The Untold Truth of Little Caesar's [Part II]
Sports, conveyor ovens and robots were all part of our first video about Little Ceasars.
So with more to explore, let's take a look at the Top 10 Untold truths of Little Caesars
- Part 2
Little Caesar’s is the Name of the Best Arena in the NHL
Mike Ilitch, the founder of Little Caesar's, amassed one of the more impressive sports
teams portfolios, owning both the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball and the Detroit
Red Wings of the National Hockey League, and it all started with a professional softball
team.
Part of that portfolio includes Little Caesar's arena in downtown Detroit.
Construction to replace the legendary Joe Louis Arena started in April of 2015, and
the arena opened in time for the 2017 season.
Costing just under $900 million to build, the arena has immediately dubbed a masterpiece
by sporting fans and the best arena in the NHL.
It features a unique, glass-roofed concourse that connects it to the headquarters for the
Detroit Red Wings as well as some shops for fans to check out before, during or after
games.
Named the 2018 Sports facility of the year by Sports Business Awards, which makes sense
considering that the arena's goal was to be something that was "world-class" that “rivaled
anything in the country, perhaps the world".
Beyond that, there is an over $2 billion dollar sports and entertainment district that covers
more than 650,000 square feet around the arena that also include mixed-use neighborhoods
in a retail / residential mix that is part of the revival of Downtown Detroit after decades
of decay.
It was also recently announced that the Detroit Pistons (another team that the elder Ilitch
looked into buying) would be moving into the arena as well, meaning that the stadium would
become the best home arena in two different sports leagues.
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Little Caesar's Used to be Mushroom Farmers...
Sort of…
Back in 1969, the world was a different place.
The Summer of Love had occurred the year prior and had turned into a drug-induced nightmare,
the Beatles were about a year away from breaking up, the Vietnam War was in full swing and
most importantly, Little Caesar's was opening it's 50th location.
Back then, and then again recently, quality, fresh ingredients were super important (except
no one ate kale or avocados that weren't guacamole).
Because of that, Little Caesar's decided to cut out the middleman, at least for one of
their ingredients and while you'd think they'd want to invest in a tomato or cheese farm
because of their importance, they instead purchased some mushroom farms.
Dubbed the Little Caesars Mushroom Farm, Inc., the goal was to (obviously) grow, package
and distribute mushrooms to all 50 Little Caesars locations.
It actually worked out well so they added more products and turned the business into
Blue Line Foodservice, and added more clients outside of Little Caesars.
Blue Line Foodservice still exists and has 14 US locations and one in Canada, which explains
how the Ilitch family was able to buy so many sports teams.
Little Caesar's Has a Mobile Kitchen...
Just in Case
A lot of companies attempt to give back to their communities but not all communities
are like Detroit, a once vibrant city built around the American Car Industry that has
fallen on hard times these past few... half centuries.
So with that in mind, Little Caesars has attempted to give back in multiple ways, some of which
we've already covered with the investments made in their new arena and the surrounding
neighborhood/retail centers.
On a smaller scale, though, they've also given back by providing food to those in need and
that's where their mobile 'Love Kitchen' comes in.
Started in 1985, the mobile love kitchen has served more than three million in people in
need and has expanded from helping communities in and around Detroit to traveling around
the country to areas where natural disasters have occurred to provide not only food to
the needy but delicious melty food to the needy.
Because of its success and the seemingly un-ending amount of natural disasters around the United
States, they started a second Mobile Love kitchen in order to, according to their website,
"be in service 365 days a year".
The mobile Love Kitchen has received many Presidential awards over the years and is
always a welcome sight in any community.
Ilitch Paid Rosa Parks' Rent for 11 Years
So far we've basically established what a great company Little Caesars is, which really
was the doing of the founder, Mike Ilitch, who strongly believed in giving back to those
in need or those who have given back themselves.
No better example of this exists than the fact that Mike Ilitch paid the rent of Rosa
Parks for 11 years, something that didn't come to light until the elder Ilitch passed
away in February of 2017.
You see Rosa Parks lived in Detroit and because Detroit has had its issues, she was assaulted,
beaten and robbed while in her Detroit home back in 1994 when she was 81 years old.
Because of that a local judge named Damon Keith (who was the one that let people know
what Ilitch had done) decided to find Parks a better place to live and that's where Ilitch
got involved.
He called Keith and let him know that he'd pay for Rosa Parks' digs and did so until
she passed away in 2005.
Considering he did this without telling anyone shows that he was a great man who did great
things because he believed in them, not for publicity or a tax break.
Little Caesar’s Pizza Portal
One drawback for Little Caesar's is that they don't deliver their pizza.
To make up for that fact they offer $5 pizzas that you can essentially pick up at any time,
although those pizzas are generally pretty standard and don't allow for a lot of flexibility
as they're cooked ahead of time so people can pick up a cheese or pepperoni pizza right
after walking in the door.
To assist with allowing people more pizza freedom, Little Caesar's has begun something
called the 'Pizza Portal' which allows people to create the pizza of their dreams through
an app and then drive to their nearest Little Caesars, enter the three-digit code given
to them by the app and then, voila, a mushroom, kale and sausage monstrosity in your hands
in record time!
With a goal of creating no line, no waiting and really no human interaction, it's the
perfect solution for one of the larger criticisms of Little Caesars and of going outside for
those of us who basically live online and consume high-calorie foods for every meal!
While the program hasn't rolled out to every location yet, the testing has apparently gone
well and it should be implemented in the very near future, making pizza even more omnipresent.
Little Caesar’s Investment in Detroit
We've already established what a great guy Mike Ilitch was and also that because of all
of those delicious pizzas we buy they've been able to give back.
Their investment in Detroit didn't start or end with Little Caesar's Arena, though, and
the sheer scale of their investment was reported in Crain's Business Detroit back in 2017.
It was reported that the Olympia Development of Michigan organization, which is owned by
the Ilitch family, had invested just under $1 billion dollars in downtown Detroit from
the investments they made in Little Caesars Arena to the area FIFTY-blocks around the
stadium (which is essentially the entire downtown and surrounding areas).
On top of that, 90 percent of that money went to companies from and in Michigan, meaning
that they weren't only helping to rebuild Detroit (literally) but also were putting
money back into companies from the area.
The 'District Detroit' that surrounds Little Caesar's arena alone cost $1.2 billion, was
done mostly by Michigan companies and could be the spark that downtown Detroit needs to
really return to its glory days.
Little Caesar's Was Sued Over Halal Pizza
That's not to say that it's been all sunshine and profits for Little Caesars or that everyone
in Detroit is enamored with Little Caesars.
In 2017 it was announced that they were sued by a Muslim man from nearby Dearborn, Michigan,
which has one of the largest Muslim populations in the United States.
Because of that, the Little Caesar's in Dearborn began selling "Halal" pizza, which is pizza
that doesn't include any pork products as eating pork is a big no-no for Muslims (and
other religions as well).
To be halal, pepperoni has to be made differently (as does Canadian bacon, and bacon).
The man, named Mohamad Bazzi, knew that the pepperoni was definitely pork.
Bazzi sued for $100 million in damages because he wanted to send "a message" (in an envelope
made of gold) that eating pork is "devastating for devout Muslims".
Little Caesar's looked into it and said that Bazzi changed his order from halal pizza to
their Hot-and-Ready pizza (that isn't labeled as halal) and the judge agreed, dismissing
the case.
Pizza, Pizza used to mean...
Free Crazy Bread?
This is perhaps the biggest stretch on this list but, hey, we're about 20 unknown facts
total between two lists so give us some slack.
Back in 2013, a user on Reddit claimed that there was a secret code you could use to get
free crazy bread from Little Caesars.
A user named Bamness said that he went into a Little Caesars (that he had clearly frequented
regularly) and said 'Pizza, Pizza!'
after his order, repeating the slogan that was created as a one-off promotion (for two
pizzas for the price of one from any of Little Caesar's competitors if you brought a coupon
or ad in showing the price of that pizza, meaning for one pizza elsewhere you'd get
two at Little Caesars).
According to Bamness, while the person taking the order didn't budge someone came out of
the back and handed him free crazy bread as well as, and this is the important part, a
thanks for being a "longtime" customer.
So, it just sounds like Bamness was being rewarded for being an enthusiastic and longtime
customer and misunderstood what that meant or was just looking to troll people on Reddit,
but either way, it's almost a guarantee that multiple people went into Little Caesars,
starving and low on cash, and yelled "PIZZA?
PIZZA?"
before being asked to leave.
That alone makes it worthy of this list.
The Little Caesar’s Logo has a Hidden Message
The logo for Little Caesars has changed throughout the years and every time there's a change
you can guarantee that a company spent a ton of time and money figuring out what to change
and why to change it, hiring marketing companies to come up with competing ideas and focus-testing
those ideas against groups that represent all sorts of different demographics.
As a symbol for their business, there is no mistakes made, as every single pixel is poured
over and considered.
And thus it's safe to say that there aren't many coincidences.
With that in mind take a look at the Little Caesars logo with the toga-wearing, pizza
eating mascot that is seared into your memory.
At the bottom of his toga is a repeating design that sort of looks like parts of squares and
at first glance that's all you see, but if you look again it actually looks like the
letters "L" and "C" repeating across the bottom of the toga.
We'll let you figure out what "L" and "C" means, but this has some merit beyond our
interpretation as CBS Detroit also did a piece on this in what had to be the slowest news
day of all-time.
There were "Pizza Wars" in the early-to-mid 1990's...
Little Caesar’s Lost
Forget the East Coast vs. West Coast "rap wars" that occurred until the mid-1990's,
the real nonsensical war that changed things forever was the pizza wars that occurred from
really around 1983 through the mid-1990's.
Before those wars, Little Caesar's was actually the second-largest pizza chain in the United
States, behind Pizza Hut who fired the fired the first shots in what has been called the
Pizza Wars in ‘83 by offering a free pizza if that pie that wasn't delivered within 30-minutes.
While the "war" didn't include any actual violence or even any property damage or slashed
tires on delivery drivers cars, it did include things like direct-mail bombardments, the
stealing of ideas between chains and a lot of passive aggressive media statements and
more.
Just like how war can help lift a company out of a recession or even a depression, the
Pizza Wars actually created a boon in the Pizza industry as the chains poured tons of
money into hiring more delivery drivers, opening more franchises and selling more and more
pizza.
Unfortunately for Little Caesars, they ended up on the losing end of this war as they were
displaced by Domino's who catapulted them to become the number two chain in the game,
behind Pizza Hut, the...
Pizza Hut of Pizza chains.
At least they're doing better than Papa John’s.
So go grab a slice with your left hand and click that subscribe button and tap that notification
bell with your right.
And if you haven’t already be sure to check out our other Little Caesar’s video or any
of our other great videos!