Does Pizza Hut Still Have Those Fabulous Retro Red Cups?
When thinking back to Pizza Hut, '80s and '90s kids have a lot to remember. Many of us can still picture the chain's unique architecture and aesthetic in our mind's eye: the stained-glass light fixtures, the salad bar, the glass parmesan shakers. Or maybe, in elementary school, you got free personal pan pizzas for reading, as part of the Book It! program. The chain estimated in a Twitter post that about 20% of the country participated in the promo between 1984 and 2014.
But over the last decade, Pizza Hut has closed hundreds of locations. The chain has struggled to stay relevant in the digital age, which is likely the real reason it started to disappear. And many of our favorite classic elements have gone away. As customers began to demand food faster, Pizza Hut introduced express ordering options and shrunk their dining rooms, so those iconic red roofs vanished. Another one of the losses millennials are most sad about is the chain's classic red plastic cups. But thanks to a retro marketing push, the cups made a brief comeback.
Here's the truth behind Pizza Hut's nostalgia push
As Pizza Hut's business dropped about a decade ago, analysts blamed the chain's refusal to modernize. The chain was having difficulty keeping up with competitors after it got rid of millennials' favorite items, like those iconic red plastic cups. But now, the chain is hoping throwback nostalgia will pay off.
Over the past few years, Pizza Hut has brought back cherished traditions. They relaunched Book It! with comedian Craig Robinson, Pizza Hut's chief marketing officer Lindsay Morgan told Mashed. They even released items like mini basketballs, the Big New Yorker pizza, and a retro clothing line that had '90s fans excited. Also in the retro merch drop? Red cups, emblazoned with the chain's classic logo. They were listed for $9.99 for a four-pack and, predictably, sold out quickly.
Sadly, the cups are not currently for sale, and Pizza Hut's merch website displays no available products. We don't know when you'll be able to relive your childhoods and snag one of those retro red Pizza Hut cups again, but we agree with what Pizza Hut said on Twitter back in 2021: "Those red cups made everything taste better."