Johns.
There are about 3 or 4 local Pizza shops close by me, and I just call them and stop by to pickup pizza when I want it. The last chain I've visited is... Little Caesars, but I don't even bother ordering from them because most of the time they have one "Hot and Ready" for me. So there's no need for me to order ahead.
Like, I got this one Indian / Italian fusion restaurant that gives me Chicken Tika Masala Pizza. And the other way, there's _ANOTHER_ Indian/Italian fusion Pizza restaurant that cooks every Pizza on Nan-bread. Why would I go to a boring ol' chain when there's crazy stuff like that nearby?
> “Pizza Pizza” … where are’t thou? Little Caesars really is that little compared to its giant rivals
Do... they even understand Little Caesar's business model and/or offering? There's literally no need to ever order ahead. Of course there's no "online sales" of Little Caesar.
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Oh right: and my work, when we do Pizza days, uses Costco Pizza. Based on my experience at Costco, I'd say that they're pretty busy.
Starting off the article so incredibly incorrect about the Pizza market / industry makes me less-likely to believe the rest of the article.
> Do... they even understand Little Caesar's business model and/or offering? There's literally no need to ever order ahead. Of course there's no "online sales" of Little Caesar.
Even this has changed, but in a way that still invalidates the author's analysis. They have an app now that lets you order ahead, and they'll put your pizzas in a heated locker that you can open with a QR code, just like an Amazon Locker. I swear I'm not a shill, but I love skipping the line while a dozen people are waiting. The app seems to be intentionally completely disconnected from the rest of the delivery app platform ecosystems.
It only took one DDG search to stumble on this industry report from 2020 that claims Little Caesar's is the 3rd biggest pizza chain based on total sales, which seems like a much better way for the author to make those claims than stitching together partial and biased datasets from various delivery app platforms: https://www.pmq.com/pizza-power-report-2020/
Absolutely, I'll admit to being a too-frequent customer of Little Caesars because I walk in, hand over cash, and get a pizza that is waiting
> Absolutely, I'll admit to being a too-frequent customer of Little Caesars because I walk in, hand over cash, and get a pizza that is waiting
And I feel terrible each time. Its not even... very good Pizza. But hot damn, its just ready and I'm in-and-out immediately.
I think my friends make a joke that Little Caesar's Pizza takes like... Pizza that's been sitting under a heat-lamp for an hour. Because... that's pretty much what you're getting most of the time.
They definitely hit that "impulse buy". Honestly, the only reason I even go there is because its next to the grocery store, and I don't feel like cooking after doing grocery shopping (ironically).
I mean, you can do this at 7-11 too. But I don't. Because it's 7-11. It's pizza that's been sitting under heat lamp for anyone's guess. Do I even need to go on about the whys?
People eat all sorts of things "because". Doesn't mean it's good let alone good for you. Making it fast and easy to eat garbage is the ultimate in the American way. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of shitty food fast and cheap. Just like the founding fathers envisioned not so long ago.
I am by all accounts a culinary elitist who has only been to Little Caesar’s once in their lifetime but even I think it’s several steps above the gas station special.
The latter is mostly toilet paper and cardboard while the former ostensibly has something resembling dairy cultures.
> Pizza that's been sitting under a heat-lamp for an hour.
That's another reason to use their app, if you order anything other than the standard ready pepperoni or cheese pizzas (like thin crust or even extra pepperoni), you'll almost always get a fresh baked one.
I’m not sure the claims are incorrect. I live in a great downtown with lots of unique local pizza places. But just 30 minutes in any direction are suburbs that have only chains. My situation is rare in terms of total pizza dollars spent.
> But just 30 minutes in any direction are suburbs that have only chains.
That would be weird if true. I've lived in many suburbs, and there were always quite a few smaller pizza restaurants. I live in a suburb now, and let me check Doordash... 39 places where I can get a pizza, not counting Dominos, Little Caesars, MOD pizza, Papa John's, or Pizza Hut (which are also options).
Interesting. The suburbs by me are thick with independent pizza restaurants. And small towns seem way more likely to have a mediocre independent pizza place than a chain. Unlike Subway or McDonald’s which do show up in pretty rural locations, I’ve never seen a Pizza Hut in a town of 500 people.
But the data is apparently about Online pizza sales, so the independents, who you just call on the phone, wouldn’t be included no matter what.
> But just 30 minutes in any direction are suburbs that have only chains.
The article isn't anti-chain. Just anti-major chains.
As for suburbs, my suburb is full of pizza stores that are not Papa John's, Dominos or Pizza Hut. The majority are something else - either local or smaller chain.
Little Caesars does online delivery and pickup ordering, so whether or not that’s their core business model it’s an offering. A bigger issue is that the data is from Feb 2020. You might not be able to find a time in history where people ordered more pizza deliveries from apps. (Edit disregard feb comment - lost track of Covid time)
I live in a Scandinavian country. The pizza market is still to a major part small scale / family businesses and not chains. Locally owned, similar but unique in character. The burger market has more chains, but the oligopoly trends are much more visible in stores. I don't know why no pizza chain has got a stronghold. Pizza Hut exist, but I would guess it has less than 5 - 10 percent total market share. I don't think any particular chain has much more than that. But someone may prove me wrong.
Even in America the pizza chain restaurants really don’t have that much dominance. There are half a dozen mom and pop pizza parlors in every town and most of them serve a significantly better product than any of the chains. The chains are cheap though.
I was thinking the same thing. Happen to be in the Italian neighborhood of a major PNW city? There is better pizza within walking distance to me than I've had anywhere else.
> From the crust, to the toppings and sauces, independents dominate the market with a 56% share, serving their own takes on the classic pie. The large chains, despite their ability to offer multiple styles, multiple price points and delivery are only in second place with a 30.5% market share.
Yeah, that's what I thought. USA's pizza market is DOMINATED by smaller independent shops.
Seems like this is glossing over some things...like how expensive air travel was prior to dereg. In the '70s it wasn't unusual to see fares (numerically) equal to a modern budget airline...but a dollar was worth a lot more back then. The average new car purchase in 1975 was $4,900.
Compare the standard equipment between the 70s car and today - especially when it comes to comfort and safety - and you’ll see you’re buying a lot more for your $$ today than 50 years ago
This is full of fake-news and long-debunked stories. The "five companies that control media" lists always have ten-plus companies on it. The "pizza is controlled by three companies" data appears to be the author's own invention.
Reminds me of the mall I went to near Dubai, where every store sold gold. Like 20 stores just selling gold. The mall probably had more gold than a small country.
It's a metaphor. Buying things is like going to the mall. Finding only three stores at the mall is like finding a majority of consumer items offered by a few sprawling conglomerates.
It's in a title so it's a metaphor with no context, which leaves it as nonsense or clickbait, whichever you want to call it. Titles are the time to be literal, how does anyone know what the content is actually going to be about?
> AT&T isn’t just a telecommunications company … after a recent $85 billion dollar merger with Time Warner (which even the Trump administration sued to stop) it now owns TV studios like Warner Bros and New Line Cinema., online streaming services like HBO, channels like CNN and Discovery, and satellite providers like DirecTV.
This is not true. ATT and Warner Bros Discovery are two separate publicly listed companies. And ATT took a huge loss on the original
Warner Bros deal.
ATT does own 70% of DirecTV, but also took a huge loss on that deal.
So many bad moves in the last 15 years that they are significantly behind T-Mobile, Verizon, and Comcast in market cap.
> This analysis is based on over 500,000 transactions from Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, UberEats, DoorDash, Postmates, and Grubhub (including Yelp, Seamless, Eat24, and Tapingo).
https://trends.edison.tech/research/pizza-delivery-sales.htm...
If you only include the large firms in your data, it's not surprising you'll only see large firms in the result.