Little Caesars: Is the Hot-N-Ready Pizza Really a Deal?
The Difference Between Good and Bad Service
It's a great deal when the average large one-topping pizza will cost you about $11.99. But is a $5 pizza really a good deal when everyone else can do the same, but at about $6 more?
When it all comes down to it, pizza is cheap. While making a single pizza at home can quickly become expensive, mass producing them makes them less so. The more pizzas you make, the less each individual one costs. Hence, the reason why it is easier to make a thousand pepperoni pizzas instead of a thousand made-to-order one-topping pizzas - less money spent on ingredients, lees time spent on prep work, everyone already knows what they're already getting.
So is the Hot-N-Ready Pizza deal really a deal? Yes and no. Little Caesar can offer what no other pizza place can have. But in the end, it really depends on customer service. Good customer service may simply mean convenience. And the lack of good customer service means everything.
Little Caesars Pizza
400 N Navy Blvd.
Pensacola, FL
I walk into Little Caesars (or more convenient, I drive up to their drive-through window). I say, "One Hot-N-Ready, please." The cashier tells me the price ($5 + tax) and I hand over the money. The cashier turns toward the metal/glass heating case and pulls out a large pepperoni pizza. I walk out with a hot pizza ready to be enjoyed in less than 5 minutes.
Good service equals convenience. The pizza is always hot and ready because the employees have the advantage: standard order, heating case, and customers who know what they want. At this particular location, I have never had to stay longer than 5 minutes. I have walked into that place 10 minutes before a party, ordered 5 Hot-N-Ready deals, and arrived at the party with time to spare. It is the lack of good service that makes an impact.
Little Caesar
2491 Murfreesboro Pike
Nashville, TN 37217
I walk into Little Caesars (no drive-through). I notice an accompanying deal and make my order: "One Hot-N-Ready pizza with the 99 cent crazy bread, please." The cashier tells me the price as well as the wait time: 10 minutes. I pay the price and wander off. The wait isn't too bad, but it is annoying when compared to less than 5 minutes. I show up in 10 minutes and check on the pizza. I'm told that it isn't ready yet. I sit in the waiting area for an additional 30 minutes, before they mispronounce my name. I wonder why my Hot-N-Ready pizza isn't ready. I take the pizza/crazy bread home to enjoy. The crazy bread is stiff wet dough in my mouth and I toss it into the oven to finish baking. The pizza is lukewarm but doused in a bucket of almost-melted cheese. Also, the pizza hasn't even been cut into slices (though there are marks to show where someone started cutting, then walked away). I take out my pizza cutter, cut out the proper slices, and throw a piece into the microwave. I sit and wonder why my Hot-N-Ready pizza isn't hot. Then I wonder why my Hot-N-Ready pizza was neither hot nor ready.
So is Little Caesars' Hot-N-Ready pizza a good deal? Can a large pepperoni pizza be a good deal if it only costs $5? Yes and no; it depends on the service. A good pizza marked by convenience is a great deal for only $5. A crappy pizza that still needs to be baked after taking longer than a delivered pizza is a crappy deal, even if it is for only $5.
Quality and service - it always comes down to quality and service. If you had asked me a year ago what I had thought about the Hot-N-Ready deal, I would have raved about its economical value and convenience. But if you had followed my advice and walked into the second location listed, I've no doubt what kind of comments you would have left for me.
In short, the pizza is $5. Go to your local Little Caesars and try it out. If you walk into a place with good service, then count yourself lucky. If you walk into a location of lesser quality, well, you only spent $5 (plus tax).
Published by K. West
A college graduate with a BA in English, currently pursuing a Pharmacy degree. View profile
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13 Comments
Post a Commentwhere i live the pizza are not 5.00 they are 6.99 so your advertising is wrong
The big issue here everyone is missing is, how long has the pizza been sitting that you just got such a great deal on?
You said that you should try it because the pizza is only $5 plus tax, but where I live , we have a great Little Caesars and there's no tax on carry out items. So it doesn't take me 5 minutes, it takes about 30 seconds most of the time. And with no tax, no change to count. I reach into my wallet, grab a 5 dollar bill, and I'm out the door with what is honestly a great pizza in 30 seconds. I highly recommend the Fairfield, Ohio Little Caesars to anyone.
If you want to make anything like a Hot & Ready at home, you'll probably have to spend a lot more than $5 each, even if you make 4 of them. Little Caesars uses 8 ounces of cheese per pizza, so, even at a good price of $3/pound, that's $1.50 per pizza. It will probably be at least $0.75 for sauce, then $0.30 for flour, $0.60 per pizza for yeast, and, maybe just $0.10 for any oil, salt, and sugar used in most recipes. There are 30 pepperoni slices on each Little Caesars pizza, which will be hard to do for less than $2.00 per pizza. Those are all pretty good grocery store prices, and we're already over $5.
And I only used the cost of bulk ingredients divided by the amount used. If you were starting from nothing, you'd have to pay much more to either get the extra ingredients you don't use right away or to buy smaller quantities. And that's not to mention the cost of the pizza pan and mixing bowl.
I disagree that "Making a single pizza at home can quickly become expensive." Homemade pizza is incredibly easy and cheap to make. Making up a big batch of dough (enough for 3 or 4 thin crust pizzas, 2 if you like your crust think) takes about 3 or 4 minutes of active work and uses about 25 cents worth of flour and a dimes' worth of yeast and a negligible amount of salt. You can easily keep the toppings cheap ... decent mozzarella at the grocery store is only about 2 or 3 dollars, again, enough for about 4 pizzas ... make your own tomato sauce (ridiculously easy and cheap) for a few cents, top with leftover veggies or meat from the fridge. Voila: 4 pizzas for the price of a Hot N' Ready. I hate it when people perpetuate the myth that cooking for yourself is expensive and hard.
That being said, I've never been disappointed with a Hot N' Ready.
I have to disagree with the person below, because every time I've picked up a Hot-n-Ready pizza from Little Caesars, the product has been consistently hot, fresh, and of high quality. But then again, a lot of times I have to wait a few minutes for a pizza to come out of the oven (maybe my store is busier than average?). My experience has been nothing but positive, but perhaps it depends on location.
The Hot and Ready pizza is a rip off. They are lukewarm, and have barely any cheese on them and hard crusts. I'd rather take my five dollars and spend it somewhere else. Listen up Little Caeser's, you need to amp up your quality!!
No line breaks?
We had a Little Caesars just open in Muncie, and it was quite disappointing.
First I tried to get their phone number, and the manager told me I didn't need it, because the pizza was "hot-n-ready!"
I said I wanted it in case I needed to order a mushroom pizza, or deep dish supreme or something that wasn't "hot-n-ready."
He looked around for a bit and came back with an ad that had the phone number.
When I called, I said "Hi, I'd like to order a pizza." The voice on the other end said there was no need to order, because everything was "hot-n-ready!"
I said "I know, but I need a mushroom pizza, and a deep dish supreme."
"Oh," he said, "we don't do special orders."
"You can't just put mushrooms on a cheese pizza for me?," I asked.
"No," he said. "We have cheese pizza, hot-n-ready, hot-n-ready!"
Yes, he said it twice.
"Um, okay," I said. "You have supreme pizza, right."
"Supreme pizza hot-n-ready, yes!" he replied.
"Can I get a deep dish supreme please
I think you forgot to read the second page. o.o