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CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Any way you slice it, the damage is done to Domino's Pizza stores in Charlotte that have nothing to do with last week's YouTube controversy. Poor sales even threaten to close some stores.
"I felt sick. I was disgusted, appalled," said Mack Patterson, owner of several Charlotte Domino's Pizza stores.
Patterson is talking about a video posted on-line, which shows two former Conover, N.C. Domino's Pizza employees doing disgusting things to the food they're preparing.
"It was almost like an angry button pushed inside me that I just had to get something off my chest," Patterson told NewsChannel 36.
Patterson placed a full-page ad in Friday's Charlotte Observer.
"To our valued customers and friends," the ad reads. " Recently, an unflattering video was circulated on the Internet by two former employees from another franchise -- from a store I do not ownthey greatly impacted our business and affected more than 600 employees and their families."
Charlotte area Domino's stores are hurting. At its worst point this past weekend, sales dropped by 50-percent.
"We couldn't put people to work," said Patterson. "We didn't have sales."
Patterson told us that if things don't improve stores couldn't survive. A major concern is for his workers who already have had to sit out.
"We didn't have hours for people who depend on those hours and that's unacceptable," he said. "That's unacceptable for the people that I work with who have been loyal to me and that have been good to our customers."
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We wondered how often something like the Conover situation happens. A food health inspector of 24 years told us she couldn't recall an instance where a Charlotte restaurant was busted because employees contaminated food on purpose.
"I needed to make sure that this community that I've supported, that I live in, knows that that is not us and that we don't do those things," said Patterson.
He's not sure the ad will bring customers back.
"I know that we've been advertizing for 50 years to call us and we'll deliver to you," Patterson said. "I'm asking now for people to come in and visit us. Come see the inside of our stores. Our kitchen's are out front. They are not in the back room."
