Domino's Pizza says worker shortage hurting sales

Staffing struggles and shorter store hours impacted Domino's Pizza's third quarter results

Domino's Pizza is feeling the heat from the ongoing labor shortages across the nation, and the company said Thursday the problem impacted their third quarter sales.

The international pizza chain's same-store U.S. sales fell d1.9% compared to the same quarter last year – the first drop they've seen since 2011.

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Domino's Pizza says staffing shortages hurt its third quarter sales. (iStock) (iStock)

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"The decline in U.S. same-store sales this quarter was driven by lower order counts," Domino's treasurer Jessica Parrish said on an investor call following release of the company's results. "Our U.S. order counts during Q3 were pressured by a very challenging staffing environment, which had certain operational impacts such as shortened store hours or customer service challenges in many of our stores."

Parrish also pointed to stimulus payments from the government as a reason for a rise and subsequent fall in the number of orders they've seen over the past year.

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A Domino's Pizza employee prepares to depart for a delivery on July 22, 2021 in Houston, Texas. Domino's pizza reported that its U.S. same-store sales increased by 3.5% in its second quarter. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) (Brandon Bell / Getty Images)

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She added, "Since the onset of the pandemic, our counts had also benefited from significant economic stimulus activity in the U.S., the effects of which largely tapered off in the third quarter, which we believe pressured our order counts as compared to Q3 2020."

Despite Domino's revenue rising 3.1% to $997.99 million, the company fell short of Wall Street expectations. FactSet analysts expected them to hit just over $1 billion for the quarter, Barron's reported.

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A Domino's Pizza employee prepares a customer's order at the company's restaurant in Chantilly, Virginia (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images) (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg / Getty Images)

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
DPZ DOMINO'S PIZZA INC. 496.85 +4.79 +0.97%

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Domino's stock opened at $461 on Thursday ahead of the earnings call, then rose to a high of $489.89 before closing at $477.48, up .25% on the day.