RE: Kenny Roger's Roasters
Sun, 08/2/09 4:22 AM
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I should give you a little background before I respond to this. I worked at Kenny Rogers Roasters as a manager (in charge of payroll, running shifts, customer service, and daily sales and labor paperwork, in addition to anything else that needed to be done) in Flint, MI from 07/1999 to 07/2003. We closed and went out of business just before the 4th of July that year. The first 2 years I was there we served just the Kenny Rogers menu (chicken, turkey, ribs, sides, muffins, (amazing) chocolate cake, etc.) Even though, KRR, was acquired much earlier, we finally remodeled sometime in 2001 to accommodate the Nathans Famous offerings. Since I started in 1999 through just before the remodel we had seen a steady decline in sales. After the remodel, which included select menu items from Nathans Famous, Arthur Treachers, and Miami Subs, in addition to the previously offered KRR menu, we saw between at least 300-400% increase in sales from the same month the prior year. This went on for about 3-4 months and then sales completely dropped off back to where they were prior to the remodel. The owners of the franchise I worked at tried to hold on as long as they could, but finally it was just too much, we started losing money each month after all the bills were paid and you can only do that so long before you have to so something about it. So, I worked my last day there in July 2003. (We were the last store remaining in MI when we closed our doors, the location in Saginaw, MI has just closed its doors 6 months prior). It was an awesome place to work and even though I have since graduated college and moved into an accounting career, I will always miss working there. I miss our customers, co-workers, and the food. It was the best job I have ever had in my 10 year span working in the food industry and if it were still open, I would probably even be working part time in addition to my full time job. That's how much I like it there!! We did not, and as far as I know still do not have a local Boston Market. The only somewhat "similar" chicken chain in Flint is Ya Ya's, which I consider to be a far inferior chain to KRR. We also have a KFC, but the one near where we were located did not open until after our doors closed. I would attribute part of our lower sales to the location as even toward the end I had talked to people in Flint who either had no idea where we were or that we even existed, but it had to be more than that...I mean our location was open for 9 years, so something within the economy must have changed within the last few years we were open...and mind you this was back in 2003, much before the current decline we are in had started. I know that over time our prices had also slowly, but steadily increased so that may have been a contributing factor, and maybe because we weren't quite a sit-down restaurant nor were we a fast food restaurant....in my opinion we were a cross between the two. Maybe that had a little to do with it too. I think that there were many contributing factors and it is hard to pinpoint just one, but I sooo miss that food. I loved our chicken, turkey, and ribs, the corn muffins were soo good also. And the chocolate cake...let me tell you if you never tried that cake, you missed out so much. It was absolutely delicious. Well, I hope this gives you a little insight into the MI locations and background in what happened to us. I am really glad to hear that there are so many people out there that miss that food too. I wish that I had the money to try to open one in or near each of the towns you live, including mine, but sadly I don't think very many people have that kind of money. Have a great day!
