If you can't get a food-delivery app to bring your grub to you seaside, I have good news. Domino's will now deliver pizza to wherever you are via its new Domino's Hotspots feature. Because, when you're spending a day at the beach or lounging at the park, sometimes you have a sudden craving for a pizza that needs to be satisfied immediately. We've all been there. According to the Domino's website, all you need to eat your pizza oceanside is your phone. "Click the button to find the Hotspots nearby. (You will be asked for your GPS location.) Build and place the order of your dreams. Show up at the Hotspot at the estimated arrival time to receive your order, then dig in!" Domino's explained.
OK, did you read the catch? You have to meet the driver at the designated Hotspot because they won't bring your beloved pizza right to your beach towel. Apparently eating pizza el fresco is in demand, even if you have to meet your driver a few feet away from your lounge chair. "We listened to customers and their need for pizza delivery to locations without a traditional address," Russell Weiner, president of Domino’s USA, said in a statement about the launch. "We know that delivery is all about convenience, and Domino’s Hotspots are an innovation that is all about flexible delivery options for customers."
The new service launched today with more than 150,000 Domino's Hotspots locations so you can eat your pizza on the go, or while lounging at the park. "Now customers spending time at some of our new Domino's Hotspots locations, like Tommy Lasorda Field of Dreams in Los Angeles or even next to the James Brown statue in Augusta, Georgia, can have a pizza conveniently delivered to them," Weiner said in the statement. Domino's also understands your aversion to talking on the phone, and already offers myriad ways to order your pizza with its Domino's AnyWare feature, which allows you to summon a pizza using Alexa, Google Home, Slack, text message, your smart TV or watch, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and more. Because Alexa really should order you more pizzas.
"Amazon Alexa can hear your voice from across the room. That means you don’t even have to get up to order Domino’s," Domino's explained on its website. "With the Domino’s Skill for Amazon Alexa you can build a new order, reorder your most recent order, place your Easy Order, or track an order using Domino’s Tracker." While the new Hotspots feature sounds like it could have a lot of drivers running around looking for the owners of the pizza in question, Domino's has that all figured out. "Once a customer's location has been determined, local Domino's Hotspots that are available for delivery will appear on a map for customers to select. Before checking out, customers can leave instructions to help the driver find them," the statement explained.
This means you'll want to enter a description like "person in white sunglasses wrapped in a tie-dyed beach towel standing on the sidewalk texting" so your driver knows exactly who that pizza belongs to. "After completing their order, customers will receive text message alerts about their Domino's Hotspot delivery progress, including a final text that gives the estimated arrival of the driver at the hand-off spot." If you're worried that Domino's won't be able to find you, just remember that they delivered pizzas to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a sewer, which seemed to be a special perk just for them — until now.
And, sometime in the near future, your pizza might get delivered without a driver at all. The statement noted that as part of a collaboration with Ford Motor Company, Domino's began a test of delivery using self-driving vehicles late last year so your pizza can deliver itself. If you want to get your pizza delivered to your favorite outdoor recreation spot, go to the Domino's Hotspots page to see if there's a Hotspots location near you. While Domino's will bring your pizza to 150,000 locations nationwide, they unfortunately won't use a drone to drop it off on a mountain top. However, this service could one day be a reality. Because, as Domino's said on its website, "the future is now." Also, the future is pizza.
