A & W Predicted to Bite the Dust

According to a MSNBC article, A & W (the restaurant franchise chain) owned by Yum! Brands and for sale since January with no buyers, won't be around next year.  Their beverages, owned by Dr. Pepper/Snapple, will continue however.
 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43486360/

I wonder what will happen to the franchisees.  In the town over from me A&W is the lone fast food operation not counting the McDonalds and Culvers out by the interstate, but they're also a couple of miles out.  Hopefully the owners will be able to continue in some form.
 
Brad

Can't say I'm surprised.  Around here, they are generally paired up with Long John Silvers.  I wonder what will happen to those guys.

I can't say I'm surprised, either. I'm actually amazed they've lasted this long. When I was in high school their food quality went down the tubes, and then they started using soft-serve ice cream in their root beer floats. Blech. It's easily been 20 years or better since I've even considered eating there.

There's an old A&W drive-in in Cortland, NY that I like to stop at when I'm down there. The food tastes better there than the newer ones, to me anyway. I'd be sad to see it go.

Seamus, you are right about the older A&W's. We have a favorite on the outskirts of Milwaukee that we always stop at. They still have the Mama, Papa and Teen burgers just the way I remember them. And, they still have car hop service. I would hate to see them go.

collinf


Can't say I'm surprised.  Around here, they are generally paired up with Long John Silvers.  I wonder what will happen to those guys.

 
The same pair folded in Knoxville about six months ago.  Popeyes remodeled the place and just opened about a month ago.  Iwanago and myself stopped in there a few weeks ago and the line was enormous and the wait was one hour.  I would not stand in line a hour to see the queen of England.  We left and went somewhere else.  I could not believe that many folks would tolerate a line that long to get Popeyes chicken.
 
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Seems like the A&W today is certainly not the A&W from my youth (many moons ago). I go to the one here (paired w/LJS) because I get a craving for the cold mug rootbeer but it's not the same. I am not surprised to see that they are sinking.
 

A&W was the turn around point at one end of our endless Friday and Saturday night cruising back during American Graffiti days. They used to serve a loose meat hamburger that I loved and I also had my first Submarine sandwich there.

Where I am the A&W is paired with a LJS as well - the LJS has become dismal, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them both gone.  I don't know what happened to the LJS food, but it is a shadow of itself.   The A&W is still good. 

ann peeples


Seamus, you are right about the older A&W's. We have a favorite on the outskirts of Milwaukee that we always stop at. They still have the Mama, Papa and Teen burgers just the way I remember them. And, they still have car hop service. I would hate to see them go.

Ann:

When my family lived in New Berlin in the 70's there was a family-owned franchised A&W root beer stand/drive-up out in New Berlin on the old 2-lane highway (National Avenue?).  Is that the one you were referring to?  Is it still there?  Around here, Sonic took that old A&W model and has really made a go of it.  In a way, I'm surprised.  But I seldom ever eat at a Sonic.  Food just seems too greasey and fatty to me.
 
-Collin

LJS has been dropping like flies.  I do not know what their issue is but they use to be really good.  No longer.  I hate to see a KY franchise do so poorly but probably green shades and poor management.  A & W has also been slipping large.  As far a fish franchise goes with quick service, Capt D's is far superior even though I do not frequent them very often.
 
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

There are A&W's paired with KFC around here.
I grew up in a small town, the only fast food was A&W, car hop service and frosty mugs.

Arby's is next.................

Arby's should have been first.

Arby's new ad campaign is "good mood food". My nieces and nephews sing "poo poo food". They're very astute youngsters.

The only area A & W around here is paired with a Long John Silver's. They cook the french fries for A & W in the same fryers they use for the fish at LJS. As a result, the fries tasty like LJS's nasty fish. Gross!
 
Only thing worth getting at the A & W is the roof beer.

improviser

Only thing worth getting at the A & W is the roof beer.

 
Exactly. And since I can also buy the root beer at virtually any gas station, convenience store, grocery store, and even fairly often the dollar store, why would I bother?

A an W's are paired with kFC out here. Not too many left.

No A&W's around here. We get the LJS paired with KFC on one end of town and KFC paired with Taco Bell on the other side of town. We've obviously done something to pi$$ off the big guy.

I would bet that all the Yum! Brands dual-location franchise stores will easily weather the change, because the store with an A&W will just convert the menu of one side over to one of the other "concepts" - KFC, Long John Silver, Taco Bell or the Wing place which I've only seen once (in Athens).
 
I think that there's a stand-alone A&W near Murphy, NC, but I can't be sure.  Are there any other stand-alones in the southeast?

A&W's website has a store locator, and it shows Murphy, NC paired with a Long John Silver's. Similarly, the store locator does show stand-alone A&W's all around the country, with one in Cochran, GA. Most are in really small towns.
 
I note that Yum Brands has not replied to this prediction by a website called 24/7 Wall St.
 
Whenever a financially healthy franchisor wanted to walk away from its franchisees, there were always some gyrations. If Yum does decide to pull the trigger, my guess is that the remaining franchisees will buy the brand for a song and establish their own mutual franchising company.

Up until I believe 2006 there was a thriving standalone A&W along one of the main highways in Kingsport, TN. One day it was closed and a story ran later that the owner wanted to retire and no buyer could be found. Never saw a for sale on the place and in short order the building was torn down and the car dealer next door expanded into the lot.
Always looked like a booming business and I thought the story a little odd.

when i was a kid i remeber a stand alone building in northern illinois that was a fantastic a&w, car hops and wooden barrell root beer etc, i remeber the burgers were very tasty, 30 years later i found one co branded inside a sunoco station in south florida and couldnt even eat it after first bite, the birds in the parking lot loved my sandwich and fries better

Huh.  I've been wanting to swing through Cochran to try Scott's BBQ.  Hopefully that A&W will still be around when I do.  I'd like to photograph it before it vanishes.

When I was a child, my Dad was a captain on the Erie Canal.  Near one of the locks west of Amsterdam was a privately owned hot dog stand.  The had a huge A&W root beer barrel and served it in icy frosted mugs. It is one of my fondest memories, stopping there with my Dad.
 
Walt

Im not nuts over root beer but I do enjoy the A&W draft. The stuff in the cans or bottles seems quite different to me.

I wonder if they'll stay in business long enough to give away the 8 Harley Davidson's in the upcoming promo July 5 through August 22.
 
http://www.awriptoride.com/home.php
 
 

The wing place is evidently Wing Street.
 
http://www.yum.com/company/ourbrands.asp
 
 

Drove through A&W for a root beer float after having a breakfast burrito at Joe and Aggies in Holbrook, Arizona.
 
I hadn't done that in years which is probably part of their problem.
 
If the root beer was as good as it was when I was a kid I would frequent it more often.  Same with the service.
 
A place that specializes in root beer should know that you wait until the foam subsides and add more root beer before serving it.  I was cheated!