Search found 1425 matches

by Brian Lutz
Yesterday, 3:09 pm
Forum: Restaurant Chains
Topic: Whataburger expanding to North Carolina
Replies: 2
Views: 51

Whataburger expanding to North Carolina

https://www.wbtv.com/2024/03/26/whataburger-inches-closer-first-charlotte-location/ Whataburger has received zoning approval for a proposed restaurant in Charlotte, which would become its first location in North Carolina. It has been reported that there are currently plans underway for five location...
by Brian Lutz
March 26th, 2024, 1:57 pm
Forum: Restaurant Chains
Topic: Restaurant Adoption of pay-by-phone systems
Replies: 8
Views: 188

Re: Restaurant Adoption of pay-by-phone systems

Requiring the use of an app to make payments, although somewhat inconvenenient, does mitigate the potential for QR code fraud by adding an intermediate step in the process (a legitimate QR code would likely not work outside the app or would only point to an app download), and some of the apps will a...
by Brian Lutz
March 25th, 2024, 10:25 am
Forum: Restaurant Chains
Topic: Restaurant Adoption of pay-by-phone systems
Replies: 8
Views: 188

Restaurant Adoption of pay-by-phone systems

(Was originally going to post this in the table tablet thread, but this topic probably warrants a separate thread.) Over the past year or two I've noticed that a lot of smaller chains and single-location restaurants have begun to move toward pay-by-phone (QR code on receipt) solutions for payment, a...
by Brian Lutz
March 25th, 2024, 9:29 am
Forum: Restaurant Chains
Topic: Tabletop tablets in chain restaurants
Replies: 25
Views: 9665

Re: Tabletop tablets in chain restaurants

At the restaurants I visit regularly it seems like Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse and Red Robin are still using the Ziosk tablets, and aside from refreshed hardware I don't think the user experience has really changed much since they appeared nearly 10 years ago. I did notice that the Utah (Sizzling ...
by Brian Lutz
March 22nd, 2024, 1:17 pm
Forum: Northwest, Rockies, & Alaska USA
Topic: Trader Joe's adding another Salt Lake City, UT store
Replies: 6
Views: 170

Re: Trader Joe's adding another Salt Lake City, UT store

Sugar House is probably the closest thing SLC has to a "hipster" neighborhood so I imagine Trader Joe's might do well there. I know the store in Draper (State Street and 11400 S) just opened last year and the Cottonwood Heights store (which I think was actually on the larger side for a Tra...
by Brian Lutz
March 20th, 2024, 1:52 pm
Forum: Department Store Chains
Topic: Target Rolls 10 item "Express Self Checkout" Nationwide
Replies: 26
Views: 821

Re: Target Rolls 10 item "Express Self Checkout" Nationwide

The issue with the bigger self checkouts at Walmart (at least at the store I shop at), most of the time the belts on the "big" self checkouts are either turned off or not functioning, which means you pretty much have to just scan stuff out of your cart the same way you would in the self ch...
by Brian Lutz
March 20th, 2024, 9:00 am
Forum: Restaurant Chains
Topic: Subway Switches To Pepsi For 10 Years From Coke
Replies: 19
Views: 528

Re: Subway Switches To Pepsi For 10 Years From Coke

It seems like Subway changes back and forth between Coke and Pepsi products far more frequently than other chains, to the point that I suspect they switch back and forth pretty much each time the contract ends. Pepsi seems to be unusually popular in North Carolina (presumably since it was originally...
by Brian Lutz
March 11th, 2024, 5:17 pm
Forum: Specialty Retail Chains
Topic: Eddie Bauer dumbs down logo for GenZ
Replies: 41
Views: 2343

Re: Eddie Bauer dumbs down logo for GenZ

Costco has also been known to sell gray market products (particularly in softlines) by finding products that can be purchased cheaply in foreign markets and reselling in the US, so it's possible some of these products have come from that. There have been instances where manufacturers have actually t...
by Brian Lutz
March 11th, 2024, 7:49 am
Forum: Gas Stations & Convenience Stores
Topic: Sheetz eliminating soft serve machines in stores
Replies: 8
Views: 329

Re: Sheetz eliminating soft serve machines in stores

It does appear that Sheetz does still have shakes available, so I assume they would still need to have a soft serve machine behind the counter for those. I also see that QuikTrip has soft serve cones/cups and shakes available served from behind the counter, so it's possible Sheetz could move to the ...
by Brian Lutz
March 9th, 2024, 5:20 pm
Forum: Gas Stations & Convenience Stores
Topic: Sheetz eliminating soft serve machines in stores
Replies: 8
Views: 329

Sheetz eliminating soft serve machines in stores

At the local Sheetz today I saw that the soft serve machines in the store were no longer available, with signs indicating that they are being removed from all Sheetz stores, and will be replaced with some other unspecified item in the future. One report on Reddit claims that they'll be replacing the...