Hundreds eat 23-cent pizzas as Papa John’s eats its words
The Chronicle-Telegram Staff
WESTLAKE — When a Papa John’s Pizza franchise holder in Washington, D.C., made T-shirts calling LeBron James a “crybaby,” he created a mess that only a 23-cent pizza could fix.
How did the pizza chain come up with the price? It’s James’ jersey number, of course.
But hungry customers waiting to cash in on the deal were left stranded in the streets Thursday night outside the Westlake and North Olmsted eateries.
“We want free pizza,” 6-year-old Kristina Masek of Berea said about 10 p.m., after police made her family leave Papa John’s in North Olmsted.
Employees at both nearby pizzerias told The Chronicle on Wednesday that the franchises would stay open and keep the 23-cent promotion running until 12:30 a.m.
They didn’t.
One woman waiting in line in North Olmsted said the Westlake shop ran out of pizza ingredients earlier in the evening, so she drove to the next closest Papa John’s. When that store closed, too, employees walked outside and offered unserved customers Red Bull drinks as parting gifts.
“They should have handed out vouchers,” Kristina’s aunt, Michelle Masek, said.
Four hours into the near-giveaway event, the Westlake Papa John’s, one of 86 stores offering the deal, had sold 481 pizzas to customers who waited in line for two hours to get their deep-dish, deep-discount pizzas. The traffic along Detroit Road was already so bad at that point that Westlake police were on hand to keep cars moving.
Inside the pizza shop, employees were lined up — each doing a different task as they went from tossing the dough to boxing them up. The whole process takes about 10 minutes per pizza.
Groups of 10 were ushered in from the line and the unseasonably cold weather to pick up their pizza and then led out the back door.
Jameson Brown, 22, of Elyria, couldn’t miss out on the deal or the hype.
“I heard about it in the paper, online and TV. It’s not that far, so I decided to come out and get one.” Jameson said.
The cheap pizza didn’t exactly settle the score about the LeBron dustup, but it did ease the burn, he said.
“I think it’s pretty cool, but they could have donated a little more money than they did,” he said.
The company also promised to donate $10,000 to the Cavaliers Youth Fund.
Juan Mandingo, 20, of Lorain joined Jameson and was all too happy to take advantage of the deal.
“I brought some pocket change, and I’ll get a pizza for it.” Mandingo said. “Anytime we can stick it to a big corporation, I’m all for it.’’
Contact Bruce Bishop at 329-7242 or bbishop@chroniclet.com.
Contact Jason Hawk at 329-7148 or jhawk@chroniclet.com.
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Filed by The Chronicle-Telegram Staff May 9th, 2008 in Top Stories. Popularity: 5% |
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Comment from
the banker
May 9, 2008, 6:11 am
News flash there pizzas are not worth 23cents they suck stick w/ our local mom and pops, yalas selentis giovannis cmon people quit being cheap call the banker for a loan I got the dough.
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