Pizza Hut is turning back the clock to the ’90s
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Pizza Hut is on a mission to inject 1990s nostalgia straight into the veins of Gen X and millennials. Hundreds of locations are being remodeled with red cups, stained-glass lamps, old-school salad bars, and Pac-Man games in an effort to make them look the way they did when your crush wore JNCO jeans. In all, 144 dine-in eateries have been converted into “Pizza Hut Classics” since 2019, when the company partnered with franchisees to turn back time. Tim Sparks, the president of Daland Corporation, which operates 93 Pizza Hut locations, has already put 38 spots through a time machine. CBS reported last week that those eateries are among Daland’s top performers. with some customers making three-hour trips to visit them. The Hut has been getting outpizza’d: Pizza Hut announced in February that it was closing 250 locations due to lagging sales. Contrast that with Domino’s, which is expanding, despite being decades late to stuffed-crust pizza. In true commitment to the bit, Pizza Hut is reheating its “BOOK IT!” summer reading program that dates back to the 1980s and incentivizes kids to pick up a book in exchange for pizza. Enrollment is underway for children in pre-K through sixth grade, and the program starts on June 1. |