Arby's Announces 2 Franchise Deals in Southern California

[Alpha8472]

http://www.restaurantnews.com/arbys-ann ... alifornia/

Arby's says that its future is bright. I don't know about that. However, someone is buying up more Arby's restaurants.

The chain has not been doing well for the past decade. The merger with Wendy's was supposed to be a good thing. However, the real plot was that the owner of Arby's wanted to get rid of Arby's. That owner bought Wendy's and eventually sold off Arby's.

Arby's is the forgotten burger restaurant. They have not come out with anything new and have been beaten by just about every other burger chain.

The new Subway craze has already taken its toll on burger places. However, Arby's is doing badly even for a burger place. It has gotten to the point where Arby's is now selling packages of frozen fries in supermarkets.

[Super S]

Arby's needs to do two things. First and foremost, they need to improve the quality of their food offerings, and they need to be more consistent with things. I have found the quality of Arby's food varies considerably from one restaurant to the next, sometimes the food is fresh, other times it has been sitting a while. And certain restaurants do not offer certain items, such as regular french fries. Many locations around me only offer curly fries, which are ok, but I do like the regular ones.

Also, Arby's, at least in my area, tends to go into older buildings of other restaurants which have closed down, with minimal remodeling. Many are really showing their age, among other things it is not uncommon to have a single restroom for the entire restaurant, accessible only from outside, and almost always locked due to vandalism so you have to ask for the key at the counter. With that said, they do have some newer locations that are nice, but not very many.

Arby's could do a lot more business if these issues were addressed. It seems like they are stuck somewhere in time trying to figure out who they are.

[storewanderer]

The franchise operator who bought Portland, Seattle, and 10 SoCal units will not invest. Run into the ground and let them die. He did that to Arbys in Lodi and Grass Valley; the parking lots were practically gravel by the time he just gave up and shut them down. I am surprised he is back in the Arbys business again.

Arbys also needs to do something about food temperature. I can get past brown carpet, orange counters, and a general mid 80's feel to the restaurants if the good is actually good but it seems like a lot of these locations have a problem putting out a hot product, and I am referring to both fried items and sandwiches.

[Super S]

The franchise operator who bought Portland, Seattle, and 10 SoCal units will not invest. Run into the ground and let them die. He did that to Arbys in Lodi and Grass Valley; the parking lots were practically gravel by the time he just gave up and shut them down. I am surprised he is back in the Arbys business again.

Arbys also needs to do something about food temperature. I can get past brown carpet, orange counters, and a general mid 80's feel to the restaurants if the good is actually good but it seems like a lot of these locations have a problem putting out a hot product, and I am referring to both fried items and sandwiches.

Food temperature is one area I am talking about when it comes to consistency. Especially with the French Dip sandwiches, where they recently switched from styrofoam au jus containers that actually kept things hot to something like the soft drink cups material. You get the sandwich home (after only a few minutes) and the au jus is cold. And more often than not lately, the bread seems to have a very stale taste to it.

I am the same way...I don't care if the restaurant looks a bit dated if it is maintained, clean, and the food is good. Arby's is very inconsistent in all three of these areas. Meanwhile, chains such as McDonald's are aggressively remodeling, and in some cases completely rebuilding, restaurants on a regular basis.

[storewanderer]

I am guessing the Arbys you are going to and seeing these changes is one of the prior corporate stores that is now owned by Tony Lufti's group... and things like a paper au jus cup (they still have foam cups at the lone Arbys still open In Reno), stale bread, are all cost cutting moves made. This operator knows how to buy struggling restaurants and keep them open but in my experience the quality of the operation is not so good; not up to a corporate operated standard by any stretch. This is an operator with heavy experience with the Church's Chicken brand and some Burger King, Little Caesars, Arbys, and Sears Dealer experience. Also, recently, some Jack in the Box experience with stores that were previously corporate (http://www.caljax.com). I suspect acceptance of American Express and Discover cards was also discontinued; next watch for a debit card option with a 0.79 transaction fee and if you don't say anything they will automatically run it as debit and hope you don't notice the fee. The debit card with fee has not yet been tried at the Jack in the Box sites, but acceptance of American Express and Discover was disabled.