Domino’s has been busy in recent years, expanding its pizza-making capacity and experimenting with new delivery methods. But the company hasn’t lost sight of its roots. “Domino’s has always been about delivering a quality product to the customer and creating a great experience,” CEO Patrick Doyle says.
The company’s growth strategy is built around delivering quality, value and convenience through innovation, including its purpose-built Domino’s Delivery Van, an online ordering platform and delivery by drones. “These innovations are not only driven by our customers’ needs, but also serve to strengthen and solidify the brand,” Doyle says.
A domino is a small rectangular block of wood or plastic, with a line down its center and an arrangement of dots resembling those on dice. The domino is typically twice as long as it is wide, making it easier to re-stack after use. Each side of the tile is marked with a number, ranging from six (the value of a double-six) to none or blank. The values of the domino’s pips vary according to the type of game played.
Like playing cards, dominoes are a versatile tool for a variety of games and a test of skill and patience. The game’s modern origins date to China in the 1300s, where it was used for gambling. Today’s dominoes are similar to the Chinese version, with an array of numbered squares on one face and a blank or identically patterned face. The pips are arranged in pairs, with one side bearing the number and the other blank.
The first player to play his or her domino (determined either by drawing lots, by which piece is held heaviest, or by a simple count of the total of pips on each of a player’s tiles) places it on the table. Each subsequent player then draws a domino from his or her hand, and places it on the table so that its face is adjacent to an edge of an existing domino. The value of a domino, or its rank, is the sum of the numbers on all its pips.
After a domino is placed, the other players take turns “knocking” or placing additional dominoes on top of it until the entire pile topples. Usually, play stops when one player cannot continue (although some games require a single player to “chip out”) or when it becomes clear that the entire stack will fall over. Winners are those who accumulate the most points in a given round or in a specified number of rounds.
While the domino game can be enjoyed by people of all ages, it is most popular among children and teens. Many of the basic rules for dominoes are easy to learn, and the game’s strategic and tactical components make it an excellent exercise in problem solving and decision making. It is also a fun way to reinforce learning skills such as number recognition and counting. A variety of other games can be played with a set of dominoes, including blocking and scoring games.