Welcome to HickoryRecord.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

HickoryRecord.com - Hickory Daily Record

HomeNewsEntertainmentSportsLifestylesOpinionCommunityWeather Online Tools Jobs | Real Estate | Shopping | Classified

Lost business from gross-out clips forces Domino's to close

John M. Setzler Jr.

The Conover Domino’s Pizza recently closed its doors because of a decline in business after gross-out videos appeared on YouTube.

By Ragan Robinson | Hickory Daily Record

Published: September 28, 2009

HICKORY - The owner of the now-closed Domino's Pizza in Conover said the notorious gross-out videos two employees posted on YouTube cost him more than half his profits.

The store closed last Tuesday.

"My business was off 58 percent because of YouTube," said Kevin Hendren, the franchise owner.

He was at the darkened pizza shop Monday and said he will not reopen the Domino's, that neighbors the Kmart parking lot near Exit 130 off Interstate 40.

Hendren declined to say whether he has plans for the building.

"I'm just living day to day right now," he said.

Business at the Conover Domino's did not rebound after he fired two employees responsible for the videos, according to Hendren.

Five separate clips showed an employee who appeared to put cheese in his nose before putting it on a sandwich, pass gas on a piece of salami and sneeze on an order of cheese sticks then hide the resulting mucus under the cheese before boxing the order.

In one clip, the employee pulled down his pants, wiped himself with a sponge and then uses the sponge to wipe down a pan in the sink.

The videos gained a vast online audience. Conover Chief of Police Gary Lafone said he fielded calls from reporters with BBC, Inside Edition, Court TV and TV stations from as far away as St. Louis, Mo., in the wake of the controversy.

Michael Anthony Setzer, 32, of Conover, and Kristy Lynn Hammonds, 31, of Taylorsville, were charged with distributing prohibited foods, a felony.

Renee Travis, who works at Primetime Video next door to the Conover Domino's, said she was sorry to see the pizza pickup and delivery stop last week.

She went back to ordering from the Domino's a few weeks after the YouTube controversy, figuring the Domino's was cleaner then ever.

An employee at nearby Smoker Friendly said she was sad to hear the Domino's employees lost their jobs.

A typical Domino's employs 15 to 20 people, said Tim McIntyre, a corporate spokesman for Domino's Pizza.

"These are all people who lost their incomes because of what two people did," he said. "There were a lot of victims created by the prank these two individual pulled."

Hendren closed two of his Domino's franchises this year, according to McIntyre, though he wasn't sure where the second is located. He said Hendren still owned one Domino's franchise.

Nationwide, the disgusting YouTube videos cost Domino's an estimated 1 percent to 2 percent in sales, McIntyre said.

Domino's used the video controversy as a reminder to franchise owners every hire is important, he said.

The corporate headquarters also began encouraging franchises to conduct criminal background checks on potential employees.

Hammonds did have a criminal record. She was convicted in 2008 of misdemeanor sexual battery and is a registered sex offender. She was in the news a second time this month after being kicked out of Wilkes Community College. The college cited the state law known as the Jessica Lunsford Act that bars registered sex offender from knowingly being on the grounds of any place where minors are cared for or gather for regularly scheduled educational programs.

Hickory Daily Record reporter Richard Gould contributed to this story.