A Company Named $5 Pizza: Is Using the Price as a Namesake a Timeless Enticement or a Dangerous Overpromise?

Pizza originated in seventeenth-century Naples, Italy, where it became a mainstay for the poor. In the twenty-first century, pizza was no longer considered food for the poor, but its economic attainability remained an important brand element. To that end, the price of the pizza became the namesake of a 2008 startup called $5 Pizza. Since its founding, however, economic conditions had eroded the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar to the point that an item that cost $1 in January 2008 would have cost approximately $1.37 in April 2022. What would a person’s reaction have been if they walked into a $5 Pizza store and the cheapest pizza on the menu was $6.85? In the second decade of the twenty-first century, serval $5 Pizza stores closed. The remaining franchisees had to decide between trying to remain profitable at their namesake $5 price point, changing their businesses’ name, or shutting their doors forever.