Papa Johns Runs Out of 23 Cent Pizzas

A Papa Johns Franchisee owner in Washington D.C. printed a small round of t-shirts calling LeBron a crybaby. To apologize Papa Johns offered up an apology of a 23 cent pizza today. Each of the 86 franchise locations offering the 23 cent pizzas were willing to serve 900 large pizzas with one topping.

The problem, no one I know was able to get one; in fact Papa Johns ran out of pizzas and closed early.

In order to order one of the pizzas you had to call in first to a participating shop. Good luck on that one. I tried and let me tell you that a half hour of busy signals later I gave up. For those of you who were fortunate enough to get through they then gave you a time to pick up your pizza. the problem was when you got there the line was so darn long you ended up having to wait another hour or two just to get the pizza.

Everyone in Cleveland was so excited to get the 23 cent Papa John's pizza, but what Cleveland really got was a headache. I interviewed local Clevelander Bob Jones and asked him what he thought of the line.

"I have been waiting in line for an hour and a half. This pizza is hardly worth the 23-cents." He told me.

His sentiments were echoed by several other people in the line. When I asked him if he was going to keep waiting he replied, "Yes I have been here this long."

Lines wrapping around strip malls were reported throughout the city of Cleveland. Some people found the 23 cent pizza to be the deal of a lifetime, others more pain then it was worth. In University Heights the police were even called in to break up a fight when there was a line jumping incident.

My opinion is that although Papa Johns does owe Clevelanders an apology they should have known that the 23 cent pizza although tempting would cause more problems then it was worth. They should have known the lines would be ridiculous and any time you get large groups of people vying for a bargain you will have disputes over things such as line jumping.

I feel that they might have tried to make good to Cleveland, but in the end they hurt there business by not being able to fulfill on a promise to everyone who was interested in taking them up on their 23- cent pizza offer.

Papa John's, next time you plan on apologizing, try offering coupons not 23-cent pizzas. It will save you the hassle of angry customers and annoying lines.