Pizza Hut Closing 250 Locations Across the U.S.

When I was a kid, going out for family dinner at Pizza Hut in my small Nebraska town was a highlight of the month. The red pebbled cups, the salad bar, the jukebox, Q-Bert video game! All of it etched into my mind. We'd get two pies, a medium pepperoni for the kids and a small supreme, without green peppers, for mom and dad.

Pizza Hut is still my go-to quick and easy dinner, even if nowadays we order online and pick it up, and eat at home. The taste and smell bring me back to 1986 every time.

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Unfortunately, Pizza Hut isn't immune to the realities of the modern restaurant industry. Several news outlets are reporting that Pizza Hut's parent company, Yum! Brands announced this week that the pizza chain would be closing 250 underperforming locations this year.

They say the closures will happen early this year. But the company hasn't announced which locations are closing yet.

Pizza Hut was started in 1958 by Dan and Frank Carney in Wichita, Kansas. The country was hungry for pizza; within a year, they had expanded to six locations. Today, Pizza Hut has around 6,500 stores in the United States.

There are currently 30 Pizza Huts in South Dakota, with Sioux Falls leading the pack with six locations. Rapid City has three, and Hot Springs and Watertown both have two.