NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s First 2020 Priority Was to Declare War on $30 Pizzas
Having solved NYC’s homeless crisis, mass exodus issues, and the anti-Semitism problem, Mayor de Blasio turns to other pressing matters.
On any given day, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio makes it all too easy to dunk on him, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it when the opportunity presents itself.
Such was the case on Wednesday when the failed Democratic presidential candidate caught wind of a New York Post article that detailed how a local Domino’s was charging Times Square revelers $30 for a pizza on New Year’s Eve. Here’s more from the Post’s report:
An enterprising Midtown Domino’s pizza restaurant is cashing in on the Times Square ball drop — hawking pies to ravenous New Year’s Eve revelers and flipping them for a serious profit.
“I have a lot of orders. I’m very busy,” delivery guy Ratan Banik told The Post while juggling a large stack of pizzas on Tuesday afternoon, speculating he’d sold about 25 pies.
Banik was running the pizzas for the Domino’s franchise on 40th St. and 7th Ave., which has been doing this on New Year’s Eve for 15 years.
The man was hawking pepperoni, ham and cheese pizzas for $30 — more than double what a regular $14.49 large cheese pie costs at Domino’s — and was still run off his feet.
Here’s a photo Banik smiling as he sells pizzas to hungry folks who couldn’t leave their spots to go and pick one up:
Domino's sells $30 pizzas to Times Square ball drop revelers on New Year's Eve https://t.co/f4oUdZqOOT pic.twitter.com/TaVdRYH1eb
— New York Post (@nypost) December 31, 2019
One customer who told the Post it was “totally worth it” to spend $30 on pizza also estimated Banik “probably sold about seven pizzas in less than two minutes.” Another said the pizza delivery man was “our Santa.”
From all accounts, no one took issue with having to pay $30 to fill their tummies with a hot, cheesy pizza on a cold night. No one except for Mayor de Blasio, who insinuated in a tweet that the chain was price-gouging on New Year’s Eve to take advantage of people who didn’t want to lose their places while celebrating the new year:
Jacking up your prices on people trying to celebrate the holidays? Classy, @dominos.
To the thousands who came to Times Square last night to ring in 2020, I’m sorry this corporate chain exploited you — stick it to them by patronizing one of our fantastic LOCAL pizzerias. pic.twitter.com/rO6I9oYIku
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) January 1, 2020
There were a whole lot of problems with de Blasio’s tweet, however. First off, as Domino’s pointed out in response, the owner is a member of the local community as are the establishment’s employees:
“Every store in [New York City] is owned by a local resident,” a Domino’s spokesperson told FOX Business on Thursday. “Every employee is a local New York resident. Those stores provide jobs to thousands of his fellow citizens. With his comments, the mayor is suggesting that New Yorkers who own or work at a franchise are ‘lesser than’ those who don’t.”
Secondly, the pizza prices for those “LOCAL pizzerias” are more in line price-wise every day with what that Domino’s charged on New Year’s Eve:
Searches local NYC pizza delivery, in cheapest price range. Delivery for now (not during massive NYE party). Single topping pizza, delivered = $31.26
What was he saying? pic.twitter.com/AIa2GulYvT
— Not trolling in 2020 (@OutOfKenTroll) January 2, 2020
It’s $20 for a Round Table pizza on a regular night in Los Angeles. And I’ve paid $30 for a good pizza in NYC on a November weeknight. Considering the difficulty of delivering at such a big event, the markup is pretty normal.
— Wayne Stevenson (@WayneForLiberty) January 2, 2020
Thirdly, there’s that whole supply and demand thing:
— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) January 2, 2020
Oh no! Good thing @Marriott @HiltonHotels and @WyndhamHotels didn’t raise their room rates for New Years partygoers in every corner of the world including New York. Oh wait, they did? Why singling out @dominos?
— Tim F (@timf343) January 2, 2020
Some Twitter users provided some helpful explanations and suggestions to the Mayor, which included suggesting he utilize New York’s controversial new bail reform laws to punish (but not really) the offending pizza chain:
Lock them up then immediately let them out with a free phone and Mets tickets that will teach them
— Dan Demelfi (@DanDemelfi) January 2, 2020
On the other hand, though:
Delivery people & owners need hazard pay because they are scared of being assaulted by the criminals DeBlasio keeps releasing from prison.
— ??NotABot?OhioMom?? (@TC_Ohio) January 2, 2020
Fair point.
And what about the other priorities de Blasio should be more focused on? There is the homeless crisis, of course, but there are many other issues to tackle as well:
Meanwhile…. NYS had more people move out in 2019 than any other state. Who’s gouging people? (Hint) It ain’t Dominos
— Jeffrey (@jstmejeff) January 2, 2020
The mayor of The Big Apple is concerned enuf about pizza that he apologizes to revelers who in all likelyhood were too drunk on New Year’s Eve to care about Donminos pizza.
Antisemitism in NYC is rampant and on the rise, but never mind.
— Austere MAGA Scholar (@bell315159) January 2, 2020
Besides, who actually wants to take advice on pizza from a man who eats it like this?
The last person who should commenting on anything pizza related in NYC pic.twitter.com/ozRQpFrOYQ
— Vamos Mets (@VamosMets) January 1, 2020
De Blasio really should stick to what he’s good at. Although if you talk to the locals, no one really seems to know exactly what that is.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
I feel sorry for those people. Not that they paid $30 for convenience pizza, but that they got Dominos.
No doubt! So much great pizza to choose from in NYC.
No one was compelled to buy it.
Only $30?
That’s kinda cheap for NYC……..
About the price of a pack of cigarettes in NYC.
Oh why, oh why didn’t I realize that de Blasio was so concerned about “The Little People” when he was still running for President? If I had only realized I could have changed my answer to the pollsters from Maryanne Williamson to The Mayor…no not that Mayor of New York, the current one…Big gulp drinks are so 1990’s. Only a true man of the people would be willing to take on the Pizza Industry rather than the $10,000 purses and $50,000 watches for sale only a few streets away. Bless You Mayor, Bless You.
Lock them up then immediately let them out with a free phone and Jets tickets that will teach them
This is such a stupid prog take on the world. The guy was delivering hot pie to people who were stuck standing in line!! Clearly they thought it was worth the price or else they wouldn’t have paid it! Commies like De Blasio are morons.
Liberal playbook: Find a non-problem make hay of it and claim you fix it.
In de Blasio’s world it’s better that no one should be able to buy pizza than that some should be able to buy it for $30.
Because inequality.
Wasn’t this covered in the Magna Carta?
the black antisemite who attacked the jewish synagogue congregation with a machete had multiple prior arrests, but was out on the street due to de blasio’s policies. but hey, at least he wasn’t “gouging” the price of pizza delivery…
liberal priorities are kafkaesque.
Lefty priorities are Machiavellian.
Well, are of a Machiavellian character; most lefties are too stupid to pull it off. And they misread most of what he said anyway.
Imagine stabbing somebody, collecting your free NYC stabbing prize burner phone, calling Domino’s, and your free stabbing prize $25 debit card isn’t enough to pay for it
https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/1212723957339742209
was that before or after the minimum wage hike, if it was before next new years it will be 40 dollars
Yet a $100 a seat at Appleby’s Times Square is OK?
Mike Munger’s old econtalk.org podcast on price gouging is entertaining and informative, as to its importance in any emergency situation.
https://www.econtalk.org/munger-on-price-gouging/
back when econtalk.org was good.
When you ‘can’t make this stuff up,’ you know you the Rubicon has been crossed.
We are at the second crossroads.
Upstate NY a dominos single topping large pizza delivered is around $20.
This is NYC. Where parking cost $10/hour last time I visited and the cheapest hotel room I could get (Hotel Pennsylvania) was $140 a night, had stained walls in the room, and it took an hour and a half to get a room key card that actually worked.
Price gouging is just how NYC works.
Supply and demand. Right?????
If he was worried the average price of dominoes had reached thirty bucks because of inflation, okay that might be a metric everybody could understand. No he’s worried about the one night of the year people stand around packed in so tight they better be wearing depends if they have to go. I imagine there’s plenty of entrepreneurship that occurs in Times Square on new years eve.