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It would seem as if we’re quickly reaching the end of another era. There are plenty of pizza delivery chains like Dominos and Papa Johns. Pizza Hut does well with delivery themselves, but one thing they had that separated them from everyone else was the sit-down format. Bring your family to Pizza Hut and sit down together and enjoy the meal.

But it seems as if things are rapidly changing. Pizza Hut now says that they plan to close hundreds of their dine-in restaurants to focus mainly on delivery. They want to provide a faster product to keep up with the demand. Less people are sitting down to eat, so the change is needed to save the company money.

Other establishments are also changing themselves to be more convenience oriented. We’re getting busier, so quick pizzas out the door are undoubtedly going to sell more. By moving away from the restaurant model, they hope to drive more sales, according to Yum! Brands CEO Greg Creed. Yum! Brands owns Pizza Hut among many other restaurants and fast food places.

“We plan to lean in to accelerate the transition of our Pizza Hut U.S. estate to a more modern delivery- and carryout-focused asset base,” he said. “This will ultimately position the Pizza Hut brand for many years of faster growth in the U.S. We view this as a positive move for the brand,” he said.

Pizza Hut Cost Cutting

Pizza Hut plans to cut around 500 restaurants across the country. It’s only a small number of the 7,496 stores they have, but most aren’t sit-in restaurants. This is a way for them to cut costs and staying relevant in a time when pizza delivery is trying to reinvent itself. There’s no doubt that pizza, while always popular, has been seeing slumping sales as of late.

With new apps like Grubhub and Doordash, you can order from just about any restaurant in your community. That means you no longer have to go and sit down in a restaurant to enjoy their food. This is a convenience that might do to dining restaurants was Netflix did to Blockbuster. You offer a new convenience and people move forward with what’s the easiest.

Just like Dominos did a few years ago, Pizza Hut has released a new recipe for their famous Original Pan Pizza. They’re also trying out new pick-up options much like Little Caesars is doing today. You can order online and pick up your hot-n-ready at your leisure or on the way home from work. It’s pizza made easy.

Dean Foods has been one of America’s largest dairy producers in the entire country. They’ve been around for 94 years, making a large supply of the milk we drink every day. Despite the company’s longevity, 2019 has been a particularly bad year for milk sales. Dean Foods has lost 7% of its sales in the first half of this year alone. Throughout the rest of the year, profits fell another 14% and their stock fell another 80%.

Surely, you’ve heard of several of the dairy brands under the Dean Foods banner. Land O’Lakes, Organic Valley, and Dairy Pure, make up its dairy industry. And where there’s milk, there’s also cheese and butter. The problem is, milk has been on a significant decline over the past few years. When that happens, companies often lose money and accumulate debt.

One of the biggest sources of their debt is their inability to keep up with their worker’s pensions.  That’s why this move works for Dean Foods. Declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows them to keep their doors open for the time being. It allows keeps their worker’s pensions up today for a time until they can sell the company.

A New Dairy Deal for Dean Farms

In a recent statement, Dean Foods has said they’re currently in the middle of negotiating a new deal with the Dairy Farmers of America. They are a cooperative that would most likely buy most of the company. By doing that, they would significantly extend their cooperative and their market. It’s unknown if they would keep their brand names.

By declaring bankruptcy, it allowed Dean Foods to safe $850 million in financing. This allows them to keep the doors open and paying their workers until this new deal is signed. This is just another sign of how health-conscience we’ve become. More Americans are ditching white milk for more plant-based and less-sugary substitutes.

The sales for milk alternatives continue to grow. In 2019, the sale of milk alternatives looks to reach the $18 billion mark. This number is up 3.5% from last year. While these sales are growing, traditional milk sales still dominate the market at $120 billion globally. This is a lot of money, but all types of milk have been on a decline for several years.

It also hurts that Walmart dumped Dean Foods milk last year. They decided to create their own farms instead.

As the job market continues to improve, there are more jobs than ever. That means a lot of employers are facing a worker shortage. This is a stark contrast compared to a few short years ago when there were too many people looking for work. As a bid to attract new employees, companies are taking drastic measures…including buying up property and homes.

Usually to attract workers, companies use a variety of perks. Maybe they offer free health insurance, daycare, and/or paid time off. In this instance, more are getting into the real estate game. Why are buying so many homes? To offer their potential employees affordable housing. This is becoming increasingly necessary as the price of rent continues to climb.

The Boston Globe recently looked at one company that decided to grab a bunch of properties. They had a difficult time finding good workers, so they offered affordable housing as a perk. Not only was it affordable, rent was offered well below current market prices. This did help the company attract and keep more workers.

It’s not just big companies doing this. Schools and other institutions are as well. In a lot of districts, teachers are vastly underpaid. As a means of attracting quality teachers, the district bought some homes to create a complex of affordable housing. So far, the tactic has worked. This allows the teachers to pay a little bit of rent while focusing on remaining productive.

Employers All Over the Country

Another big company also working with this idea is Facebook. They’re currently in the middle of developing 1,500 housing units, which they call Willow Village. These are for their workers who are having a tough time finding affordable housing. Washington State has a major housing crisis, especially as Silicon Valley continues to attract thousands of workers looking to make it big.

Willow Village isn’t just a complex of homes. They also plan to install everything you’d find in any ordinary town. Grocery, drug, and retail stores are all a part of the plan. Google is another employer looking to do the same. They’ve purchased hundreds of modular homes to serve as affordable housing.

This might be the start of the future when it comes to people being able to live more comfortably. If more employers did this, it would also force employees to stick with the company. No one wants to move into a home for a few short weeks. Instead, they would be compelled to stay and work for the company for the foreseeable future.