What's wrong with Burger King? (1 Viewer)

[Chazz_S]

'Is Church's chicken a regional one?'

Do you guys have them in KS? Well, about eight years ago when I was in High School I know they used to serve that at my school, which I thought was pretty weird. Apart from that, there was only one Churches store that I've ever seen. I don't know if it's still standing but I've always thought it was strange that it lasted as long as it did. I'm not sure if they were ever widespread here, as I moved here to LA about 10 years ago.

 

[Philip_G]

as near as I can tell carl's Jr acquired hardees back in the 90s, when I grew up in MT we had hardees, they had frisco melts, roast beef, fried chicken, decent food. I then moved to OR and they had carl's Jr, super stars, chicken stars, you know the drill.
Then I moved back to the midwest where there was hardees again, but half the menu was gone, replaced by half of carl's jr's menu, and the logo is now that stupid star.

I don't know who roy rogers is... can't comment.

 

[Craig S]

Here's the Houston fast-food update:

McDonalds - Still #1. I'm really trying to stay away, although I like the spicy .99 chicken sammiches.

Burger King - Definitely in decline here. The two that I used to eat at occasionally are both closed. Haven't eaten BK in years. And yes, the fries suck. They were mediocre to begin with - when they changed them they became nearly inedible.

Carl's Jr. - None in this area that I am aware of.

Jack in the Box - Doing fine, I stop in occasionally - good pitas.

In N' Out - Not in Texas. Love 'em when I'm in CA, however.

Wendy's - Probably #2 here to McD's. I like the burgers & chicken sandwiches.

Arby's - Only one in the general area. Work used to be close, but we moved 8 years ago and I haven't been in Arby's since.

Subway - Going strong.

Taco Bell - Really the only fast-food Mexican chain here. Very strong. No Del Tacos or Taco Buenos near me.

KFC - Hanging on. I never go there, however - my fried chicken heart belongs to...

Popeye's - Love that chicken (spicy, of course) from Popeye's!! Their presence has grown slowly here, and their stores always do good business.

Sonic - Perhaps the fastest growing chain down here. They're popping up everywhere. I never eat there, however.

Long John Silvers - Only one in the area, but it's doing well.

A&W - Making a quiet comeback in this area, with a couple of stores opening in the last year. The root beer is still great, although I was VERY disappointed in the burger I had in my single visit to the newest location.

Roy Rogers - None here.

Whataburger - Texas-based chain, now spreading East (to Fl) & West (to Az). IMO the best fast-food burger in the area, by far. My favorite add-on - jalapenos!! Fries suck, however - I'll often grab a burger here and then hit McDs for the fries. They could be the In-N-Out of Texas if only they'd fix their fries.

 

[Kevin Eckhardt]

IMO some of the best fast food fries around are at Bojangles. They're slightly larger than Wendy's fries and covered in Cajun seasoning. Add a Cajun fillet chicken sandwich and you've got yourself a good lunch. Bojangles also makes great biscuits (you can get breakfast biscuit sandwiches all day) and has consistently good sweet tea.

I've never really been a fan of BK and the one near me is hard to get into and out of so it's pretty low on the list when I'm thinking about getting fast food.

Wendy's is my usual fast food of choice. Good food and good variety.

I occasionally stop by Arby's for their chicken sandwiches.

 

[Al.Anderson]

Wow, I thought it was just me that really, really, really hated the BK fries - I guess not.

I like McD fries the best, and BK's Whopper; but I wind up going to Wendy's most often because the burger and fries average out better then the other two.

Plus they have Frosties!

 

[MarkHastings]

McDonalds markets mainly toward children and Wendys markets mainly toward adults. BK seems to try and do both. I think they need to pick a marketing age bracket and stick with it, the rest will fall into place.

 

[Sami Kallio]

IMO by far the worst. The burgers are big but they are tasteless. Best burgers; BK and Sonic (). Best fries; Sonic because you can order them with chili and cheese, I don't eat fries otherwise unless they are thick.

 

[Malcolm R]

I agree, and they should pick the adult market. They've tried the kids' route in the past and just can't compete with McDonald's who has them all brainwashed with visions of Ronald McDonald and Hamburglar.

 

[BryanZ]

Remember when McDonald's fries were cooked in animal oil? Back then they were the best!

Remember when you were able to make it through drive-thru in under 2 minutes even when there were so many cars it was pathetic?

Remember when the people there had a clue what they were doing and pretended to care about you?

Remember this was about 12 years or so ago?

Fast forward to today. McD's fries are okay when they are hot. You wait between 5 - 7 minutes in drive-thru when there are only two cars ahead of you. Today they are more interested in their cell phone conversation than the customer in front of them. You order food to wait rather than seeing what is available at a glance.

In many ways their service has declined. You are treated little better than cattle yet pay more for the 'service'.

I used to work for McDonald's. I remember making 12 cheeseburgers, 6 Big Macs, and then 6 hamburgers and 6 cheeseburgers in less than 2 minutes. I remember if a customer wanted extra you loaded it on. Extra was literally extra. Today it is slightly more than normal. I remember giving customers a smile and thanking them for stopping by. I remember giving them the impression I cared even though they knew I didn't.

McDonald's has changed their menu due to potential law suits. (Remember the hot coffee a few years ago?) They have gone the way of appeasement due to animal activists. Adding salads to their menu was a good thing. The special shake and triple thick shakes are a good thing. The yogurt parfet (or however you spell it) and McGriddle are excellent. White meat nuggets are an improvement. However, for service and fries they need to get back to their roots.

If you improve your service and quality of food customers will flock to you. Nothing is more powerful than personal testimonies. Look at the success of SVS, VMPS, ACI, and AV123. None are the cheapest nor most expensive. However, in most (I can't speak for ACI but their being in business for over 25 years is a testimony to their word of mouth success) cases these businesses are customer service oriented who happen to manufacture home theater products. The owners and presidents of these companies are accessable and want to help. They even recommend others if what they make doesn't suit your needs.

So is appealing to everyone a good thing? In some areas, yes. Take Wal-Mart for instance. They have most everything at an excellent price. However, in most cases that diversification leads to disaster and that disaster is customer service.

So newer isn't always better. Change for the sake of change isn't always the best thing to do. Sometimes you are doing things perfectly and do not realize it until you change. Unfortunately, it seems rather than go back to the ways of old the new thing to do is to change further. And that is a customer service nightmare.

 

[MarkHastings]

McDonalds definitely has them brainwashed pretty well, so there's no point of even trying to compete with them. You don't hear a lot of kids yelling for BK, they always seem to latch onto McD's more. Even the difference in stores is major. McD's seems brighter, colorful, kid-friendly, etc. - BK just seems more dreary. It always has a darker appearance inside and it doesn't seem to have the appeal that McD's has.

I think a lot of that has to do with BK's "flame broiled" approach. Flame Broiled is NOT something that a child is too concerned about. They don't care what the food is, as long as it's surrounded by toys and bright colors.

Definitely going for the adult market would be a wise choice.

 

[DaveGTP]

We do a lot of fast food runs here at work. I was eating too much fast food (full time work, full time school, no time to make food), but I've cut back quite a bit. We almost never go to BK anymore.


Personally, I pretty much put McD's dead last. None of their food is good (except for maybe breakfast). It still seems popular around here. The burgers are sub-par, the chicken sandwiches are OK but Wendy's, Rally's & KFC's are all better. The variety sucks. The only thing I ever order is a McChicken and fries. And don't even start me on the Gristle McNuggets (thankfully replaced now with the new white meat nuggets).

Here, (right near the Dow Chemical corporate headquarters), the fast food places are hammered at Lunchtime (if I work a first shift). Wendy's is always the #1 line, tied with McD's.


Outside of work, pretty much the only fast food me and my wife eat is Taco Bell. Due to their late hours and different stuff *(mmm Chicken Baja Gordita. If they would only bring back the Santa Fe). Burgers and fries get old. Here, past midnight, it is either McD's (which just went 24 hours here this past year), Tim Horton's, or Taco Bell ('til 3am).


The problem with BK is that they have little variety and high prices. Rally's has burgers freshly cooked, for half the price. The BK fries are good when hot but suck big after a few minutes of cooling - not so great less than piping hot. I like BK burgers a lot but just a burger is always like $3+, a meal about $5.


I think Wendy's is dominating due to the 99 cent menu, everybody tells me the salads are the best, and their burgers are tasty. Wendy's has a lot of variety - we can always get agreement for a Wendy's lunch run, and every frickin' person ends up on it, at least for a 99 cent item or a Frosty.


And they are finally building a Quizno's here (the nearest was about 30 minutes away near my university and my old community college - I was a twice a week visitor during school weeks for about 2 years).BIG FAN OF QUIZNO's


On our wedding/honeymoon trip we stopped at Sonic and Del Taco out west - I wish we had those franchises. Excellent.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Count me among those that loathe the fries at BK, they're simply awful. I don't mind the onion rings every once in awhile, but they seem to leave this vicious after taste that makes me regret eating them.

Wendies, I guess is ok, but every time I go there they seem to mess up my order...I even had them fix a messed up order once...and they screwed up on it a second time.

Just so you don't think the order was too hard it was simply a hamburger w/o chese and only Ketchup and Pickles.

 

[Philip_G]

does anyone have a goodtimes burger nearby? they might be a semi local chain, but they're building one nearby and I haven't been to one yet.
I think that's the name of it anyway


http://www.goodtimesburgers.com/home.htm

 

[Jesse Skeen]

A lot of the Burger Kings in my area closed a few years ago because of a problem with the guy who owned the franchises, I think he went bankrupt. Several of them are now McDonald's now, which sucks since it should be the other way around. McDonald's food has just been way too bland lately- the Spicy McChicken sandwich was pretty good but they got rid of it quickly! Choices near where I work right now are McDonald's which I only go to when I'm tired of everything else, Carls Jr, Taco Hell and Del Taco.
A lot of Wendy's locations here mysteriously closed and either went vacant or became other food places, but some new ones have sprouted up recently.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

It's not Col. Sanders, it's the corporate big wigs. The man is rolling in his grave.

At least there's still a Kentucky Fried Chicken down the road where I live.

I wouldn't say McDonald's has the best fries, but definitely the saltiest and hottest if you get it fresh or eat it on the way back home. I still prefer thicker fries from Wendy's. Wendy's is my favorite fast food place. 20 nuggets for four bucks is awesome. And I like their burgers too.

Flame broiled or grilled is the way to go, but because BK puts their burgers inside a carousel, their burgers end up very very dry, or at least that's been my experience.

Popeye's, Lee's Famous Recipe, Church's, and Bojangle's are my favorite places for fried chicken.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I'm the marvelous magical Burger King, I can do most anything, I make magic and burgers and fries, and here's something new right before your eyes! (At end of commercial) : Food and fun for everyone- Burger King, yay!

Who's got the best darn burgers and a whole lot more? Burger King and I! (Still don't understand that one)

Juicy burgers just his size, feelin' special with a shake and fries, make it special, make it Burger King. (Doesn't that bring tears to your eyes?)

 

[Zen Butler]

Another fan of Wendy's. Burger King has always been roach. I liked McDonald's when I was 7 or 8.

Rally's is all wrong. Anyone who grew up poor will recognize the brand of cheese. This is the closest thing to mom's gross-ass welfare burger I have ever tasted. And tossing a bunch Season-All on your fries does not make them better.

 

[Chazz_S]

At first I thought, 'gee, he's right, I can't think of any'. After a few minutes though, it dawned on me that those 'cubicle lunch skit' commercials were for BK. Those things are actually getting very popular as they seem to be playing them more and more, and doing different 'skits'. However, it didn't even register to me that those were BK commercials when I read that quote, so are they really effective?

 

[Malcolm R]

Anyone remember "Herb"?

 

[Zen Butler]

+coughs+ Herb? Herb's not here.