From their ready-to-go pies to their Detroit-style deep-dish-za
Little Caesar's Pizza has plenty of cheesy goodness to go around. With over 4,000 locations in the U.S. alone
the chain has become the worldwide king of cheap pizzas. Or should we say, the Caesar of cheap pizzas
Today, we're unboxing the history of Little Caesar's Pizza. Pizza, pizza. All roads may lead to Rome, but our Caesar got his start in Michigan
Mike Gillidge returned home to Detroit after four years in Hawaii with the U.S. Marine Corps
Prior to enlisting in the service, he'd been a star shortstop for the Cooley High School baseball team
And upon his return to civilian life, the Detroit Tigers had a contract waiting for him
You have to be a dazzling high school player for those particular stars to align
Most of us are lucky to have a job at the video store lined up. They offered him a $5,000 signing bonus to play second base for their minor league teams
For a time, everything seemed to be going great for Mike. He traveled the country as he played for the Jamestown Falcons
the Tampa Smokers, and the St. Petersburg Saints. Along the way, he met former Delta Airlines ticket agent Marion Bayoff on a blind date
She was four years his junior, and the two hit it off like cheesy bread and ranch dressing
And within just a few months, they were married. But shortly thereafter, tragedy struck
Mike injured his knee, and he had to retire from playing baseball for good
He suddenly needed a new life plan, and for a while, he worked odd jobs as a bartender and a door-to-door aluminum awning salesman
Really? Door-to-door awnings? That's an optimistic business model. How many of those do you expect to move
He and Marion managed to save up $10,000, and the two took their savings and went to Garden City
where they planned to spend every last cent on their very own restaurant
Mike wanted to call it Pizza Treat, but Marion objected. Correctly, that's, uh, boy, that's just an awful name
She insisted they name the restaurant after her personal nickname for Mike, Little Caesar
Generally speaking, if your wife gives you that nickname, it means you're kind of a jerk
Oh, Little Caesar, huh? Yeah, sure. But for the Illiches, it meant inspiration
The couple ultimately compromised on the name, and on May 8th, 1959
they opened the doors to the world's first ever Little Caesar's Pizza Treat restaurant
It was a clunky name for a future empire, but it was a start
On their very first day in business, they sold a whopping 49 pies
That's a lot of pizza. Really, it's almost too much pizza, if such a thing existed
By the end of their first week, they'd sold 296, roughly 40 pizzas each day
Apparently, the people of Garden City loved it so much that Little Caesars opened its second location just three years later
Seven years after that, they opened up their 50th. It was truly becoming the Hadrian's Wall of Pizza Chains
As Little Caesars continued its march setting up cheesy outposts across state lines and up into Canada Mike and Marion looked for new ways to streamline production So in 1971 the two bought a mushroom farm and called it Little Caesar Mushroom Farms Inc Guess Mike finally let pizza treat go
At the farm, they would grow, package, and distribute their own mushrooms to all of their
Little Caesar's locations, with no more need for suppliers or pesky middlemen
Like Caesar said, you must seize the means of production. Caesar said that, right
And the farm functioned so efficiently that they soon started to make other products there
to streamline the pizza-making process even further. The farm has since developed
into a successful food distribution service all its own, with major clients all across North America
They even changed the company's name to Blue Line Food Service Distribution in order to make it into its own unique brand
separate from its pizza-based origins. But it's still just a Little Caesars in disguise
a truck driver disguise. Meanwhile, the pizza chain continued to expand throughout the 70s
Little Caesars Pizza, nobody loves it like it. Mike and Marion had found success from the start by offering the cheapest pizzas around
They were so big on cheap pizza that, according to Marion, she often had to stop Mike from giving away their pizzas for free
Look for our ad in the news and free press TV books for a free pizza
Kind of sounds like he didn't always have the best financial judgment. He was a door-to-door aluminum awning salesman
Luckily for us, Mike's need to self-sabotage prevailed. And in 1979, the company launched a new plan to actually give their pizzas away
It was one of the most outrageous deals yet. Customers could buy one pizza and they'd get a second pizza at absolutely no charge
They called it the Pizza Pizza Deal. Two great pizzas, one low price
Pizza Pizza. The deal would eventually end for the good of humanity. If we could buy one, get one pizza anytime we wanted, productivity on this planet would
cease to exist. But Pizza Pizza was here to stay. Except in Canada, where a pizza chain called Pizza Pizza already had that trademarked
Canadian Little Caesars went with Quality Quality, which does not have the same ring to it
It's got too many syllables. It's a mess from top to bottom. In 1987, Little Caesars finally conquered America by having locations in all 50 US states
In the years since, the company has expanded its operations into over 25 other countries as well
All the while, the chain has experimented with several different products and marketing campaigns
In 1982, they introduced their famous Crazy Bread. Sure, it's just breadsticks with some butter, garlic, and Parmesan cheese on top
but it's also the single greatest food ever invented. Little Caesars could probably stop selling pizza altogether and still do all right
Likewise, in 1985, Little Caesars launched Crazy Sauce, the basically marinara sauce that is meant to accompany their Crazy Bread
This soon led to the creation of the Crazy Combo, which is a combo that includes both the breadsticks and the sauce
Listen, bread and circuses don't have to be groundbreaking. They just have to be awesome and readily available
Speaking of readily available, around this same time, Little Caesars formed a partnership with the Kmart Corporation
giving them unprecedented access to hungry Kmart shoppers the nation over. By the 1990s trouble was brewing in Pizza Town By that point Little Caesars was counted among the big three of U pizza franchises alongside Pizza Hut and Domino
Together, these three corporations had 48% of the U.S. market share, though Little Caesars ranked the lowest among them
Still, what set Little Caesars apart from the others was, as always, its value
Value is how you say cheap when it's a compliment. While Pizza Hut offered a supreme dining experience
and Domino's had the fastest delivery service available without fracturing the theoretical
universe, Little Caesars had gotten rid of both dine-in and delivery to focus on a low-cost
carry-out-only experience. By offering a different specialty, the three companies managed to form a
sort of balanced, unstable alliance with one another. Although, in fairness, Pizza Hut's
supreme dining experience just means they keep the lights really dim while you wait too long
for your pizza. Each company knew where the other's turf started and ended, but they sat on a more
volatile powder keg than Europe on the eve of the Great War. It was only a matter of time before
their shaky pizza truce came to an explosive end. Historians today may argue who fired the first shot
in the Big Pizza Wars, but there is no denying that Little Caesars set the conflict in motion
In 1993, Little Caesars launched the Big Big Campaign, a continuation of their ongoing Pizza
pizza campaign, but with larger pies than ever before. Their sales during this time went up a
whopping 54%, putting the chain on a trajectory to overtake Domino's for America's number two spot
in the Big Three. Pizza Hut could not risk an upset in the status quo, and so they were the
first to return fire. The Hut soon released the Bigfoot Pizza, and they launched an all-out
marketing campaign in an attempt to hold their place atop the Big Three. They saturated the
airwaves with Bigfoot pizza commercials, and they even leased a $4 million Bigfoot pizza blimp
which eventually crashed into an apartment building on Manhattan's west side. Although
it was an awe-inspiring display of the Bigfoot's might, this was generally considered to be bad
publicity. Little Caesars responded to this campaign in kind, and they released ads mocking
their competitors' claims to Big Pizza. You think Bigfoot's big? Little Caesars' Big Big Cheese is
Bigger, more cheese, more pepperoni, 24 whopping slices. Big, big cheese, it's the mother of all pizzas
Only $8.88. Pizza, pizza. Meanwhile, Domino's was not about to sit on the sidelines
while his competitors sold the Noids' house out from under him. They were the last of the big three to launch their own gigantic menu offering
And just a few weeks after Pizza Hut's Bigfoot Pizza was released, Domino's unveiled the cheesetacular Dominator
It's hard to describe how good we all had at that then to someone who didn't live through the giant pizza wars
Just imagine the three biggest pizza chains in America locked in an arms race to feed a family of 12 for under $20
It's amazing that anyone survived. Ultimately, the Dominator would be the least successful of the three
Sorry, Noid. And Little Caesars would come out on top for a brief period of time
Much like the Pizza Pizza deal before it, the Big Big deal was never meant to last
And they ended the campaign after a hugely successful run. Then in 1997 the entire Pizza Pizza campaign followed suit and the company retired their 20 slogan to make room for a whole new concept Its name Hot and Ready Its purpose revolution For the first time ever
Little Caesars customers no longer needed to order their pizzas ahead of time. They could simply walk
into any Little Caesars location and walk out with a hot and ready pie for just five bucks
You know, the 90s may have been pizza's best decade, like the Chicago Bulls
Just like the Backstreet Boys, Little Caesars began to struggle at the turn of the millennium
While they managed to hold on to their number three spot among the big three, more value-focused competitors like CeCe's Pizza and Papa Murphy's
arose to take a bite out of the cheap pizza market. And Papa John's has risen up in recent years to elbow its way ever closer to a spot in the big three
You know, for people who like their pizza soaking wet. I've had over 40 pizzas in the last 30 days
Meanwhile, Domino's finally overtook Pizza Hut as America's top pizza franchise in 2018
The pizza landscape is a lot different now than it was in the 90s, but Little Caesars isn't afraid to reach back into its past successes for inspiration
In 2012, they brought back their Pizza Pizza slogan after a 15-year absence
Since then, Little Caesars has not only restored its former glory, but surpassed it
Over its many years, the privately owned company's continuing success has allowed Mike and Marion Illich to pursue other non-pizza interests
For instance, ever since he played second baseman for the Detroit Tigers, Mike's dream was to buy the team outright
His chance came in the early 80s, but Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza, swooped in and bought the team before he even got the chance to make an offer
That can't be an accident. Emotionally devastated but still wanting to buy a Michigan sports team
Mike had to settle for the Detroit Red Wings. Yeah, we've all been there, buddy
Under his leadership, the Red Wings became a successful and beloved hockey team
with ticket sales increasing eightfold over a five-year period. It was around this time that Little Caesars launched the mobile Love Kitchen
a traveling pizza truck that over the years has handed out millions of free pizzas to families in need
both in poor communities and areas impacted by natural disasters. The Love Kitchen's launch was so successful that it has received not one or two, but three
presidential awards for service. Yeah, that's right. How many presidential awards does Pizza Hut have
No, really, we're asking, is it more than annoyed? But while the Love Kitchen made its rounds across America, Mike kept his eyes on his
ultimate prize. In 1992, he finally returned to the Detroit Tigers, the team that had brought him on as
second baseman nearly 40 years prior, but this time as its owner
And it only cost him $85 million. Who says cheap pizza never did anything for anyone
Not that we would ever say that. Even with big money and big sports teams in their portfolio
he and Marion continued to give back to Michigan, with projects meant to help rejuvenate Detroit
and contributions to adopt to school programs in the Special Olympics. They even quietly paid Rosa Parks rent for the last 11 years of her life
Though Mike Illich passed away in 2017, Marion remains among the world's richest women
with a total net worth of about $4 billion. Now, that's some crazy bread