The other day I followed a link on Twitter and was treated to a revolting video (warning: not for the squeamish) of a couple of Dominos employees doing horrible things to food they were preparing for a customer. Since my lady and I had coincidentally decided earlier that day that we were going to have Dominos for dinner, this was pretty disturbing to see. It so happens that I spent almost a decade working in various restaurant kitchens in my youth, and never saw this kind of behavior happening, so I tried to put the video out of my mind.
Not everyone has that kind of background, though, and as the video spread virally, Dominos took a serious reputation hit. The New York Times has all the details on the situation, and I won't rehash them all here, but I just wanted to say, thank goodness for once the idiots that pull pranks like these are paying the price. The two employees were arrested and are facing felony charges, plus Dominos is readying a civil suit against them. Couldn't have happened to a nicer pair of people. I could go right down my snarky rabbithole and talk about Darwinism (how dumb do you have to be to post something like that online, with your smiling faces showing clearly throughout the video) but I'll stop for now.
On the flip side, Dominos is facing a publicity nightmare. That particular branch, in Conover, N.C., was most directly impacted (the Board of Health closed them temporarily and had them discard all opened food containers for fear of the two contaminating them) but the entire chain is suffering. The Times says:
In just a few days, Domino’s reputation was damaged. The perception of its quality among consumers went from positive to negative since Monday, according to the research firm YouGov, which holds online surveys of about 1,000 consumers every day regarding hundreds of brands.
How do you put a price on that kind of reputation damage?
And how did this video go viral so incredibly quickly? Via Twitter, of course (in fact that's where I first heard about it). Apparently the video was originally taken down, but not before someone else had copied it. That person reposted it, explaining why in the comments:
It [the video] was removed later this day but re-uploaded because these people deserve to be fired. If you want these people fired then Favorite, comment, and rate 5 stars so the word gets out and these people get fired.
Well, the Twitter community got wind of this, spread it around, and the plan worked: the people were not only fired but arrested. But at what cost to the chain? Should every Dominos store suffer because of two malicious individuals working in one location?
Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world
Esther Schindler
If the comments are ugly, the code is ugly
claird
SVG a graphics format for 21st century
pasmith
Take Chrome OS for a test spin
Sandra Henry-Stocker
Solaris Tip: Have Your Files Changed Since Installation?
jfruh
Android fragments vs. the iPhone monolith
mikelgan
What Gizmodo missed about the Pro WX Wireless USB disk drive
Sidekick: The Good News & the Bad News
Either way you look at it Microsoft Data Center management did not follow standards or best practices in this failure. In which case it makes me wonder more about the outsourcing of corporate data much less personal data.
- mburton325
Join the conversation here
Quick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.
Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.
Couldn't have happend to a more deserving company!
I'm DELIGHTED this prank happened to Domino's Pizza. They've never deserved a decent reputation as a tasty pizza company, and, AND, their former owner is a religious fanatic who has donated truckloads of money to forced-birth organizations.May Domino's NEVER recover from this hit.
likewise, i worked in far
likewise, i worked in far too many kitchens in my youth, and never saw anything like that. sure, the occasional french fry, potato skin, alcoholic beverage might disappear before it hit the table, but the scenarios like this one, re-enforced by inane movies just don't ring true, at least not for me.i have to say that the corporate apology video was hilarious. talk about canned.
Dominos is a slave driving sweatshop
Dominos is a slavedriving, employee abusing, anti-union sweatshop cleverly disguised as a family friendly pizza franchise. They deserved this prank as they treat their employees like crap. Just ask any ex-domino's employee who had to work there while in high school or college.