Trinidad and Tobago Pizza Culture, Geek Culture, Pizza Politics and The Future

Pizza is an international cornerstone of modern geek culture and is one of the things that I, as a geek, find of great importance. Maybe it is that it is a food that one can eat with one's hands. Maybe it is because it can be ordered with any number of things on it. Maybe it is because it can be delivered to where one is. Maybe it is that it is high in salt and fat, two aspects of our diet which we have maintained since our ancestors roamed the Serengeti¹ - things which were good for humans then, but which are not so good for us now.

That said, last night I had a craving for pizza. Not the international conglomerate of Pizza Hut, whose pizza I don't find very palatable and who always seems to have an issue with drivers in San Fernando. Granted, Pizza Hut is where the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society holds meetings (always in the North, which is why I don't attend.)

There are other pizza places - Pizza Boys, which never seems to have drivers to deliver... and then there is a Papa Johns, but those are all in North Trinidad for some insanely Trinidadian reason (they almost never put the good stuff in good places). Obviously, I have a pizza dilemma - but on this occasion it was a very specific craving: I wanted a Mario's pepperoni pizza.

Mario's phone number for their Marabella location wasn't anywhere I could find. I took a chance. I Googled Mario's Pizza and found out that they have a website. Seriously - MyMarios.com. I started clicking around to get the locations and phone numbers, but an annoying voice interceded. My hackles rose. This site must have been by one of those local companies which does these annoying websites that waste bandwidth instead of helping people- and so it was: Teleios Systems, a company which has done a few government websites in Trinidad and Tobago and which seems completely unaware of how annoying their flash is for people who don't have true broadband: presently, approximately all of Trinidad. The site gave me redirect loop hell when there really is no excuse for that.

I do hope that a lot of money wasn't spent on the website, but I'm pretty certain that a lot was. Poor Marios. They should know bigger names aren't the best, as this article indicates:

...Mario’s does not have the deep pockets of their competition but it has made a strong commitment to marketing. It budgets and spends 4% of sales consistently on marketing. In Trinidad that goes a long way, especially when it teams up with the Trinidad office of the International McCann Erickson Advertising Agency. The director of the Agency is Fernen who has works very close with Harford and operations director Jerome Marquez to form a Mario’s marketing brain trust. Not only are they business partners but they are good friends as well. Mario’s will come up with what they want to do marketing wise and McCann will give them a hook for an idea and support them with graphics and media placement. Case in point: Before Pizza Hut was about to introduce The Edge to Trinidad, Mario’s wanted to do something to counter the move. The Mario’s counter strategy was their No Limits pizza campaign created by McCann Erickson, which very likely derailed the introduction by Pizza Hut...

As you can see, I learned a lot through searching the web about a pizza place that pretty much made the pizza market in Trinidad and Tobago.

What is most interesting, at least to me, is that Mario's Pizza is trying to be serious about the web. As an old-school geek, it is good to see that Mario's is going that way and making their information available on the Internet - yet as an old-school geek, it is also disturbing to see that they are approaching it in such a 1990s fashion.

But the pizza. Back to the pizza.

I couldn't find the contact information on the website. I was about to give up when I thought to text my closest food friend - one SMS message, suddenly I had the number. The phone call, a typical San Fernando experience, went something like this...

"Hello, Thank you for choosing Mario's... how can I help you?"

"Hi, you deliver to San Fernando, yes?

"Usually we do."

"Is tonight usual?"

"Let me check..."

{On Hold for about 2 minutes}

"Yes, we can deliver to San Fernando tonight..."

Thus I ordered my pizza, and it showed up in an hour after the driver called for directions (!). But here's the thing - why do I always have to ask if they can deliver? Simple. Labor is a problem. I always tip the pizza guys - they form an important part of geek culture, plus they tend to remember the house when I do - but they don't really make that much. How much, exactly, I am not sure.

But what I am sure is that if CEPEP workers, who are paid by the government to sit around, paint stones, sit around, cut grass, sit around... if the CEPEP workers make more than pizza drivers, geek culture goes out the window. Healthcare is already going out the window for much the same reason, so I suspect that this will happen; paying nursing assistants $932TT a month while paying CEPEP workers $115 TT per DAY certainly sends a strong message.

The geeks may starve in the creation of a culture of curb-sitting. I suppose the plan is that people will send Trinidad companies curbs to be sat on in the future, and this training is important for the future of Trinidad and Tobago.

Where is a geek political party when you need one? From South Trinidad, not those Northies. The North people get everything, and apparently think that the universe revolves around them... sadly, for all intents and purposes, it does. No wonder Trinidad and Tobago has 12% internet penetration, the lowest in CARICOM. A combination of curb-sitting and failed geography by government and businesses... Trinidad and Tobago extends beyond Port of Spain and its environs.

We need a political party which truly understands the Pizza culture, because the Pizza culture is linked to people who are at keyboards - students, professionals, entrepeneurs. The people who are moving ahead, or trying to, with the country prancing and dancing behind it.

But thats OK. I got my pizza this time. Keep getting me my pizza, and I'll be in a better mood. Deny my pizza, and you'll feel my keyboard's wrath.

Geeks need to eat.

Spare me the rum politics. Give me Pizza Politics.

And give me a number where I can place my order.

¹Reference: Human Instinct: How Our Primeval Impulses Shape Our Modern Lives