“Believing more choices meant more chances for screwed-up orders, Monaghan insisted on a bare-bones menu: only small and large pizzas and Coke to drink. “We had to beg on our knees to get Diet Coke in,” says Harry Silverman, a former Domino’s chief financial officer.”

“Little Caesars grew slowly until the mid-1970s, when Ilitch started promoting two-for-one pizza deals. “Pizza! Pizza!” worked so well that he installed conveyor-belt ovens to keep pies coming.”