UPDATE 1-8-19: Good news for residents of Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, and our own home state of Ohio. Pizza Hut has expanded their pilot program again to include these new states and will bring the total store count up to 300 restaurants by mid-January. The company hopes to expand this to 1000 stores by this coming summer.
This move comes right ahead of the NFL’s biggest game, the Super Bowl. And it’s no accident. Pizza Hut became the official pizza sponsor of the NFL after beleaguered competitor, Papa John’s was dropped by the league.
The day of the big game is a huge pizza delivery day. According to a recent survey, 86% of Americans plan to serve both pizza and beer at their upcoming Super Bowl party this year.
“As the official Pizza Sponsor of the NFL, we’ve been celebrating football fans all season long, so it only makes sense for us to bring more customers the beloved combo of pizza and beer ahead of the Super Bowl,” said Marianne Radley, Chief Brand Officer, Pizza Hut. “We are proud to be pioneers of beer delivery and are well-poised to take on more markets in the coming year.”
All great news for fans of pizza, beer and football!
———————-
Late last year, Pizza Hut began testing beer delivery in the Phoenix market. But now that test is being expanded to additional towns in Arizona and California.
The participating markets in Arizona include Phoenix, Tucson, Glendale, Prescott, and Winslow. And in California, you can try out the new service at select restaurants in the Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, Riverside, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, and Santa Clara markets.
The Daily Meal reports that 3 beer varieties will be available: Coors Light, Blue Moon, and Miller High Life. But Nation’s Restaurant News also includes Budweiser, Bud Light and Shock Top in its listing of the beer offerings.
The current test offers two-packs and six-packs for delivery. It remains to be seen if the expanded test will continue to offer both options or if it will only include six-packs.
And in even better news for Arizona customers: there is no delivery fee for qualifying pizza and beer combos. Sounds like a recipe for success!
Pizza Hut’s Chief Marketing Officer, Zipporah Allen stated, “Pizza Hut has and always will be focused on serving customers a great pizza experience. And nothing complements an oven-hot pizza like a nice cold beer.”
That seems like a sentiment that a lot of people might share. Now the rest of the country can only hope that this expanded test is successful. If so, perhaps Pizza Hut will roll out the program nation-wide.
