I can tell you it's probably when they transitioned to frozen dough for the pan pizza vs. mixing it fresh each day. I will say that the frozen wasn't terrible, still better than other chains, but it was not the same as fresh.

You taking 10 to 30 years to ask yourself that is exactly what private equity is betting on.

I can still just barely remember the days when Pizza Hut was an actual restaurant where you could sit down to eat and while you waited for your pizza, you could play some arcade games. Society has lost its way.

I remember the last good Pizza Hut I had. It was a personal pan pizza I got from the Pizza Hut kiosk at my college's student center, sometime in the '00s.

Even more makes you wonder how much it costed 40 years ago to construct this building in their brand and style (must have been worth it at the time) just to abandon it later after failing to compete because they fucked their customers on quality.

Same with red lobster. When I was a kid they used to actually have lobster. Last time I was there like 16 years ago, they didn’t even have lobster. Like, it’s in the fucking name.

Over here in Europe, McD had some advertisements 2~3 years ago that now the buns are fluffier, the burgers juicier and saucier, the meat hotter. I did some digging and the calories stayed the same, meaning they basically put more air in the buns and more water in the patties to save on money, and to mask it all they put more sauce into it, which is the cheapest thing. I can’t go there anymore, it’s lost quality and you bite into a burger once and it looks like you’ve made out with the Hamburgler.

Oh and: McD over here used to be some real gourmet stuff. It’s extremely regulated.

My wife visited Saudi Arabia a few months ago and one thing she told that she liked was that Pizza Hut still tastes good there.