Domino is a small flat, thumb-sized rectangular block of hard material, usually made of wood or bone, bearing from one to six pips or dots on each face. A domino is used as a game piece to play games in which the player must match or build upon adjacent pieces by laying them down according to the rules of the particular game being played. In addition to the traditional blocking and scoring games, dominoes are also used for solitaire and trick-taking games, adapted from card games and once popular in areas where religious prohibitions prohibited playing cards. The number of pips on a domino defines which suit it belongs to. For example, a domino with three pips on the two long edges and five on the short edge is considered to be in the 3 suit; however, if it has a total of 12 pips, it belongs to the 5 suit.
In the most common of the positional games, each player in turn places a domino edge to edge against another domino so that all the dominoes are either identical or form some specified total, such as 5 to 5. The last domino placed must touch the end of an existing domino on its left side or at the end of the row, and the first player to do so wins the game. In some games, dominoes may be held back from the table for strategic purposes.
Increasing competition from fast-casual pizza chains such as Blaze and MOD, combined with the rising popularity of food delivery apps like Grubhub and UberEATS, has put pressure on Domino’s margins. In response, the company has rolled out new ordering options like texting or using voice-activated devices like Amazon Echo to order a pizza. It has even partnered with Ford to test self-driving car delivery.
To help combat these challenges, the company has been investing in data analytics to improve store performance and drive customer loyalty. It has also developed new ways to deliver a pizza, including partnering with Amazon to offer deliveries through Alexa, as well as opening its own distribution centers to cut delivery times.
The company recently announced its same-store sales for the fourth quarter of 2017 were up 8.4 percent, topping analysts’ expectations. That was good news, but the stock price fell more than 4 percent in early trading. Mark Kalinowski, an analyst with Instinet, said the market was reacting to the good numbers but didn’t think they were quite good enough.
Domino’s has also been expanding its presence in urban markets to cut down on delivery time, and implementing a strategy called “fortressing.” The strategy involves adding stores in areas that are outside a mile of the nearest competing location. This allows the company to reduce delivery times by taking advantage of existing infrastructure and reducing the number of stops that drivers must make. The strategy is being implemented across the country. It has not yet been successful in cutting delivery times for all customers, and some locations are still losing sales.