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Pizza Chains Offer New Entrees To Lure Customers

Chain pizza parlors are looking for ways to entice cash-starved customers, too, Jaclyn Trop reports, by broadening their appeal. No. 2 Domino's, for example, has added oven-baked sandwiches to its fare. It's trying to pre-empt what spokesman Tim McIntyre calls the veto vote -- when someone in a group wants something other than pizza.

A national trend toward saving money by cooking at home, coupled with rising costs for raw ingredients, has pizzerias squeezed at both ends. Domino's profits fell 32% last year and the company closed 108 stores in the U.S. But sales have been strong for concoctions such as Philly cheese steak, chicken bacon ranch, chicken Parmesan and Italian flavors.

No. 1 Pizza Hut also is enjoying success with a new menu of pasta dishes. "This move was long overdue," according to Jeremy White, editor of trade magazine Pizza Today, who says pizzerias "backed themselves into a corner with couponing and discounting" decades ago.

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