It doesn’t matter whether you’re naughty or nice – if you live in a particularly snowy part of Japan, there’s a chance that a reindeer will be delivering your pizza next winter.
Yes, a reindeer.
According to an action plan (in Japanese, PDF), Domino’s Japan is considering the costs involved in delivery methods during times of high snowfall. While the price of using an SUV or a snowmobile are known, the costs involved in using a reindeer remain unknown. However, as the plan cheekily points out, reindeer doesn’t incur vehicle registration costs, they can reach a maximum speed of 80kph on snowy terrain, they can be contracted for use only during the winter, and the use of reindeer for delivery would be great for PR (hey, it’s got us writing about it, and we’re not the only ones).
Currently, the Domino’s Japan team is working on training the four-footed beasts to follow the delivery staff, and trying to figure out how to adapt the pizza box containers for being placed on the reindeers’ backs. We assume that making change will be part of the advanced training.
You can get a look at the reindeer training sessions here (depending on your mood, you could soundtrack it with some holiday-themed music, or the rockin’ tunes used in Rocky IV’s training montage scene).
Now, we don’t want to be the Grinch who ruins your holiday spirit, but despite the action plan, we’re skeptical that this will actually come to pass. (Then again, you probably wouldn’t believe that a zoo in Ibaraki sold pairs of jeans that had been ripped up by lions and tigers, but that did happen…) Either way, around this time in 2016, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of fun, and as long as the reindeers get a piece, Domino’s Japan should be in no danger of getting a lump of coal in their stockings come Christmas Day.
