Posted on 04/24/2018 10:45:43 AM PDT by Red Badger
Unlike other food establishments that have static menu options, pizza is highly variable: Domino’s offers consumers 34 million different combinations of pizza. (iStock Photo)
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As the owner of 18 Domino’s stores in Texas, I do not cut corners, whether on pizzas or complying with the law. Unfortunately, on May 7 the law will become especially burdensome and unhelpful to my customers. That day, President Trump’s FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb will implement a nationwide, Obama-era menu-labeling rule requiring restaurants with 20 or more locations to post in-store menu boards listing the calories of every item sold.
I fully support efforts to ensure consumers have access to nutritional information, and my customers deserve accurate information delivered to them at the point of sale. I would not have lasted 36 years in this industry and succeeded as a Domino’s franchisee over the past 20 if I were working against the interests of my customers. At the same time, small business owners like me deserve a fair accounting of the rule’s costs. But the rule as codified by Gottlieb fails on both counts, and Trump must direct Gottlieb to fix the rule before it goes into effect.
First, the rule fails to account for how my customers actually order pizza in the real world out here in West Texas. Unlike other food establishments that have static menu options, pizza is highly variable: Domino’s offers consumers 34 million different combinations of pizza.
Can you imagine yourself in a small store in Midland or Odessa, Texas, plastered with menu boards, trying to calculate all of these possible combinations?
In addition, Domino’s customers do 90 percent of their ordering remotely — either online (Web and app) or by phone. I estimate that I will have to spend approximately $5,000 annually per store to put up compliant menu boards. I’m talking possibly $90,000 to invest in signage that less than 10 percent of my customers actually will see, and less than that actually will use.
Second, the costs of the rule to my employees and me could be excessive, with the greatest beneficiaries of these costs being trial lawyers. This is because Gottlieb’s rule exposes my employees and me to civil and criminal penalties of up to one year in prison and/or a $100,000 fine for inadvertent violations.
That means if one of us accidentally tops a pizza with too much pepperoni or cheese, or is a little heavy-handed with the tomato sauce on a given day, we could be headed to prison.
I know many supporters of the rule would argue that’s an outrageous claim, but FDA has offered no information or clarity except: “Trust us.”
So, what’s a sensible solution that works for both small businesses and consumers?
Domino’s came up with an initial answer more than a decade ago by providing an online tool, the Cal-O-Meter, that allows consumers to calculate the calories in a pizza, accounting for factors like the crust type, number of toppings, and sauce. While this useful application is provided to consumers at the point of purchase and fulfills the intent of the law, FDA for years has said that an online menu accessed by consumers on their smartphones, tablets, and computers won’t meet the Obama administration’s standard (which the agency apparently is keeping under Trump).
Last November, Gottlieb issued new guidance on the rule that he claimed would make things clear. Unfortunately, it only made things more convoluted.
Now my employees and I need Trump to weigh in. He needs to direct the FDA to give us the flexibility to use 21st century technology to provide our customers with accurate nutritional information, right at their fingertips. The Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act, which overwhelmingly passed the House twice, both last year and earlier this year, enjoys broad, bipartisan support and should be the basis for FDA action.
I was pleased when the Trump administration delayed implementation of this rule last May because it seemed to understand, and signaled it wanted to think through, the complexities this one-size-fits-all solution poses to businesses like mine.
Now, I am disappointed. In the name of expediency, Gottlieb is working at cross-purposes with Trump’s efforts to unshackle Main Street from the burdens of unnecessary, outmoded, and counterproductive regulations.
President Trump has the power to stop his FDA and Commissioner Gottlieb from going over the regulatory cliff. Millions of small businesses that drive our economy every day are watching and waiting.
Every minute and dollar he is forced to spend on that calorie label hurts his business.
If you are that worried about your health here’s a hot tip, you shouldn’t be eating at Dominos.
“...the costs of the rule to my employees and me could be excessive, with the greatest beneficiaries of these costs being trial lawyers. This is because Gottlieb’s rule exposes my employees and me to civil and criminal penalties of up to one year in prison and/or a $100,000 fine for inadvertent violations.”
I don’t think it will be at all ‘burdensome’ for some trial attorney with an obese client to convince a jury that the ‘standard’ pizza info is inadequate & their poor fat client is a victim.
Congress got us into the WTO, Congress can get us out.
Congress got us into the WTO, Congress can get us out.
If he puts that his pizza only has 200 calories and it really has 5000 then yeah, he probably should go to prison and let the “fat client” own the restaurant.
If he is off by 25%, I doubt your fat client has a leg to stand on.
Supporting an amendment to the constitution, it seems to me, is very consistent with the principles of the constitution, given that the process is in that document itself. Of course in today's world that actual process is essentially impossible. In fact, the only practical way to change the constitution now is to get some judge to make some stuff up and say it's in the constitution. E.g. Roe V Wade. That I do not support at all.
I guess calzone and boli people like me are non-pizza consumers?
“Supporting an amendment to the constitution, it seems to me, is very consistent with the principles of the constitution, given that the process is in that document itself.”
I agree.
L
Simple enough for Domino’s to calculate all those combinations and send them out on 3x4 index cards to all their franchises to be taped on the menu wall.
That doesn’t mean you won’t be killed off by lawfare, spending time & resources fighting off this kind of nonsense.
Trump should’ve done the obvious thing: instruct EVERY new cabinet member to undo EVERYTHING Zero did in the last 8 years. Period.
...guns...
Wow. You really haven't dealt with regulatory law in a business, have you? You haven't had tin-pot-dictator inspectors threatening to shut you down, have you?
People like you that cheer burdensome regulations are bringing this country down.
I suppose they could create a list of all their individual toppings, showing the average calorie count for that topping on each size of pizza they offer. Then people could do the math themselves...
...oh, wait, I said “do the math themselves”. Never mind.
Better to just sue the FDA in federal court for overstepping its authority; or lobby president Trump to gut the requirement.
Did you compute the number of calories per slice and then post the results in your kitchen and/or dining room?
If not, you may have violated federal law!
;-)
Trying to pin down and quantify the caloric content of any given pizza combination would be prohibitively expensive, and would risk a mom and pop operation being fined out of existence for not weighing their ingredients down to the fraction of a gram.
This whole mandate just wreaks of lawfare and eliminating competition through lobbyist lawfare from large fast food chains.
Forget for a moment what you think about any given pizza or pizzeria, this is all certain groups about using the government to eliminate their competition.
I’m more concerned that the military is continuing to slavishly implement Obama era policies.
Uh oh! My family just might turn me in ;)
I have never counted calories in my whole life at home or at a restaurant.
Yes I have, more than you can imagine.
And I hardly think making major chains reveal the calories in their pizza is going to bring America down.
Generally speaking, if it is a government rule, it is burdensome. The less government, the less the burden. And the more freedom. Basic conservative thinking.
I’m for less government in most cases, but not all cases.
But no government = Somali. Free market and capitalism doesn’t exist where there are no rules.
Government sets the rules of the marketplace. Government sets the rules of international trade.
Food is one area where I and many other consumers want the health information and country of origin readily available.
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