It was the pizza and it has already fallen

In the US, pizza is religion. And it is logical. Not only for its flavor. Several generations have grown up watching how the Ninja Turtle or Scooby-Doo got their boots on with a dish that in Washington DC they have even elevated to the category of geopolitical indicator. The big question is whether that love of dough, tomato sauce and mozzarella is fading as Mexican food conquest the heart the stomachs of Americans.

Of course there are indicators that suggest this.

What has happened? That the United States seems to be losing interest in pizzas. Your chains they grow slower that the entire sector of the fast foodsales are suffering and there are studies that suggest that in the country it’s easier find cafes or Mexican restaurants rather than pizzerias, something unimaginable not long ago in a country hooked on the most famous dish of Naples.

So much so that there are big chains of pizzerias passing by economic difficultiesclosing stores or directly declaring bankrupt.

What does the data say? They confirm that gastronomic ‘prick’, which some of the major US newspapers are already talking about. In December he did The New York Times and I recently confirmed it The Wall Street Journal with a chronicle in which he slips a revealing fact: in 2024 pizzerias were the sixth most popular type of restaurant in the US, far from the second position in the 90s.

Not only that. The number of pizzerias spread across the US has been decreasing since the peak it reached in 2019. Meanwhile, cafes with pastry service and Mexican restaurants have grown at a good pace.

Are there more indicators? Yes. There are signs to suggest that specialty pizza chains have seen sales growth was stagnating in recent years, moving away from the pace at which the fast food. Some of the most famous firms in the sector recognize even that they have chained quarters of sales declines or that customers have gone from ordering family pizzas to smaller formats with fewer ingredients.

“The pizza sector is in full transformation. That’s what consumers tell us,” admits to TWSJ Ravi Thanawala, Papa John’s International. That does not mean that pizza is no longer a business in the US (in 2024 the chains generated 31 billion in sales through their restaurants), but it does seem to be losing ground. Both economically and culturally, giving up space on the streets in favor of places with other gastronomic offerings.

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And what is the reason? Better to talk about reasons, in the plural. Those who have started looking for explanations point to a decisive factor that usually determines demand: price. Today a large pizza in the US costs 17 dollarsmore than other alternatives fast food. “The prices have become crazy. When I was little we would order two extra-large pizzas, a soda and a side for $25.99,” he lamented recently in TNWT Celest, a young woman from Los Angeles.

Have they risen that much? As explains a pizza makerthe reality is somewhat more complex: pizzas have become more expensive in part because ingredients like pepperoni have also become more expensive. The problem is that competition in the sector (both between pizzerias and with other chains) often leaves pizza makers no choice but to enter the game of promotions and discounts.

In August Domino’s launched a limited offer of $9.99 per pizza, which increased its quarterly sales by 5.2%. His experience confirms another key to the pizza crisis in the US: unlike what happened a few years ago, consumers today have a wide range of possibilities. They have to open Uber Eats or any other similar app to have a meal at home. It doesn’t matter if it’s Chinese, Mexican, Korean, Spanish food… or pizza.

Are there more factors? Yes. US pizzerias have not only seen increased competition in their market niche. They also fight with another rival: frozen pizzas that can be bought directly in supermarkets, a business on the rise and that has been improving its offer over the years. This without taking into account another factor that helps to understand the growing weight of Mexican gastronomy in the US: there are more restaurants because simply the population native to that country has been shot during the last decades, especially since the 70s.

Added to the above are changes in consumption and a part of the clientele that is increasingly concerned about their well-being. So much so that the manager of a firm with 270 pizzerias in the US recently recognized to TNYT that studies the idea of ​​creating a pizza “compatible with GLP-1“, with lower calorie content.

Whatever it takes to ensure that pizza does not lose its culinary throne in the US.

Images | Daniel (Unsplash) and Hybrid Storytellers (Unsplash)

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