Telepizza's 3x1 deal: From 19 euros to 30, according to customers

From the 19-euro 3x1 to a 30-euro dinner: the decade that ate Telepizza

The math is simple and painful. Not so long ago, three medium Telepizza pizzas cost around 19 euros, rounded up, or 21 if you break down the 7 euros per unit that those who trinc the offer mention. Today, that same home delivery meal costs, according to customers, around 30 euros. The product, in the opinion of many users, has not improved. The price, yes.

The striking thing isn't the price increase. It's that the deal that, according to one participant's account, made it the strongest home delivery company in the country is also the one remembered today with complaints about price and quality.

The deal that built the empire

For years, the 3x1 on medium pizzas was the flagship. Three specialty pizzas at 7 euros each, for delivery or pickup. A price that, while not cheap, was affordable. The promotion remained active for a long time and was massively requested. With it, the brand grew and became, according to one user's account, the leader in delivery.

Note: for that participant, success never depended on quality, but on the fact that no one else was doing the same thing. In the 90s, according to their memory, with no real competition, a family pizza with two toppings cost about 2,400 pesetas, almost 15 euros at current exchange rates. Expensive even then.

How much does a Telepizza delivery pizza cost today?

A single individual pizza costs around, according to one customer, 20 euros. Three, according to another, between 30 and 31. Those who order once a year budget 15 or 20 euros. Those who order twice, think twice.

The promotion policy doesn't help either: suddenly packs with fries, ice cream, or a football appear that, in the opinion of one user, confuse more than they attract. If a pizza costs X, why is the combo cheaper than the individual product?

From the 3x1 to 30 euros: the timeline

As one participant recalls, in 2012 the chain launched a supposed bombshell: "medium" pizzas for 3 euros. The promotion worked, although those medium pizzas were anything but medium. The dough shrank, and so did the quality. Over the years, the change in ownership — the new owners, Campofrío's, according to a small shareholder's account — coincided with the reduction in ingredients and the push from competitors.

Not so long ago, the 19-euro 3x1 was still alive, several forum users recall. Then, the escalation. With one user's comparison: Domino's offered 3 medium pizzas for 18 euros, 6 each.

The supermarket alternative: 8 euros for three pizzas

While the chain raised prices, the supermarket basket went in the opposite direction. With dough, cheese, and branded sieved tomato, three homemade pizzas cost 6 or 8 euros, made to taste and without waiting for delivery.

The list for those who have tried it: two dough bases (2.25), a bag of cheese (1.20), tomato sauce (0.70). Ingredients aside. The full breakdown, item by item, leaves no room for argument.

Why Telepizza's prices went up

Here the versions clash. One current attributes it to pure inflation: raw materials, energy, and the minimum wage rise, and the cost is passed on to the customer. Another, more uncomfortable one, maintains that the company always relied on cheap labor and cheap product, and when both became more expensive, it had nothing left to sell.

What almost no one disputes: the quality dropped significantly long before the price increase. Those who were small shareholders tell it plainly: back in 1999-2000, the company couldn't do any more, and the founder sold his shares.

The perennial question remains. Was Telepizza a pizza too expensive for what it offered, or did the market — the neighborhood, the supermarket, the home oven — simply learn to do it better and cheaper? Both answers fit. Neither brings back the 19 euros.