This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Do we really want to know how the sausage is being made?
Dominos Pizza, the second-largest chain in the U.S., apparently thinks we do. The company launched on Wednesday a website called Dominos Live that broadcasts live video of workers at its Lehi store making pizzas 12 hours a day (from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.). The videos do not have sound, and the Lehi restaurant is the only Dominos in the world involved.
"This is simply the next step in transparency and an opportunity for Domino's to invite fans and customers into our [Lehi] store — digitally," Russell Weiner, Domino's Pizza chief marketing officer, said in a statement. "This is completely unique to anything you see other pizza companies. . .doing."
You can see it at http://www.dominoslive.com. The site will be broadcasting until May 26, when company executives will decide if they will continue with the experiment.
The store is outfitted with five cameras inside the kitchen, one pointed at the table where the dough is rolled out, another at the counter where the toppings are placed, two at the conveyor-belt oven, and a fifth pointed at a lighted sign that displays the names of Facebook visitors that "like" the page. The latter can choose which camera feeds to view.
The cameras, however, are pointed only on the tables where the pizzas are made and not on the workers faces.
"It makes certain things kind of easier as far as people agreeing to be on camera," said Dominos spokesman Chris Brandon. "But more than that, it really gives better visuals of the pizza and of the food. This is really about opening our doors so people can see how we do what we do, and what we do is make great food."
The Lehi store, which is corporate-owned and whose address was withheld to limit its notoriety, was picked out of the Ann Arbor, Mich., company's approximately 5,000 U.S. locations in part because of its central location, Brandon said.
"It's a great market for us," he said about Utah. "It has busy stores and a lot of Dominos fans. The fact is, it's also a little bit centralized in the country being on mountain time. People aren't as limited as if it were on the East Coast or West Coast."
As for whether there are concerns over employees doing the wrong thing on camera, the store's general manager, Robbie Snelson, said he's not worried about whether anyone will misbehave or be too nervous to work.
"I have a really strong team, and we work well together," he said. "I'm confident that they respect me and respect Dominos enough not to do [anything embarassing]."
Google+: +Vincent Horiuchi