But after being forced to stick with the $5 price on the Hot-N-Ready deals, he said he couldn’t cover his franchise payments to the company and ended up facing off against Little Caesars in court – a case that he lost. Knox, who had previously operated successful Little Caesars franchises in other markets, sold 12 stores in Albuquerque before moving to Kansas City and taking over 16 company-operated stores in the area. When he started charging $5.99, the franchisor pressured him to stick with the $5 price since the company was advertising that price nationwide. He said that, due to Kansas City’s high occupancy costs and taxes, he couldn’t make money selling the pies at that price. Little Caesars might be the third largest pizza chain in the country, but you won’t find any of their stores in Kansas City these days.Īs the Kansas City Star reports, the man who owned 22 Little Caesars operations in the metro Kansas City area has closed them all down-and he blames their demise on the chain’s $5 Hot-N-Ready deals.Īlan Knox had waged a long-running battle against the $5 deals with Little Caesars’ corporate headquarters in Detroit.