Planet Money · Friday, September 18, 2026
Alex Mayosi proposes that the Domino's Pizza Tracker, developed in the early 2000s, fundamentally changed how consumers perceive and manage waiting times. This innovation was driven by Domino's understanding that customers valued a sense of control during the pizza ordering process, especially after the company abandoned its problematic 30-minute delivery guarantee.
“And what they learned was, it was a psychological roller coaster. Yeah. Your, uh, you're desperately hungry. And so you're like, I want pizza. I want pizza. And so you go and you place your order and it's like, oh, yes, I've got pizza coming. And you're excited. I've done it. I've ordered pizza. This was the top of the roller coaster. And things really went downhill after that.”
“Regardless of how long getting a pizza actually took, customers just hated the process, the experience of waiting.”
“This tool would allow their customers to obsessively monitor their pizza's progress. It would come to be called the Domino's Pizza Tracker.”