The Haysville Times
By Barb Walters
As the finishing touches are being put on Italian Bistro Restaurants in Andover, Augusta and other small communities, Haysville’s hopes for a full service dining establishment have been dimmed by Pizza Hut’s recent turn around. Once touting their intentions for an Italian Bistro for Haysville, Pizza Hut has scrapped those plans and instead decided to downsize their presence here. The current dine-in facility will be closing in the future and the company has plans for a Pizza Hut Wing Street to be located just south of the new Senior Housing Development. Wing Street will offer carry out and delivery only. The local Pizza Hut management could give no details on expected opening and closing dates, referring calls to Corporate Headquarters. A message left at their media relations desk went unreturned. Meanwhile, Pizza Hut’s turn around has left many residents feeling betrayed, some calling for a boycott. Former councilmember Tom Gibson said he was not surprised about the company backing out of the deal they made with the city.
“They were never a good neighbor to begin with,” he said. “I hate to lose businesses here but the truth is they don’t support the community in the first place. They aren’t Chamber (of Commerce) members, they would not sponsor a little league team, and they don’t donate pizza to Project Graduation at Campus, although various pizza restaurants outside of Haysville do.” Gibson suggested that citizens who would like to see any type of business come to Haysville to contact a franchise owner in the area. “If you want to have a Village Inn, for example, call the one in Wichita and suggest they take a look at locating a franchise here. This is an opportunity for someone else to come to town.”
Councilmember Mike Streets felt that the current Pizza Hut wasn’t getting a good enough response from the community to continue with their agreement to open a larger establishment here. “My family gets a pizza every week from the Pizza Hut, as we try to support all the business in Haysville that we possibly can,” he explained. “I am sure that their decision is based on the amount of support that they get from this community. I am very disappointed as I was looking forward to having a new Bistro restaurant in our community.”
Not everyone is looking at the decision in a negative way. “I am somewhat disappointed in their decision,” said Councilmember Keith Pierce. “But I’m certain that their decision was based on what would allow them to be the most successful here in town. I, for example, rarely would sit down and eat at the Hut…I am typically a carry out customer with regards to pizza. I am very pleased, however, that they have chosen to stay and believe that this action has actually opened up some new options for development of the area along Main Street. Granted, this does put the Realtor hat firmly back on the Mayor and somewhat on Council…but, we now have a nice additional property back along Main to wheel and deal with. I believe this situation offers more promise than penalty.”
The boycott seems to have had a positive impact on at least one Haysville business. Penny Felt, manager of Casey’s General Store, reported an increase in pizza orders. Last weekend, Casey’s employees were dividing large pizzas in half to fit into medium boxes as they had run out of the large boxes. The one thing that is clear is that Pizza Hut’s decision to break its agreement with the city will not stop Haysville from courting other businesses to come and experience a community with much to offer.