I guess it’s similar, but here in the Netherlands we have “fresh” pizza’s at the supermarket. They’re kind of in-between frozen pizza’s and a pizza delivery in terms of price, but imo they’re actually by far the best. For 6-7 euros you get a pretty big pizza with fresh toppings, that’s done faster than a frozen pizza or waiting for delivery, and also tastes really good. In the Netherlands it’s common to live very close to a supermarket, so for me it’s be like a 2 min bike ride to get myself a pizza.
USA here. I live in a neighborhood with a lot of Italian grocery stores and delis. One place sells premade pizzas; you can store in the fridge, or freeze, or cook it when you get home. I’ve never tried them myself, but there’s at least one American brand that sells ‘uncooked’ pizza [as opposed to cooked and frozen]
Domino’s does 2+ medium 2 topping for $6-7 each. Or you can get chicken or other random things like tots and bread. Not the best in any category but not awful so if you just need to feed some people it’s good by volume . My local pizza places are significantly better quality and price.
I say that I like “garbage pizza” because that’s how everyone around me treats the pizzas I like. I don’t like the “good pizzas” that everyone keeps raving about. I’ll take Domino’s or Pizza Pizza any day of the week.
You’ve got your classics: Neapolitan, NY, Chicago, Detroit
Then you’ve got the modern day extra categories: frozen, thin crust, kebab shop pizza & domino’s (there’s probably more I’m forgetting right now)
Yes Domino’s is its own category, if you’re craving Domino’s, no other pizza will do it and if you’re craving any other kind of pizza, Domino’s isn’t gonna hit right.
Also Papa John’s is not pizza, just round disappointment.
I am embarrassed to say that I like thin crust papa johns, but only if it’s cold…? Although, I’ve only eaten it while hungover, so it’s obviously a crap “pizza” ¯_(ツ)_/¯
4 pepperoni, 1 sausage, 1 cheese is $40.94 here (subtotal) if you pick it up. That’s Little Caesars though, so… The pickier you are, the higher the cost. People who pay $25 for a pizza usually chose to buy something nice and or paid delivery and 5 other fees.
I mean, depends on the frozen pizza. 99% of them are worse, but there’s one brand I get at wally world for like $7 a pizza that is better than 99% of the pizza I can order (and we have some pretty solid pizza joints around here).
Had to quit getting them though because they’re like 6000 kcal.
Here in Germany, take-out pizza is usually pretty good, depending on the restaurant. However, when it comes to vegan pizzas (ie. pizzas with actual vegan cheese on top), the selection of restaurants to choose from shrinks a lot. There’s one joint where we usually order from where a large 60x40cm pizza costs around 25€. It’s good, but it’s nowhere near worth the price in my books.
The vegan frozen pizzas in our supermarkets, though, are banging. There’s one particular supermarket chain (Rewe) that recently added a new vegan frozen pizza that imitates tuna pizza and it’s amazing and only costs like 2,80€ per pizza. Amazing dough, crust, it’s packed full of ingredients, the cheese is good - can’t complain. And it costs next to nothing compared to take-out
just buy pizza dough, tomato sauce, mozzarella and toppings of your choice and make a fresh pizza. Takes 2min to prepare. It’s healthier and tastes much better.
For an extra ten or 15 minutes of active time, you can make the dough and sauce from scratch. Dough is definitely a bit more work, and requires a few hours of rising time and all that, but sauce is really easy - take a can of good tomatoes, blend it up, add salt, and that’s all you need. You can add herbs/spices or sugar or tomato paste or whatever else to customize it if you want, but just tomatoes and salt will go a long way.
You can get a good one new for under $200.00 It’ll end up paying for itself in a few months if you order in a lot. I like to cook up a huge pot of chili/soup/stew and freeze it in pint size containers. Instead of ordering in, I can have something I like fast.
It would depend on how often OP orders food in. Also, they don’t run 24/7. Once stuff reaches the set temperature the motor stops. Another advantage is bulk buying. If butter is on sale you can buy a lot and freeze it. Same thing for staples like chicken. The unit works less when you fill it up because the cold food stays cold in the insulated box.
My usual pattern is to cook a 5 litre pot of soup or stew and freeze in in pint size size containers. Or you can make spaghetti sauce and freeze it in smaller containers. Tight now I’ve got lentil soup and chili sitting in my freezer. Takes about 7 minutes to cook in the microwave.
Also, and this is just because I live in a neighborhood with an abundance of Italian food stores, I get a lot of precooked or ready to cook meals at the store and freeze them.
I was thinking more power use averaged over time. But yeah there’s a lot of factors in calculating something like that.
I’m a freezer hoarder myself (mostly stuff I bought cheap, close to expiration) but I just have the bottom part of a typical European fridge (not double-wide) to use. Fills up pretty quickly but with the shape pizzas are, you can load up a shitload of those bad boys in an otherwise “full” fridge with some elbow grease.
Taking control of your food supply is basic. It seems like a big expense to set up a decent kitchen, but the truth is that you can do a lot in a small space. It’s so much cheaper to prepare stuff in advance and freeze it. For the cost of one takeout meal you can have five home cooked meals.
So much less than you’d think. My GIGANTIC unit (literally a full sized fridge model but on it’s side as a chest freezer) costs something like $25 to run all year. These things are stupidly good at their job because cold air is dense and sinks, unlike a stand-up model that dumps the cold air out every time you open it.
My mini fridge for my soda and bongs costs more to run each year and is literally 1/in the volume
Chest freezers don’t actually use a lot of electricity. They’re a big insulated box that’s closed most of the time, and since they open from the top rather than the front, the temperature doesn’t change much when opened (since hot air rises, while cold air stays lower). The compressor doesn’t have to run for very long to maintain the temperature.
In the USA, Energy Star estimates 215kWh per year for Energy Star certified chest freezers (open from the top) and 395kWh per year for certified upright freezers (open from the front): www.energystar.gov/products/freezers
I always wondered the same thing when I was younger, since my monitor had an Energy Star logo on it even though it was an American thing but I was in Australia. Being Energy Star approved just means the product is more efficient relative to others in the same category.
The Energy Star site is useful since they list all the available rebates for energy efficient appliances (federal, state, county, electricity company, etc)
Everyone in these comments needs Jesus lol. Frozen pizza sucks ass, and we only eat it because it’s convenient. It’s not even cheaper than take out anymore with inflation. I can get a 3 topping large carry out from Dominos for like $7-8 (I forget), which is the same damn price anymore for a tiny mediocre frozen pizza from the grocery store. If you really want it NOW, go to Costco’s food court and get huge ass slices for $2 each.
EDIT: Apparently I need to provide some sources since I’m being downvoted to hell
Dominos nationwide has always offered carryout coupons. At the moment, my local Dominos has the following 3:
<span style="color:#323232;">For $7.99 each, carry out all pizzas with 1 topping on any of our 5 crusts - $7.99
</span><span style="color:#323232;">1 Large 3 Topping Pizza – Carryout Only - $10.99
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Large Pizza with up to 5 Toppings - Carryout Only - $13.99
</span>
I’ll concede the 3 topping is not the $7-8 I remember, but if we just roll with the Large 1 topping, which IS $7.99, and we specifically take a look at the quantity of food you get by referencing the nutritional facts: cache.dominos.com/…/DominosNutritionGuide.pdf
We can quickly figure out the total calories in a 14" Dominos carry out Pepperoni pizza for $7.99 with a coupon that’s always available.
So @samus12345 I have no idea what you’re talking about when you say a large 3 topping is $26.34. Clearly you don’t know how coupons work.
@frickineh if you go look at the total calories in your Totino’s Party Pizza, you’ll find the whole box is around 600 calories for $2 at Walmart so if you buy 4 of them to match the calories in the Dominos pizza, it comes out to the same $8 you’d spend at Dominos. You can also go to Costco and spend those same $2 for 710 calories of 1/6 of a Costco Pepperoni pizza.
All of this is to say your average freezer aisle grocery store pizza has around 750 calories for around $7, which comes out to roughly 100 calories per dollar. You get much better value doing takeout from Dominos, and if you’re going to eat the frozen pizza as soon as you get home anyways like the Tweet suggested, you might as well get more bang for your buck.
your frozen pizzas suck ass, COOP here in sweden has great frozen pizzas that feel like 3x as healthy as restaurant pizzas and are some of the cheaper food you can find.
Just checked out of curiosity and a large 3 topping carry out is $26.34 here in California.
EDIT: With the new goalposts of a large single topping pizza with a coupon, it’s $8.99 here. But you’re not being downvoted for being wrong about pricing or whatever, you are because you’re being an ass.
First of all, I just checked the Dominos site and that price is a straight up lie even with a coupon. Second, are you really trying to say they make pizza that’s any better than frozen? Last time I ate there, it was borderline inedible, and I’m not a snob - I used to happily eat the Totino’s party pizzas that are like, $1.25.
For sure. Mine is tombstone. Their crust is just right for me. Thinner than many, but still not close to a thin crust. If it’s lacking in topping or flavors, I can add that on myself.
I add things on, usually. I like tombstone pizzas the most, for the thickness their crust is. Thicker than a thin crust, but still not too thick and bready. I’ll sprinkle on some fennel, oregano, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, and often times hot sauce. Then if it’s a bit lacking on cheese I’ll throw on some shredded mozzarella a few minutes before it’s done cooking.
Local pizza places are usually both cheaper and better than chains, at least in every neighborhood I’ve lived in. I think they are better than frozen pizzas, but also about 2x the cost. Both vary from place to place though.
Aldi’s pizzas are my go-to for value. Usually around $6 a pop now (they were $3.29 pre-pandemic). I add extra cheese and toppings to remind myself I’ve made it in life.
you know sometimes i forget that pizza chains exist in other countries, here in sweden (and i think generally the nordics) they simply are not a thing because middle eastern immigrants have outcompeted them from the start.
From a blogpost i found there are aparently some 70-ish pizzerias per person in NYC, whereas there are 400+ per person in sweden. It’s literally more likely to find a pizzeria in a small village than it is to find a grocery store, and theyr are ALL staffed by people from turkey/syria who are very likely to be family or at least know of each other. They also always serve other stuff like kebab or schnitzel.
It’s honestly such a fascinating phenomenon and i’m sad the rest of the world doesn’t effectively have pizza as a human right.
From a blogpost i found there are aparently some 70-ish pizzerias per person in NYC, whereas there are 400+ per person in sweden
There are more pizzerias than people? Or is it 70 people to each pizzeria in NYC and 400 people to each in Sweden? Or like 70 pizzerias to 1000 people?
we have kotipizza in finland. it’s shit. but it’s kinda allright sometimes. I always go to the little places. I even formed a sort of relationahip with one place because I used to go there so often I didn’t have to order to get just what I wanted. those little chain free places are special
YES God yes. Sometimes I specifically crave frozen pizza and no delivery pizza or restaurant pizza would fulfill the desire. It can be the other way around, too, I might crave delivery or restaurant pizza. But mostly, if I want pizza, I want the frozen stuff. It’s good. It doesn’t overdo the cheese/fat or toppings, the size is better, it is more predictable, the crust is must better. There’s just something about frozen pizza. 9 out of 10 times I prefer it.
A great trick for delivery/carry out is to heat up and lightly butter a skillet and place your slices in there on medium heat for like 3 to 5 minutes. It makes the crust crispy and the taste like twice as good compared to lukewarm soggy crust.
Thank you for the tip, but tbh I don’t want the big crust to be that crispy, then it is just a big dry piece of bread squeaking on my teeth. A soft crust I could kind of swallow but ugh just crust in itself is awful. Usually around here the crust is rather crispy to begin with. I just end up not eating it most of the time.
Sadly frozen pizza tends to not have good crusts. The only exception I’ve found was interestingly enough the cheapest of pizzas, the Totinos Party Pizzas.
It really depends on what kind of crust you like. I hate crust and delivery always comes with huge crusts. Tk pizza has a thin, crispy crust, so I can eat it easily.
Pfft, I always buy a frozen pizza specifically because I already know I’m not gonna feel like cooking after grocery shopping because it sucks. I don’t even pretend anymore. All that fresh food is for another day.
I specifically buy easy dinner stuff while.im out shopping for the same reason. I spent an hour getting food so now imma take it easy and eat this mac and chicken strips from the deli.
I’m curious how your shopping trips look like to be called exhausting, i just bike to the store, scan the products, stuff them in my backpack, pay, and bike home. Takes 15 minutes tops if i don’t leisurely walk around looking at the shelves.
I’m not the person you replied to, but when I go grocery shopping I usually buy ~$200 worth of groceries and expend a bunch of energy hauling them all up 3 flights of stairs to my place which can be tiring, plus traffic to/from the store, plus putting them all away, clearing space in the fridge, etc.
I’d guess it’s a combination of the physical and mental tolls of grocery shopping.
As a family that tries to cook as many of our meals as possible and generally visits the store once a week, it can be a big endeavor. To make balanced, healthy meals for the whole week requires a large variety of ingredients. This makes meal planning before the trip and having a list necessary, and then there’s a lot of searching for things that may not always be in stock.
Additionally, we often restock household necessities and toiletries on this trip as well, which requires more planning and a longer list. Add all this together with carrying all the bags, putting things away, etc, and it can be pretty exhausting.
I’ve been on both sides and they’re both true. Biking in to get ingredients for one meal is quick. Taking a car to gather a week’s supplies (I still have to go back for something later) is a bigger endeavor.
I try to time it with my work schedule, which changes a lot. Old people block aisles and chat from 10 to 12. It’s deathly busy from 3 to 5.
Taking a look at the other replies can certainly explain how American grocery stores became such big places. I’m American, but have the luck of comparing to European town layout and actually being walking distance from a grocery store. Theoretically, if the shops (and streets and parking lots) themselves were smaller, you could make frequent backpack-sized trips for fresh whatever because it would be a tiny distance.
I’m in the UK, the supermarket is less than 10 minutes away by car, but it seems impossible to spend less than an hour in there shopping for a family of 4. There’s a smaller shop in walking distance, but everything costs more there and it’s not economical for a weeks worth (not to mention the more limited range).
My solution is to pay the big store to pick it for me, then I just collect it. Cheaper than delivery, they’re the ones sat waiting for me and if there’s a sub I don’t like or something I forgot, it’s just a quick visit, not an odyssey.
Still use the local but just for top ups if needed
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