Arby's Attempts Re-invention

Not sure when NPR got into the fast food reporting game but http://www.npr.org/blogs/...utm_source=twitterfeed talks about Arby's and how the chain is trying to reinvent itself to gain market momentum.
 
It used to be a big treat to get to eat at an Arby's when I was a kid. The nearest one was 90 miles away in Lexington Ky and my sister and I would clamor to eat there when we visited the city.
 
At some point they stopped using giant hunks of beef that had come directly off a cow and began substituting a weird beef "substance" that had been formed in a factory. The article makes no mention of them possibly going back to their cow/beef sandwiches so it's doubtful we'll see a return to form anytime soon.
 
 

I will believe it when I see the sauce in a squeeze bottle on the table instead of packets. That includes Horsey Sauce. Too much weird gristle in the meat today. Sandwiches are smashed beyond recognition. And the meat is never hot.

Loved the old Arby's RB and the original Arby's red sauce.   ... If they would just get back to the early 70s product, i think their business would pickup.

My wife bought some Oscar Meyer deli sliced roast beef (cured) a couple of weeks ago.   When I made a sandwich, it had a slight Arby's RB flavor.    Then I realized the old Arby's RB was a cured beef chunk.   This is why you can't buy a piece of beef roast at the grocery and attempt making the Arby's copy-cat recipes and sandwich at home.
 
Now, if we can just figure out what the old cure mix was they used!!!

All this company has to do is offer a much higher quality product, despite the costs involved.  The materials they use to prepare their products are slowly driving people away.
 
They should bite the bullet, buy quality ingredients, and charge what it takes to make people WANT to come back.
 
Make a good sandwich and the people will come.  Make a sandwich that tastes like it's mass-produced, and the people will stay away.  It's just that simple.
 

i remember that they had some of the best fries in the 70s ,they were crinkle cut  little fries they were very good.

I liked Arby's back in the 70's when you ordered a beef and they sliced off of a big roast right in front of you. Then you could go and get a squeeze bottle and squeeze out a huge amount of horsey sauce for your sandwich and for your potato cakes.  Last time I went to Arby's was maybe 6 years ago and I had a reuben sandwich which wasn't too bad.

Used to love Rax Roast Beef.

Curious that the Arby's Jamocha shake takes just like Starbuck's mocha frappuccino. 

Hate the new logo. What I think they should do is put the beef from their angus sandwiches on a regular bun, charge a bit more for it, and sell them side by side with the formed stuff for a few months and see what the sales look like.

The profit margin per sandwich wouldn't be as high, but I bet the sales increase would make up for it. The only complaints I ever hear about Arby's is about the formed roast beef, and high prices for it. Most everything else there is pretty good.

I really think they're going the wrong way trying to be more like Subway. They should model themselves after a smaller successful chain like Chick-Fil-A.

Had a Roy Rogers roast beef sandwich last week on the turnpike. I miss that place.

gostillerz
Had a Roy Rogers roast beef sandwich last week on the turnpike. I miss that place.

I could understand missing it were it gone, but you said you had one last week. I thought Roy Rogers was gone.
 

The only RR left in NJ...are at rest areas. There's one in NYC near Penn Station.

I don't know. I think I'd rather keep my happy RR memories from many years ago...instead of stopping at a rest stop. Just one left in NYC kind of gives me the creeps. Like they are a holdout...in a tense situation.

I always say "aww...Roy Rogers"when I zip by the signs.

fishtaco


Used to love Rax Roast Beef.

There is one in Anderson Indiana and a few in Ohio....Russ 

I know what kind of roast beef Arby's uses.....you dont want to know......not at all what used to be. I assume their turkey is the same crap. Dont be fooled, my friends.

Russ Jackson

fishtaco


Used to love Rax Roast Beef.

There is one in Anderson Indiana and a few in Ohio....Russ 

 
Thanks Russ. Have an Uncle who lives near Anderson, will have to check that out next time I vist him.

http://www.theonion.com/t...rd-post:teaser:default

there's a roy rogers in cherry hill, nj - none at any of the rest stops on any of the highways over there, that i'm aware of.  the locations that are in pennsylania are on the westbound turnpike (as opposed to the ne extension part of the pa turnpike).  there are a half dozen stores in maryland.  haven't been on their website for a while - there might be a roy's in ny? 
 
absolutely LOVE roy's beef and they STILL use a hunk of meat...always disliked arbys and outright won't eat it since they use that chopped/pressed/formed junk. 
 
i keep telling roy's to reopen stores here in montco...still waiting :)

I'll stop at the Roy Rogers "situation" in NYC...to see if it's still the same.

There's one at the Alexander Hamilton rest area in Secaucus ...but it's a Roy Rogers Express...and it's a rest area too close to home to try to recruit company without seeming a little crazy. Crazy enough to propose the idea in NYC.

Those roast beef sandwiches better still be good. I know the chicken nuggets were ok a hundred year ago....and I am not a fan of chicken nuggets.

Pepsi tastes like coke too.

I'm terrible with English, even with it being my first language!

I "missed" having a RR sandwich, because I hadn't have had one in probably 25 years at the time when I ate one. I "miss" them now because there are none near me anymore. Better?

Is Arby's and Wendy's still owned my the same company? Because Wendy's just changed their logo too, and they're pretty similar. I don't understand why companies do stuff like this. All of the fast food joints that "update their image to something new and fresh" always look bad, and the food itself gets even worse.

Burger King used to be much better than McDonalds (except for breakfast). Almost at the exact same time they changed their image, they went down hill. 15 years ago, when you walked past a Burger King, you smelled meat grilling and saw the smoke. You don't anymore. Hell, Kentucky Fried Chicken used to be really, really good. Once KFC showed up, the pieces got smaller and even more greasy. Taco Bell? Same thing.

The more these places sway from their core items to reach a "greater audience", the worse they get almost universally.

I know this is Roadfood.com, and you guys hate chains, but remember that these fast food joints WERE Roadfood at one time.

Nope. Wendy's is no longer connected with Arby's, and has moved all of its operations back to Dublin, Ohio from Atlanta.

I haven't eaten at an Arby's in nearly ten years.
 
Outside New Carlisle, Ohio, on OH 235 just north of I-70 Exit 41 is a place called Ranchers Roast Beef, and they still slice their roast beef the way Arby's used to.  It's on the left (west side of the highway) heading north, opposite the Mel-O-Dee restaurant, just south of the Sunoco station.

I'll be going passed it in Jan. I love RB is it  worth the stop ?

I would eat at Arby's Roast Beef if they actually served roast beef. God knows what that garbage they have now is.

According to an ad in the local weekly paper we're getting an Arby's somewhere in town...probably on the west edge and possibly in the building that has housed a couple of other failed FF franchises.  That would create a lineup of Taco Bell/KFC, Culver's, and Arby's all within walking distance.

What I don't understand is, it's pretty hard to screw up Roast Beef, a top round ain't very expensive, 4 oz. on a roll [I need at least 1/2 lb.] say $6.00 for a quarter pounder, $12.00 for a 1/2, real meat seasoned well, lines around the block, wake up Arby's! wether cooked on site or a central kitchen, how could they go wrong?

When I was 16 the very first Arby's was a "destination" for my family.  Once a month or so we'd make the 20 mile trip from New Wilmington, Pa to Boardman, OH (a shopping-area suburb of Youngstown, OH (which then was the center of a prosperous metro-area of 250,000+) to enjoy their fresh-sliced roast beef sandwiches and Jamocha shakes.  And, it was an expensive meal in those days: $0.79 for the sandwich and $0.49 for the shake at a time when you could get a three piece fried chicken dinner w/ fries & slaw at Red Barn for $0.59 and two burgers, fries, and a 'shake' at McD's for $0.61.  And it was truly wonderful, even though we had to eat in the car and fries weren't even on the menu.
 
Some time in the early 1980's Arby's switched from roast beef to some sort of pre-digested, salt, MSG, and binder laden faux beef.
 
(I am as sad for them as I am for their birthplace, Youngstown:  http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/08/real_estate/radical_city_plan/index.htm .  That said, if you are ever in the Pittsburgh/Cleveland corridor you should really check out Mill Creek Park:  36 golf holes designed in 1928 by Donald Ross himself and landscape design by the fabled Frederick Law Olmsted.  In fact, if you ever want a great golf vacation 'on the cheap' I really cannot think of anything better than visiting Mill Creek in Youngstown and Oglebay Park in fairly nearby Wheeling, WVA with a stop for Broasted Chicken at The Breezy Heights in Avella, PA on your way in-between). 
 
Today, Mrs. Metro and I still on rare occasion visit their McKinney, TX location.  I order their BLT (which is really pretty good for "fast food") and a Jamocha shake.

I haven't stopped at Arby's for 4 years or so. I gave up on anything beef but I have liked the rueben sandwich and the fish that they have during lent is the best any FF fish anywhere. I am partial to potato cakes with lots of horsey sauce but it's not enough to draw me, I have a local owned pub that serves fantastic tater tots and ruebens.... who needs Arby's.