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"My business was off 58 percent because of YouTube," franchise owner Kevin Hendren told the Hickory Daily Record. The store closed on Sept. 22.
The franchise's troubles began when two employees of his Conover, N.C., Domino's Pizza allegedly created videos of themselves showing one putting cheese in his nose and then putting it on a sandwich, sneezing on cheese sticks and pulling down his pants, wiping himself with a sponge and then using that sponge to clean a pan. The videos were discovered in April and have been removed from YouTube.
Hendren told the newspaper he will not reopen the Domino's franchise. "I'm just living day to day right now," he told the Daily Record.
Michael Anthony Setzer, 32, of Conover, N.C., and Kristy Lynn Hammonds, 31, of Taylorsville, N.C., have been indicted on charges of distributing prohibited foods, a spokesman for the Conover Police Department told Slashfood.
The two are set to appear in Superior Court in January 2010.
"There is no hiding from the fact that this video made news all over the world because it was so brazen, and it was like watching a train wreck. People couldn't take their eyes off of it," Domino's Pizza spokesman Tim McIntyre told Slashfood. "Nationwide, we felt a hit in the week or two immediately following the explosion of it."
He said that while the video was a hoax, the company and District Attorney are treating it as a real crime. "Nobody is dumb enough to really commit a crime and then brag about it and put it on YouTube."
The company had been on track to see a profit in the second quarter of this year, McIntyre said, but saw a 0.7 percent decrease. "Because we were trending positive, all things being equal, that was the one thing we could point to and say that impacted us."
Sales nationwide have rebounded, McIntyre said. "We're much stronger than these two people in Conover, N.C."
However, the Conover Domino's Pizza franchise was unable to bounce back from the videos' impact.
"For a small business a hit of 50 percent, it's hard to recover.You've got an independent business person who lost his livelihood, and you've got 20 fellow employees who lost their jobs because these two people thought they were being funny," McIntyre said.
[Via Hickory Daily Record]
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9-30-2009 @2:17PM ezziQ said... yeah, real funny--you morons I'll bet your co-workers are pleased with you
apt punishment--work and pay the owner back for the monetary loss you caused him--then serve jail time
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9-30-2009 @2:17PM Charles said... oooooops - I smell a legitimate civil suit. Even with a mediocre attorney the two merry pranksters could spend the rest of their lives working to support the franchise holder and his family. I hope for their sake they have good memories so that they might remember what a bill larger than ten dollars looked like to them.
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9-30-2009 @2:18PM Dave said... He said that while the video was a hoax, the company and District Attorney are treating it as a real crime. "Nobody is dumb enough to really commit a crime and then brag about it and put it on YouTube."
Are they serious? That is what makes these sites great.
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9-30-2009 @2:30PM gippylady said... I hope the jail they go to opens up a pizza place for them to run.Their jail time would be to make a 100% profie for as long as Mr Hendren had his bussiness.
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9-30-2009 @2:41PM lou said... DOMINOS HAS TO BE THE WORST, THEY HAVE THE RUDES PEOPLE WORKING THERE NEVER GET YOUR ORDER RIGHT I GAVE UP LIKE THE REST OF THE PEOPLE IN OUR NEIGHBHOOD HAVE. I THINK YOUR BETTER OFF FINDING A LOCALE PIZZA PLACE THAT MAKES REAL PIZZA AND DELIVERS YOU MAY PAY MORE BUT ITS THE OLD SAYING YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR AND THEY HAVE MORE OF A SELECTION AND ARE GLADE YOU GAVE THEM THE BUSINESS.
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9-30-2009 @2:46PM V Van Mullem said... After seeing that clip I have lost my appetite for any fast food. The mentality of the employees will always be a question and frankly many of them appear capable, at least in my town. They would have to video monitor them to ensure food safety for me to feel comfortable ordering in the future.
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9-30-2009 @2:47PM Tina said... Ban camera's and cell phones at work don't let any employee bring them if they do lock the items up until shift is over.
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9-30-2009 @2:48PM wolfman said... This type crap goes on a lot at all food take outs.
Some of these underpaid people have to get back at the system and this is how they do it.
The Wolfman
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9-30-2009 @3:02PM Sean said... "Michael Anthony Setzer, 32, of Conover, N.C., and Kristy Lynn Hammonds, 31, of Taylorsville, N.C., have been indicted on charges of distributing prohibited foods"...........32 and 31 are hardly the ages of "mischeivious youngsters" as someone on here stated. These are nearly middle aged adults! They are just scumbags.
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9-30-2009 @3:03PM ConnieJ said... That is NOT a prank. It is a deliberate act of vandalism, resulting in the loss of a thriving business. It will take a long time for them to pay the business owner for his loss due to their irresponsible actions.
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9-30-2009 @3:04PM Clifford Roth Band said... Satire, A missed SNL video. Yeah, good publicity or bad publicity, It is still publicity. Maybe the Domino's was ready to close anyway. Just because it is a franchise doen't mean the food is any good. Good luck to the Mom and Pop local Pizza store.
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9-30-2009 @3:10PM lita said... This sounds like an impulsive (stupid) stunt that a teenager might pull--and a rare teenager at that. But to be in your thirties and pull a stunt like that? (Stop calling it a prank!) They should be forced to compensate the franchise owner for his losses. And the district attorney who says "Nobody is dumb enough to really commit a crime and then brag about it and put it on YouTube" should be fired, since he is so stupid, so out of touch not to know that many crimes have been solved by morons who commit crimes (arson, robberies, beatings...), video tape them, and them put them on the Internet--YouTube included. Overlook no potential resource, or make way for someone who can better handle your job.
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9-30-2009 @3:10PM Dave said... This kind of thing goes on a lot more then people think. I think there was a similar story a week or so ago and then a lot of people wrote in to tell their story of some of the things that go on in these food establishments. I eat at home and prepare my own food as I want to know what is in it before I eat. Sad but today that is about the only way of knowing for sure what is going in your mouth.
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9-30-2009 @3:10PM Jessica said... How is a 31 & 32 year old considered a youngster. I feel sorry for this guy because he has lost his lively hood and they will end up with jail time which means a free ride on our money
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9-30-2009 @3:10PM bjjacobson60016 said... Who says that this does not go on elsewhere? I remember the picture of the jerk taking a bath in the sink at a Burger King?
Firing the 2 people that caused the closure of the Dominoes means that they will probably qualify for jobs as TSA agents at an airport.
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9-30-2009 @3:41PM paghat the ratgirl said... The only thing unusual about this event is it being on youtube. They just showed the truth. ANY cheapo fast-food joint that prepares food behind walls or otherwise where customers cannot watch them are serving snot and poo, preparing with unwashed hands, using meat that got drop-kicked across the floor or smelled bad in the cooler, and changing their minds about rotted bits formerly in the garbage but taken out and used. It's just the way it is. No exceptions. Remember it. If you don't see them cooking, they're avenging themselves against the world for being saddled with such crappy-ass jobs.
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9-30-2009 @3:37PM Don Loeb said... I for one will patronize Domino's more than before, to help to undo the effects of this disgusting stunt. Those jerks, and some of the people who support them (explicitly or implicitly) above, make me ashamed to be a member of the same species.
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9-30-2009 @3:43PM dinosaur said... Beware of any fast food place where you can't see the food being prepared. The guy who said it is just underpaid workers getting back at the employer is a typical liberal democrat complainer, why don't they start their own business and pay their help $50 per hour? Answer: they are too damm lazy and stupid.
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9-30-2009 @3:44PM Gary said... Didn't some guy wash himself in the big sink naked at Burger King? Remember, "burger for a cop,"
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10-03-2009 @3:36PM Ralph Tate said... It is not funny when you get adulterated food and you get seriously ill from partaking of that food. I was a victim and so was my wife in an episode that happened in my state. I e-mailed the corporate office of that chain and vowed that neither one of us would never eat at any one of their outlets again, and to this date we have not gone back.
We recovered after a few days and I am very thankful that we had no lasting effects. The three employees that were involved were fired by the corporation and subsequently were arrested by the Sheriff's Department in our county. This was published in the newspaper in our county.
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