Domino’s closes, other pizzerias gain more business

Home City News Domino’s closes, other pizzerias gain more business
Domino’s closes, other pizzerias gain more business
Ken and Cheryl Clawson, the previous owners of Hillsdale Domino’s, closed the pizzeria after 10 years of ownership. Courtesy | Ken Clawson

The local Domino’s Pizza closed last month after its owners retired, and other pizzerias are seeing an uptick in business.

Ken Clawson managed operations at the Domino’s in Market House Plaza for 12 years, two years under the previous owner and 10 years as the official owner. 

“I’ve had a great bunch of employees,” Clawson said. “I look back over the 12 years, and the crew changes over every couple years, but every crew that we’ve ever had has been like family,” he said.  

In the last two weeks before closing the doors, the employees at Domino’s let customers know as they came into the store. Clawson also put an article in the Hillsdale Daily News, alerting residents. The other pizza places found out ahead of time.

Since Domino’s closed, pizzerias in Hillsdale have seen a major increase in sales, along with a major need for staff. Cody Ester, a manager at Hungry Howie’s, said that January is usually their slowest month of the year, but they are doing significantly more business.

Ester said that because they knew before the fact that Domino’s would be closing, Hungry Howie’s hired more employees.

Cindy Johnson, a manager at Pizza Hut, said they have seen an increase in product sales across the board.

“Domino’s people are looking for stuff that is almost the same,” she said. “The week of their closing, we already were double-staffing.”

Clawson said he decided it was time to retire upon finding out that there were going to be expensive technology upgrades if he’d kept Domino’s open.

Clawson had signed a 10-year lease with Domino’s, which will be up in March. But at the end of last year, he learned that Windows 2007, the operating system for the computers at the store, would no longer be supported after Dec. 31, 2019. In short, he would have to replace the entire computer system.

“I couldn’t see replacing all of our computer systems for two months,” he said. “That’s thousands and thousands of dollars.”

But the other indicator that it was time to close shop was the fact that Clawson is now 68, which he says is “way over retirement age.” That, and the fact that he was working 50 hours a week.

As he enters into retirement, Clawson said he and his wife, Cheryl, plan to travel more often together. 

The couple has lived in the Hillsdale area for more than 20 years now. Clawson, meanwhile, has been in food service for 53 years. It all began, he said, with scooping ice cream. Since retiring, he began driving for Meals on Wheels on Jan. 1.

“I’ve always done food, gravitated to food, and I like management,” Clawson said. “I’ve enjoyed the community and getting to know people. We had a lot of regular customers. They’d come in, and we know their orders.”

Now that he’s been in retirement for several weeks, Clawson said one thing he misses most is the staff and the ability to interact with people he considers to be friends.

“On Saturday nights, we would schedule all the guys. We called it ‘guys’ night,’” he said, remembering one workplace tradition. “I just miss that camaraderie.”

Not only did Clawson consider his employees as friends, but he said they were, and are, family. 

“They get to know each other,” Clawson said. “We didn’t have problems with people coming into work because they were coming into work with their friends.”

Clawson said he often hired based on the recommendations of his employees. This gave an incentive for employees to make sure their friends stayed in line and worked hard. 

“It cuts down on me having to say things to people,” Clawson said. “My employees self-managed each other.”

But while running a pizzeria comes with its own excitement, it also has its share of challenges.

One challenge, Clawson said, is trying to maintain the quality he wanted and taking the time to instill that into his employees. For example, that looks like making sure they know how much of something to put on the pizza. Too much and the flavor is overwhelming; too little and customers will feel cheated. 

Clawson said this was difficult when trying to make pizzas quickly. Employees had to have the mentality of “hustle, hustle, hustle,” while also learning to multitask. 

While the fast-paced nature of the job made it more difficult, it’s one of the things Clawson said he will miss most about owning Domino’s.

Running the store with a small staff was another challenge.

“Working with a small staff of people was difficult,” Clawson said. “One person would call off for the night, and we’d be running bare bones. One person can be the difference between making that night or not making it.”

When he couldn’t find someone to come in, Clawson and his general manager would end up working a lot of shifts.

Clawson said his wife — who works in parent relations at Hillsdale College — came in to work at the store very frequently in their early years of operating it.

“She worked every Friday and Saturday night for almost a year. Then she was working every Saturday night,” Clawson said. “We’re looking forward to travelling, and we’re remodelling the kitchen right now.”