tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption

CHAIN -- Boston Market
Owner -- McDonald's
Primary Operating Region -- Spotty
Number of Locations -- 630, says the website

We had lots of Boston Markets for about ten minutes.  One is now a Krispy Kreme.  One is now a Taco Bell.  One is a vision place.  One got torn down.  You get the idea.

Boston Market experienced a stunning era of growth that was only matched by its ability to crash and burn.  Whole regions died as quickly as they were born.

Boston Market started out as Boston Chicken.  The first store opened in Newton, Mass in 1985 by George Naddaff and Elliot Feiner.  A group of investors bought the chain in 1992, moved the chain west, and went public.  The height of popularity came in 1997 with over 1,200 units.  The bottom fell quickly, bankruptcy followed, and McDonald's picked up the pieces.  Blame appears to primarily go towards the financing of franchisees in a way that couldn't really be afforded.  Then again, the whole segment basically failed.  Boston's key competitor, Kenny Rogers Roasters, collapsed even more spectacularly, to the point it effectively no longer exists.  If you blinked, you missed all of this.

The concept is "home replacement meals".  Nobody cooks anymore, right?  I mean, except me.  But the rest of you are eating out all the time.  So Boston Market has this drive-thru where you can get a real meal, take it home, and put it on the dining room table.  But let's face it...Dining room tables are for homework and silly craft fads.  You put six figures into that spectacular kitchen with stainless steel appliances and a restaurant-grade fan unit, and the only appliance that gets used is the microwave.

Then there's the menu.  I had a simple assessment of Boston Market: Boring.  The chicken was boring.  The macaroni and cheese was boring.  The corn was boring.  Boring Boring Boring.  It was all very BORING.  Flavorless and BORING.  BLEAH.  BORING.  Did I mention it was BORING?  Kenny Rogers Roasters was SO much better, which is ironic because I find Kenny Rogers the singer to be BORING.

Boston still may not survive.  McDonald's will probably pull the plug if they don't show significant improvement sooner rather than later.  Boston is trying out a few things including delivery, co-branding the chicken in supermarkets (both hot and packed in the frozen foods), even co-branding in McDonald's.  

Give them credit for trying, anyway.

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