The chains that aren't there

Somebody on the page talking about Tater Tots (side dishes) was pissed off about how the nearest Sonic drive in to him is 200 miles. I know what he means. There are many chains which advertise heavily here in Los Angeles, but they have zero actual stores in LA! Yet they tease us with pretty pictures. Ruby Tuesday's, and many others. Jerks.
As for Sonic, well, I liked them long ago in TX, but I don't know about them today. I went to a new one that opened several years ago about 30 miles out of LA, and was not happy.
Uh, the thing I really liked at Sonic, Jack in the Box, and Carl's Jr, was the fried burrito. They were all good, and now they are all gone.
Here's another odd thing here in Los Angeles. Okay, we have plenty of junk food like Tommy's Chili Burgers, or what I don't like so much, In-n-Out burger, Del Taco, Taco bell, etc, but for some reason we do not have White Castle (except frozen) or Krystal, or Maid-Rite. I don't know why. I would welcome any of those three operations. I really wish someone would give it a shot here. Maybe In-n-Out has too much of a stronghold here, I don't know.
-Scott Lindgren scottlindgren@netzero.net

We see Ruby Tuesday commercials regularly here, but don't have one.

What annoys me is seeing all the Whataburger commercials since they are a major sponsot of Big 12 basketball games and not having one anywhere near here, not even in Lawrence or Manhattan where 2 of the Big 12 schools are located.

BTW, White Castle was started in Kansas, and we the last ones here closed several years ago. But we can still can go look at the White Castle exhibit in the Kansas Museum of History.

quote:

Originally posted by salindgren

Somebody on the page talking about Tater Tots (side dishes) was pissed off about how the nearest Sonic drive in to him is 200 miles. I know what he means. There are many chains which advertise heavily here in Los Angeles, but they have zero actual stores in LA! Yet they tease us with pretty pictures. Ruby Tuesday's, and many others. Jerks.
As for Sonic, well, I liked them long ago in TX, but I don't know about them today. I went to a new one that opened several years ago about 30 miles out of LA, and was not happy.
Uh, the thing I really liked at Sonic, Jack in the Box, and Carl's Jr, was the fried burrito. They were all good, and now they are all gone.
Here's another odd thing here in Los Angeles. Okay, we have plenty of junk food like Tommy's Chili Burgers, or what I don't like so much, In-n-Out burger, Del Taco, Taco bell, etc, but for some reason we do not have White Castle (except frozen) or Krystal, or Maid-Rite. I don't know why. I would welcome any of those three operations. I really wish someone would give it a shot here. Maybe In-n-Out has too much of a stronghold here, I don't know.
-Scott Lindgren scottlindgren@netzero.net

It's difficult for me to put much stock in the opinions of someone who prefers a hamburger from Krystal to one from In-n-Out. What is your criteria for this choice pb

Scott, consider yourself lucky. I can't imagine anything out there that I'd need to eat to make my life more complete. Take Culver's. A very good hamburger as I'm sure In-n-Out is. Is it better than a burger you make at home? No. Another respected chain by some is The Waffle House. Scattered, smothered and covered is a great potato choice but I submit you can find something equally as good locally. Now what is a shame is when you can't get a local treat in another part of the country. I'm talking about a post you made (I think it was you) touting something like 5 avocado's for 99 cents. They can go on sale locally but never close to that nor probably as fresh. Or your great selection of Asian foods. By the same token, you'll never see Sheboygan hard rolls or a great brat or livermush or goetta. That you should moan about, not relatively generic fast or chain foods. Just my two cent take on your query.

It's an easy answer. Name recognition.
The way everyone travels today it pays to advertise outside of your market area.
Red Lobster is a good example of this practice, none here in this area but they have a large marketing campain here.
Also it could be national network advertiseing time that locals must air.
Chow Jim

Well, Jimeats probably understands something I don't, about marketing. The odd thing is that even 50 miles east of LA, the demographics are kind of close now to what you see in East LA. Namely, Latino. So, if it's the same folks here in Downtown as out there, how come they get all the places that MIGHT be good? Places that I'll never know about. BTW, it's my girlfriend who complains bitterly about the Ruby Tuesday spots. There MAY be one 6 hours away from LA. Ah well, I'll shut up now. I know I can cook better at home. MilwFoodlovers has me mixed up with somebody else! I don't care at all about avocados, OK? Nor Asian foods. I hate soy sauce. But see my post under "Mexican" regarding Mexican Groceries. Yes, I am grateful for the bounty we enjoy 'round these parts. I want some Sheboygan hard rolls now. Dammit. To porkbeaks: I don't know, if Krystal and White Castle were available 24 hrs here, or even Maid-Rite, I would probably get sick of them all after a while. IT'S WHAT YOU CAN'T GET THAT YOU WANT!! Darn it! In-n-Out is just overrated in my opinion. It was a little more $, but the old Hamburger Hamlet was REALLY good. Today they have slit their throats, I can't believe what they have done. They had really great burgers, little fried onions, great fried zucchini, fantastic cherry cobbler (heated), with ice cream, and kick-ass giant goblets of Long Island Iced Tea. I especially liked the store on Sunset, almost in Beverly Hills, about the 9000 block. Every Sunday, believe it or not, you could see Dean Martin watching sports at the bar! Right until he dropped dead. Amazing. As much as I hate LA, there are some fun features like that. Anybody else miss Hamburger Hamlet? I live downtown, and I also miss the location we had here, on Grand or something like that, and I miss the one we had on Wilshire, more or less in Koreatown. Ah, well, we all have to make do with the stuff at hand. Say, what about frozen dinners? Is that a "non-roadfood chain"?
Where do I post about that?
-Scott Lindgren scottlindgren@netzero.net

I'm not sure if chains are advertising outside their areas in order to go after travelers. I have a feeling it has to do with buying ads from the network. Those sonic ads are usually on cable chanels, not the big networks. Maybe the Comedy Centrals and A&E's just sell national ads and if you want to buy an ad on one of those outlets you get the whole county when all you really need is parts of it.

I know here in Detroit, Sonic's and an occasional Jack in the Box commercial annoys the hell out of me. If you're going to tease me with your advertisements, open a friggin franchise around here got darn it.

The worse part is, we don't even see Del Taco, Culver or Fatburger commericlas despite a franchise being located here.

We are finally getting a Sonic fairly close by. Not something we like a lot but maybe 2x a year. We too got tired of seeing the ads but not having one within a 100 miles.

We have Sonic ads here all the time in San Antonio,and there are two right here in Schertz.
However,I see ads for Ruby Tuesday's and there isn't one here yet.The operative word is yet,because I saw at the local Walmart a gift card for Ruby Tuesday's,so maybe they are coming here.
Also saw one for Logan's Roadhouse which is located on the NW side of San Antone as we locals say.
But no ads on local tv for Culvers or Logans which we have here now,which like Quartz I don't understand,since we have these franchises here.Don't know much about advertising.My late father took marketing etc.when he was studying for his MBA.My sister works in TV in New York and is or was taking business ad classes,so I might ask her how they sell advertising.

Yeah HollyDolly, We have a Logans around every suburban shopping center and yet no commercials.

It only leads me to 2 conclusions:

1. Our advertising markets are not important.

2. Someone up there is too cheap to pay for the advertisements.

LOL. A Sonic restaurant is nothing to get excited about. I wish they would go away from my area.

I would be happy to have a Sonics in our area. They sure beat the other fast food hamburgers.

One thing I have found at Logan's RoadHouse. If I know we are going to Logan's I can call the day before and ask the manager to cut us a couple of rib-eyes thicker than the normal 16 oz menu-size ($1.00 an oz), So when I want to get a 24 oz Ribeye, I can. We have only done this twice, but the steaks were quite good !

Advertising for companies like Sonic, McD's or Ruby Tuesday is purchased on a national or regional basis depending on how their advertising agency policies are. So if they are making national buys then it's going everywhere and if a restaurant isn't in your area, it's not designed to annoy you. Many times their idea is to just make people familiar with the name, and when people travel, they will try the brand. In the case of a regional buy, the region may cover 5 or 6 states, and the company may have not have outlets in every area covered by the regional buy.

"It's difficult for me to put much stock in the opinions of someone who prefers a hamburger from Krystal to one from In-n-Out. What is your criteria for this choice" pb

If Krystal's are the same as White Castle's, I'll take them over In-n-Out any day. In-n-Outs are the most over-rated burgers ever. Talk about bland. Hard for me to to put much stock in the opinions of someone that thinks In-n-Outs are great burgers.

quote:

Originally posted by porkbeaks

It's difficult for me to put much stock in the opinions of someone who prefers a hamburger from Krystal to one from In-n-Out. What is your criteria for this choice pb

It's funny, I guess, but I don't put burgers from White Castle or Krystal in the same category as those from other places such as In-n-Out. I think of them as an entirely different critter. Sure, they're burgers, but they are special. Not better or worse, just different and special.(By the way, I dont like Krystal's burgers.)

I suppose I feel similarly about White Castle hamburgers and Cincinnati-style chili. I do not consider Cincinnati-style chili to really be chili, but I love it, nonetheless. A White Castle burger will never compare with, say, the Beanie Burger at the Gahanna Grill, but it's still a great hamburger -- just different.

Scott,

There were a couple of White Castle franchises in the San Fernando Valley back in about 1979 or so. They just never caught on and the name was changed to West Castle but that failed too. I think the entire duration of it was less than three years. Darn. I get a couple of sliders every time I make it to Chicago. (After my Superdawg though!)

Speaking of marketing, here in LA, I have seen plenty of ads for Sonic, but there are none with 35 miles or so. A few years ago, in Dallas, I tried both Sonic and Whataburger, and of course they were not quite as I remembered them from 30 years ago. It's kind of funny to me that even as the chain expands pretty rapidly, I see no ads for Tommy Burgers. They must be doing OK without spots. I used to see many ads for Stuart Anderson's Black Angus. But not any stores in LA. I think too that I don't hear a lot of ads for chains on the local (highest rated) AM station, KFI, since food spots would primarily rely on visual appeal.
I think the advertisers who actually are in LA would be IHOP, Denny's, Del Taco, Taco Bell, Olive Garden (though not many in the city), KFC, Pizza Hut, etc.
In-N-Out advertises a lot, and they, like Tommy's, are expanding rapidly around SoCal. I agree that they are a whole different item from White Castle and Krystal, not really comparable. I've only tried one Krystal burger, I thought it was fine. Never had a chance to have a fresh WC, only the frozen ones, which can be improved with fresh ground pepper and a little dijon mustard. I think the people who like these two items are less focused on the beef, and more on the "dinner roll" quality of the bread, which is just not like a toasted burger bun, really. But that's OK.
-Scott Lindgren

I remember how excited - some - people were when a Taco Bell opened up in my home town when I was in high school. This development was so important to some of the more meat head members of my graduating class. I think they camped out overnight to be the first in line. I mean I can understand that for a Chick-Fil-A, but a Taco Bell?

Here in palm beach county a sonics opened up and I too wanted to reminiss about sonic frito pies and chili dogs as i remembered them from houston and branson, mo.......what a dissappointment. it seems corporateis spnding all their $$$ on smoothie advertising. what a joke.