MOD Pizza’s website greets visitors with the slogan “Unlimited Toppings, One Price.” But Northwestern’s MOD location appears to have gone rogue.
While last academic year’s pizza meal exchange option allowed for unlimited toppings, the meal exchange is now limited to a cheese pizza or any single-topping pizza, as well as a salad option that remains unchanged. Students have the option to upgrade to unlimited toppings for an additional $3.
The change to MOD’s meal exchange options this year shocked the campus.
“I was appalled, to be honest,” Bienen sophomore Henry Lazzaro said as he stood in line at MOD. “Last year, I would get a pizza with six or seven toppings, and now it’s like they’ve completely limited what you can do to one topping. I think it’s greedy.”
MOD was busy around lunchtime during the first week of classes despite the changes, but there were many untopped pizzas on Norris tables.
McCormick freshman Mohammad Alkhodari said he had been excited to visit MOD for the very first time.
“But I had come with the initial thought that you’re allowed to get as many toppings as you wanted,” he said. “I felt scammed.”
Few students said they were interested in paying the $3 upgrade for unlimited toppings.
Weinberg sophomore Helena Cesarz said that $3 was overpriced “just to make the pizza maybe better.”
“I know a lot of people who are really mad about it because they think the only good thing about MOD is how many toppings you can have,” Cesarz said.
She usually orders a Dillon James — MOD’s margherita equivalent — and says the meal exchange change doesn’t really affect that order.
Medill freshman Ali Mohammad has declined to patronize MOD entirely for the moment.
“I’m a person who likes a lot of toppings on his pizza, so the reason I haven’t tried it yet is because I’m not interested,” Mohammad said. “What am I going to do with one topping?”
Bianca Umaña-Taylor, a SESP sophomore and transfer student, said when she attended American University last year, its pizza restaurant on campus offered three toppings.
“I was a little disappointed,” she said regarding the new MOD meal exchange. “But I do appreciate them allowing us to use multiple drizzles — sauces, if you will.”
Many of MOD’s customers during the first week back were freshmen. Umaña-Taylor speculated that many older students who were familiar with the unlimited topping policy from last year were unwilling to use a meal exchange on MOD now.
Lazzaro, the sophomore, will be ordering a salad if he visits MOD from now on.
“No more pizzas,” he said.
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