When was the last time you had a pizza from Papa John’s?
Did it make you think about the rise and fall of this pizza empire?
Papa John’s is one of those companies that may never get past their current scandal.
However, did you know that they have some equally worse skeletons in their closet?
Let’s explore the Top 10 Untold Truths of Papa John’s.
Papa John’s Is At Its Lowest Of Lows
Papa John’s was once a company that was considered respectable and a great place to
work for.
Unfortunately, in the last couple of years, the company has been littered with negativity
and drama.
Starting from the ground up.
The customer service employees have been embroiled with the law over selling illegal items out
of storefronts; the higher-ups have been accused of everything from harassment, bad work practices
and “bro-culture”; and an interview with Forbes magazine given by a number of mostly
anonymous sources blew the whistle on the company.
It is now described as being at its lowest point ever.
There’s no question that Papa John’s has a lot of explaining to do - creator John Schnatter
has been in the public a lot lately, stocks have plummeted and several locations are in
fear of shutting down.
Yeah, it’s bad.
The pizza joint that was once considered humble and in its prime has now experienced backlash
from every angle.
The worst can be seen on social media where former fans and current fans duke it out over
everything from who has the best pizza to deciding whether Schnatter should be left
off the hook for his unfortunate comments.
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The Papa John’s Work Environment was not OK
For the past several years Papa John’s employees have been complaining about unfair treatment
in the workplace.
Employees made serious accusations regarding John Schnatter: the “bro-culture” he encouraged,
stalking (yes, two female employees accused Schnatter of stalking them), sexual harassment
(again, by Schnatter), pitting people against one another, and even spying.
Employees told Forbes magazine that they didn’t always feel safe working there or equal to
one another.
They described the environment as toxic.
This was the first time people had spoken out about the company.
This is simply because before Schnatter was asked to step down, employees were tied to
NDAs forcing them to never speak about Schnatter or his personal life.
Clearly, we can see where his loyalty lies.
Normally an NDA is meant to protect the company, not the person who created it.
Yet, many employees stated that their entire NDA was adhered to protecting Schnatter.
If that isn't suspicious, then what is?
Another accusation in the form of sexual harassment came when a former employee talked about what
happened behind closed doors in the company's office: sexual harassment and horrible treatment
of female employees.
The company had reportedly secretly settled several cases of sexual harassment against
Schnatter and other higher-ups.
Would You Like Some Drugs With Your Papa John’s Pizza?
It’s not only the CEO who makes headlines when it comes to Papa John’s - the lower
level employees do as well.
A Washington State location was caught distributing drugs with their pizza.
The code word was “extra olives” and you could get a choice of cocaine, Oxycodone,
LSD, ecstasy, marijuana, and methamphetamine.
The police eventually caught on and ran a few sting operations there until they had
enough to arrest the people involved.
“Operation Extra Olives” took place in 2017 and the people involved are still being
processed.
Another incident took place in 2013 in New York where a delivery man was dropping off
more than just pizza.
He eventually sold $40,000 worth of cocaine to undercover officers.
After the 2017 incident, the company issued a statement saying they have zero tolerance
for offensive and illegal behavior.
They also confirmed that the employees involved with the situation were no longer employed,
and claimed they were working in full cooperation with local law enforcement on the matter.
Talk about embarrassing.
This company is one that certainly cannot handle any more bad press.
Papa John’s Has Been Sued, Like A Lot
This company just keeps putting their foot in their mouth.
Papa John’s has been sued a number of times.
It seems like when one lawsuit finishes, another one starts.
They have been sued for sending text messages that were considered harassment, Schnatter’s
behavior, and overcharging customers.
The company has always fought back but they haven’t always won.
Take for example the 19,000 delivery drivers that sued them because they were being severely
underpaid to the tune of $12.3 million.
That’s no small change.
The company was later sued again for bombarding their customers with promotional text messages.
They were also sued for harassment and spamming.
Each plaintiff was set to receive at least $500.00 each for the disruption.
However, one guy claimed mental anguish when he was bombarded with deals for two large,
5-topping pizzas for $9.99.
He claimed that the text messages were so sorely disruptive that his mental health was
taking a beating.
His separate lawsuit is yet to be settled.
Even Pizza Hut Sued Papa John’s
Even Pizza Hut had beef with Papa John’s.
Back in 1998, the Hut accused them of false advertising.
They claimed that they couldn’t back up their slogan “Better Ingredients, Better
Pizza”.
There was no physical evidence that their ingredients were of better quality.
Pizza Hut essentially wanted them to change their slogan.
So, you may think that this is a ridiculous lawsuit, but there is an actual law against
this.
It’s called the Lanham Act.
It essentially protects consumers from purposefully misleading advertising.
Pizza Hut won this lawsuit and Papa John’s was forced to pull all of their misleading
marketing material.
But PJ’s wasn’t going down without a fight.
They appealed, claiming that this is a matter of opinion and not a fact.
They even turned the tables on Pizza Hut!
They said, “there was no scientific proof that Pizza Hut had the "best pizza under one
roof," so what gives?”
This ticked off Pizza Hut and so the rivalry began in earnest.
To be honest, the Hut is probably extremely happy with all the negativity surrounding
their rival.
Secret Papa John’s Shoppers Near You
After all the negativity that followed Papa John’s these past few years, it's nice to
know that at one point they had standards.
Standards that were taken so seriously, they took it upon themselves to hire secret shoppers.
Yes, they hired mystery shoppers to show up to their locations and essentially spy on
the employees and managers.
They were looking for a few key things like making sure the taste of their pizza was up
to standards and overall quality control.
Owner John Schnatter started this initiative in 1999 after he noticed a decline in his
company’s sales.
The idea was a success, and their sales went through the roof.
Every location that was found to have had low standards received new training and hired
more reliable people.
It’s the little things like this that make us wonder how a man so business savvy could
also be so ridiculous.
We kind of expect him to practice what he preaches, and there is no way that he should
be okay with things like harassment, lies, and "bro-culture" which can so obviously ruin
a company's reputation.
Papa John Made Some Insensitive Comments
As we mentioned earlier, the founder of Papa John’s, John Schnatter, stepped down in
the summer of 2018.
This came after the business mogul was caught saying some pretty racially insensitive things.
A whistleblower called out Schnatter after using a racist word during a conference call.
Of course, this scandal put him on everyone’s bad list.
All of the pizza empires endorsements disappeared.
During a conference in May, Schnatter tried to justify his use of the racial slur.
He said, “"Colonel Sanders" used the same slur and never faced the consequences.
Uh, not the best way to defend yourself.
Doesn't he know that just because someone else does something bad, doesn't mean it’s
okay for you to do it as well?
You know the whole jumping off a bridge saying.
Schnatter went on to try to defend his actions some more.
He told CNN that he was using the slur during a strategy and training session, and was only
using it as an example of things one shouldn’t say.
He claims it all got taken out of context, but apologized for hurting people’s feelings
anyway.
His apology didn’t work, people are still mad.
At least he bothered to say the words "I'm sorry" - most people avoid those two words
when they’re making public apologies, especially when they know they are wrong.
Papa John’s claims “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza”
But what are those ingredients really?
Papa John’s implemented this slogan way back in 1995.
So, they should be willing and ready to tell customers what those “better ingredients”
are, right?
But, no such luck for one reporter named Melanie Warren.
The journalist went on a quest to find out what those better ingredients were, however,
she quickly found herself stonewalled at every turn.
Their website didn’t offer an ingredients list, so she turned to the head office but
received no callbacks.
She eventually walked into a local Papa John’s and asked the employees who make the pizzas
and even they couldn't offer her any information.
In fact, they flat out said they too had no idea what their “better ingredients” are.
This is odd for several reasons but the thing that makes the company look most suspect is
the fact that almost every other food chain - especially the ones as big as Papa John’s
- has their ingredients list published on their websites.
Some chains like McDonald’s and Wendy's even had it on those paper placemats that
come with the tray.
What can we really expect from a company run by a CEO - sorry, former CEO - that has his
own shady past?
They eventually published their ingredient list on their website, but after all that,
it just doesn’t seem genuine.
And, how do we know that they are being truthful after so many years of dodging the question?
Papa John’s Leaked Iggy Azalea’s Phone Number
Remember this little bit of scandal back in 2015?
The rapper did what every normal person does, she ordered a pizza from Papa John’s and
couldn’t wait to chow down.
The driver who dropped off the pizza realized it was Iggy Azalea and saved the number she
ordered the pizza with.
Unfortunately for Iggy, this was her actual phone number, not her assistant or friend,
and the delivery driver decided to just tweet it out and share it with the world.
His family members were calling Iggy like they were old friends.
Iggy called out the pizza chain on Twitter but only after she tried to rectify the situation
privately through phone calls and emails.
She went to the company, told them about the situation, and asked if they could help her
identify the driver, maybe in hopes that he would be fired or at least reprimanded for
his ridiculous act.
But, like everything else, they didn’t take it seriously and her Twitter stans took up
for her in the most aggressive way possible.
They basically boycotted Papa John’s.
Eventually, the company issued her an apology but it was too little, too late.
During an interview with Ryan Seacrest In The Morning, the rapper said that she will
not be pursuing legal action and that all has been forgiven.
The company certainly dodged a bullet with this one, because if this was someone bigger
like say, Beyonce, not only would the hive be after them but the power couple would probably
own the company when they were done exacting revenge.
Papa John’s Humble Beginnings Were Very Humble
Papa John’s wasn’t always a company riddled with embarrassing, company ending drama.
When they first started out, founder John Schnatter made his pizzas wherever he could
- this included his first pseudo shop: a broom closet.
Schnatter’s father owned a tavern, and once he helped his father stabilize the success
of this tavern, he knocked out the wall in the broom closet and got to work.
With used equipment, he started making pizza and selling it out of that broom closet.
He hustled and made his own deliveries.
He eventually made enough to open his own small storefront.
The business is so successful now (scandals aside), there are 4,700 restaurants around
the world.
This includes 2,700 international locations in 37 different countries.
Not many pizza companies can boast numbers like that.
Imagine going from a broom closet to this.
We can see why Schnatter is so cocky and feels as though his opinion always matters.
Normally when someone starts a business while still in college, plans go by the wayside,
things change, life gets in the way - but this time he saw it through and it paid off.
Only now, he is going to have to sit tight while scandals rock his world.
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