Bojangles coming to Los Angeles

[ClownLoach]

Supposedly first opens in 2025

https://www.bojangles.com/news-and-comm ... agreement/

[rwsandiego]

Last month they announced an agreement to open twenty locations in and around Phoenix, so California is the next logical expansion.

[storewanderer]

We will see how many actually open.

This chain has become a joke. The one in IL doesn't even sell bone in chicken only has chicken tenders.

[wnetmacman]

We will see how many actually open.

This chain has become a joke. The one in IL doesn't even sell bone in chicken only has chicken tenders.

Their new menu does not include bone-in chicken. It's tenders only. A location opened near me in a Love's that operates the same way. Spoiler alert - it's just as dead as the Chester's it replaced.

[ClownLoach]

We will see how many actually open.

This chain has become a joke. The one in IL doesn't even sell bone in chicken only has chicken tenders.

Their new menu does not include bone-in chicken. It's tenders only. A location opened near me in a Love's that operates the same way. Spoiler alert - it's just as dead as the Chester's it replaced.

I think they're too little, too late. Probably didn't even notice the $20 minimum wage requirement (aren't there parts of LA County where it's even higher?)

Cane's and CFA have absolutely plastered LA County with chicken restaurants, and smaller chains like Church's and Popeyes are far more common there than other parts of SoCal.

The "chicken deficit" is the idea driving this expansion, that Americans eat chicken vs beef on a 2:1 basis but hamburger restaurants outnumber all other fast food on like a 4:1 basis. This meant early on when the big chicken sandwich and chicken finger expansions began one could open a location and expect it to do double or triple that of a Carl's or Jack or BK. But I think LA is already so saturated that the other chicken chains have slowed down dramatically and there will be diminishing returns on future expansion especially because of the minimum wage.

Bojangles is like 5 to 10 years too late.

But I like anything on a biscuit so I'll be sure to try it once if I'm up there.

Also the menu online definitely shows bone in chicken piece meals. So not sure why they would have locations with only chicken fingers. To have any chance competing with the dominant Cane's and CFA they are going to need that bone in chicken to differentiate themselves.

[storewanderer]

We will see how many actually open.

This chain has become a joke. The one in IL doesn't even sell bone in chicken only has chicken tenders.

Their new menu does not include bone-in chicken. It's tenders only. A location opened near me in a Love's that operates the same way. Spoiler alert - it's just as dead as the Chester's it replaced.

I think they're too little, too late. Probably didn't even notice the $20 minimum wage requirement (aren't there parts of LA County where it's even higher?)

Cane's and CFA have absolutely plastered LA County with chicken restaurants, and smaller chains like Church's and Popeyes are far more common there than other parts of SoCal.

The "chicken deficit" is the idea driving this expansion, that Americans eat chicken vs beef on a 2:1 basis but hamburger restaurants outnumber all other fast food on like a 4:1 basis. This meant early on when the big chicken sandwich and chicken finger expansions began one could open a location and expect it to do double or triple that of a Carl's or Jack or BK. But I think LA is already so saturated that the other chicken chains have slowed down dramatically and there will be diminishing returns on future expansion especially because of the minimum wage.

Bojangles is like 5 to 10 years too late.

But I like anything on a biscuit so I'll be sure to try it once if I'm up there.

Also the menu online definitely shows bone in chicken piece meals. So not sure why they would have locations with only chicken fingers. To have any chance competing with the dominant Cane's and CFA they are going to need that bone in chicken to differentiate themselves.

Many of the newly opened locations do not seem to serve bone in chicken. I am not sure what they are doing or why.

When I tried this chain somewhere in the South the first time, I ordered bone in chicken and a biscuit. The chicken reminded me of Popeyes but piece size was bigger. The biscuit was also bigger. The price also seemed lower. I was pretty happy. I tried it again about 5 years later again down in the South. That time I ordered chicken strips, fries, biscuit... Everything was... fine... I left with the impression I would go here over KFC (then again I'd go to the Wal Mart deli over KFC too), but I would not go here over Popeyes. Since then it seems like the chain has made a lot of changes and what I saw in IL did not resemble the chain I recalled from the prior two visits.

There are many chicken chains promising big expansion. SuperChix promises 300 new units yet in 2023 they closed their original Texas units. Multiple SuperChix units have closed elsewhere too. Some keep opening. Slim Chickens another one trying to do this expansion and we will see how that goes. Big Chicken another one. There are so many chains trying to expand by selling franchises all over the place and claim they have agreements to develop huge numbers of units. We will see how much materializes.

At the end of the day I think Raising Cane's who is trying to develop a mostly corporate owned chain and knows how to run extremely high volumes will be a winner. I don't care for their product as it is too bland, but they know what they are doing and have a product that many people like. I even go there because I know at least I'll always get food that is hot and encounter a reasonably clean facility, even though I don't care much for the food.