"We didn't wake up one morning and forget how to operate," said David Brandon, Domino's chairman and chief executive officer, during the company's quarterly conference call. "We're just in a market where traffic is very hard to come by for everyone."

In fact, some of the chain's competitors are having a rougher time, he says. "Pizza Hut has struggled far more than we have in the environment," Brandon says. However, he acknowledges that Papa John's is currently the leader in the national, pizza-delivery environment.

International sales were a bright spot for Domino's quarter, which ended Sept. 10. Same-store sales were up 3% overseas year over year. Overall, the company and franchisees operate just over 8,200 units in the US and about 50 other countries.