Pizza Hut runs out of dough

By Cara Sulieman

CUSTOMERS at Pizza Hut had a shock at the weekend – when the restaurant ran out of dough and had to shut.

Hungry shoppers had to rush to other cafés in the areas in a mad dash to get some food.

Hopefully Pizza Hut wont run out of dough again

A lonely sign on the front door of the Fountain Park branch of the food chain announced that customers could not be seated due to a lack of dough.

But customers already in the restaurant were able to enjoy their food whilst their fellow diners had to fight through the queues in other restaurants.

A manager at a nearby branch of the chicken chain Nando’s had noticed that it was a busy weekend, but didn’t realise Pizza Hut’s problems.

She said: “I just thought there must have been something new out at the local cinema and that was why we were busy. But that makes sense, if Pizza Hut is closed then that would increase our custom by a lot.”

But it was a lot more noticeable for the customers who were turned away.

Suzanne Mackie, 23, tried to get something to eat before she went to the cinema with a friend on Saturday night.

She said: “There were about two other groups of people trying to get in as well and no one could quite believe it. For a pizza place to run out of dough, the main ingredient needed in every single pizza, is laughable.

“I would have thought an organisation the size of Pizza Hut would know how to control its stock levels – especially with something as necessary as dough.

“As a result the neighbouring units were all full and my friend and I had to grab a takeaway pizza from a nearby kebab shop. The entire situation was a little ridiculous.”

A staff member at Pizza Hut, who doesn’t want to be named, said it wasn’t uncommon for the popular chain to get through their dough ration before the end of the day.

She said: “I’m not saying it happens all the time, but it is difficult to judge how busy the restaurant is going to be. Especially with the way it is just now you just can’t tell how busy it is going to be.

“Nine times out of ten it’s because not enough dough has been proofed for the day’s service. Once it comes into the restaurant it needs to be left for a couple of hours to rise before it’s used and this process takes a couple of hours.”

A spokesperson for Pizza Hut explained that it was an unusually high number of customers that caused the shortage.

He said: “Due to exceptionally high demand at our Fountain Park restaurant, we ran out of dough for a short time on Saturday evening and as a result, the store was closed for around half an hour.

“This can happen on rare occasions as our dough is freshly prepared every day. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

These are not just any Christmas sweets..these are out-of-date Marks and Spencer sweets 271

By Alexander Lawrie
 
A POPULAR high street store has been criticised after it emerged bags of their Christmas sweets go out of date two weeks before the big day.
 
Marks and Spencers started stocking their shelves with Christmas goodies on October 1, and claim the Christmas sweets are designed to be “consumed soon after purchase”.
 
But shoppers and consumer campaigners have branded the store’s decision to stock the early-dated sweets as “ridiculous”.
 
Suzanne Mackie, 22, from Edinburgh, began her seasonal shopping at the Ocean Terminal shopping centre in Edinburgh last Monday, and stocked up on bags of the treats for younger members of her family.
 
But when she got home to start her wrapping she was horrified to see the bags of Christmas Jelly Babies were out of date on December 9.
 
She said: “I couldn’t believe it when I got home to find out the bags of jelly babies were going to be out of date on Christmas Day.
 
“I was going to give them to a couple of my nieces as a gift, but they could have taken ill if they had eaten them.
 
“It’s absolutely ridiculous that a quality company such as Marks and Spencers could make such a blatant mistake. It’s bad enough shops selling Christmas goods in September or October, but for those goods to go out of date before the big day comes around is ridiculous.
 
“At a push I could forgive them if it was just a day or two, but these sweets go out of date over two weeks before the 25th.”
 
Shopper’s group Consumer Focus Scotland admitted the company was selling products which could easily mislead their customers.
 
A spokesman for Consumer Focus Scotland said: “Consumer Focus Scotland believes in a fair and open relationship between consumer and company. While all sell by dates and use by dates are clearly stated on the packaging, we feel that in certain cases, retailers could give more thought to labelling that while not deliberately misleading, could be easily misconstrued by the consumer.”

But Marks and Spencers denied any wrongdoing, insisting that the jelly babies were meant as a quick impulse buy, which would be eaten long before Christmas day,

A spokesperson said: “Our Christmas Jelly babies are a seasonal version of the popular sweet designed to be an impulse-buy consumed soon after purchase.
 
“They have historically been very popular early in the season as a treat for shoppers. Stock is refreshed regularly so that nearer to Christmas the sweets will have a use by date that lasts over the festive period.”