Little Caesars Pizza is rolling out its new Pizza Portal — a digital ordering app that allows you to order, pay for your $5 pizza-pizza and then pick it up, all without speaking to a single soul — in, yes, you guessed it, Tucson.
Little Caesars began testing the app Monday, Aug. 7, at its 14 Tucson locations before rolling it out nationwide early next year. Why Tucson?
Well, no one with the Detroit, Michigan-based chain — which is the largest carryout-only pizza chain in the country and the third- largest pizza chain overall, according to the company — can say, but this isn’t the first national chain in recent memory to put Tucson at the center of testing new innovation and products.
In late 2014, Five Guys Burgers & Fries introduced its milkshakes at the Marana location, 7077 N. Thornydale Road. The shakes made their national debut in 2015.
In June, an east-side McDonald’s restaurant became the first in Tucson and one of the first in Arizona to be equipped with touchscreen kiosks patrons can use to order food and pay.
The Pizza Portal builds on Little Caesars ordering app that it rolled out at a couple of its Tucson restaurants in February. The Pizza Portal expands that app by allowing you to order, pay and then, using a three-digit pin or QR code sent to you after you pay, to pick up your pizza from a locked warming case at the restaurant.
Little Caesars spokeswoman Tina Orozco, in an email, said the company plans to have 100 restaurants around the country testing the Pizza Portal by year’s end before rolling it out company-wide early next year.
You can download the app for free from Google Play or the App Store.
Tucson’s 14 Little Caesar locations include 515 E. Grant Road, 4130 N. Oracle Road, 659 W. Valencia Road and 64 N. Harrison Road.
