Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

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Re: Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: October 31st, 2020, 7:00 pm
Some in this group were really dated, including several that were former Arctic Circle locations that still had outside access restrooms. Moving the restrooms inside has been part of the remodels, although the placement of these, as well as drink machines (which were previously behind the counter), is weird in a few instances as they have been crammed into an existing footprint. Some of those seem like they are at a point where a rebuild would have been justified.
I was really surprised how dated some of those Portland/Seattle Arbys units were considering they were corporate operated units. A lot of franchise Arby's units closed 12-15 years ago that were just untouched inside from the 80's- orange booths, brown carpet, real throwbacks. Then the early 90's ones with lots of gray and pink inside. Again very dated. The mid to late 90's ones were much nicer, those don't seem to be getting remodeled much, and seem dated now but don't "scream" dated the way the 80's and early 90's units did (there is still one of those in Reno run by the Las Vegas/Chicago franchisee- they closed all of their other units up here and don't run many of the corporate promotions, they still use 1992 era Panasonic cash registers which I am shocked still work).

There is a franchise Arby's in Carson City which over the years was absolutely horrible. It was dirty, run down, cold food. It only stayed in business as all the fast food surrounding it closed over the years as new roads brought a lot less traffic through the area (Long John Silvers, Burger King, and Carl's Jr. in immediate vicinity all closed) but there was still demand for some fast food and Arby's and Carl's were the last two standing. Carl's which actually did very well lost their location in a shopping center renovation (landlord would not give them a space elsewhere on the lot) so Arby's became last man standing. The former owner was looking to retire and put the location up for sale, but first did a light remodel on the location but the execution did not get much better (they put in a cement floor, real hack job). It was for sale for a while. I suspect it didn't make much money. Eventually, it got new ownership. The turnaround in the operation has been very impressive. The owning family is always in the location operating it and the employees are very well trained. The food is prepared correctly and served at the correct temperature. A full remodel was done on the location within a year of their purchase. They run all of the corporate promotions. The location does very well now. So it shows this Arby's system, if the unit is operated properly, can work. Limited competition certainly helps but that isn't the only factor.
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Re: Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

Post by reymann »

Baskin-Robbins has been slip sliding in Fresno in the last few years and the franchisees have slowly been shutting down over the past few years. Arby's has been much improved since the remodel program has gone into the remaining Fresno locations. I'm wondering if the California Dunkin' locations end up being converted into Arby's depending on the franchises.
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Re: Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

Post by Alpha8472 »

Arby's used to have several locations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Those all closed in the past few years except for one in San Jose. I visited the Dublin, California location and it was straight out of the 80s with no renovations at all. It was clean and well kept. I noticed that the cash registers were very old as well. It was probably vintage 1980s or 1990s. I actually like the restaurant and the food was freshly made. The people who frequented it seemed to be mostly elderly people. It closed down along with the other Arby's in the area. The San Leandro, California Arby's was really run down and also looked like it was from the 1980s or even earlier. The leather style booth seats had holes in them. The restaurant was huge and had some retro style, but it was mostly empty of customers. That location was demolished and replaced by a Taco Bell.

I wish that there was more variety in the fast food chains in this area. The competition in San Leandro is mostly Burger King, Taco Bell, McDonald's, and Jack In The Box.
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Re: Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: October 31st, 2020, 9:11 pm Arby's used to have several locations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Those all closed in the past few years except for one in San Jose. I visited the Dublin, California location and it was straight out of the 80s with no renovations at all. It was clean and well kept. I noticed that the cash registers were very old as well. It was probably vintage 1980s or 1990s. I actually like the restaurant and the food was freshly made. The people who frequented it seemed to be mostly elderly people. It closed down along with the other Arby's in the area. The San Leandro, California Arby's was really run down and also looked like it was from the 1980s or even earlier. The leather style booth seats had holes in them. The restaurant was huge and had some retro style, but it was mostly empty of customers. That location was demolished and replaced by a Taco Bell.

I wish that there was more variety in the fast food chains in this area. The competition in San Leandro is mostly Burger King, Taco Bell, McDonald's, and Jack In The Box.
Out in Fairfield at that Cordelia offramp there was an old Arbys, there for a long time. Seemed to do okay despite being lost in a sea of fast foods and gas stations at that offramp. A few years ago it debranded from Arbys but remained some kind of roast beef concept. That didn't last long and it went vacant. It was fully remodeled and reopened as a different Arby's under different ownership, either corporate or a larger franchisee. There are also still a handfull of Arbys around Vacaville and Sacramento but I can also think of quite a few that have closed.

The thing is Arbys at present run under this Inspire brands has done quite well. They have come up with some good new product offers, done a good job marketing old Arbys items that never got much attention like the Reuben, developed an attractive interior remodel project, run marketing that focuses on the food, and as noted before have stabilized unit count by running more corporate locations. The Arbys today being run by Inspire is not the same as the Arbys of 10-15 years ago. The core product is the same, but the go to market strategy is much improved and there seems to be fresh life in the brand which seemed stale and dying 10-15 years ago. And that is why I am really interested to see what this Inspire does with Dunkin. Dunkin really needs help.
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Re: Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

Post by Brian Lutz »

Around here Arby's is still pretty hit-or-miss with some locations, but generally seems to be doing OK. A new build Arby's that replaced an older location in another part of town opened up in Marysville a couple of years ago (next door to a Sonic built at the same time, one of the first in the area) and seems to do pretty well. A lot of other locations in the area have been remodeled in the past few years, but at the same time there were a few that closed in the last decade.
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Re: Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

Post by storewanderer »

Here in Reno, someone is opening Dunkin locations up who seems to be quite confident in their product.

They opened in Wal Mart on 7th Street in the former McDonalds Space. Now they are opening at Wal Mart on Damonte Ranch Parkway in the former Radio Grill, Blimpie, and Burger King space.

Both of those Wal Marts have a local donut shop in the parking lot called Doughboys. Doughboys makes an excellent donut and has strong customer loyalty in the area.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/doughboys-donuts-reno-3 4.5/5 Rating on Yelp
https://www.yelp.com/biz/doughboys-donuts-reno 4/5 rating on Yelp

Meanwhile the Dunkin in the 7th Street Wal Mart which has been open since summer only had 5 reviews and already a 2/5 rating on Yelp.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/dunkin-reno

And the older Sparks Dunkin (freestanding unit with drive through) continues on with its 2/5 rating on Yelp.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/dunkin-sparks
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Re: Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: February 3rd, 2021, 10:26 pm Here in Reno, someone is opening Dunkin locations up who seems to be quite confident in their product.

They opened in Wal Mart on 7th Street in the former McDonalds Space. Now they are opening at Wal Mart on Damonte Ranch Parkway in the former Radio Grill, Blimpie, and Burger King space.

Both of those Wal Marts have a local donut shop in the parking lot called Doughboys. Doughboys makes an excellent donut and has strong customer loyalty in the area.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/doughboys-donuts-reno-3 4.5/5 Rating on Yelp
https://www.yelp.com/biz/doughboys-donuts-reno 4/5 rating on Yelp

Meanwhile the Dunkin in the 7th Street Wal Mart which has been open since summer only had 5 reviews and already a 2/5 rating on Yelp.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/dunkin-reno

And the older Sparks Dunkin (freestanding unit with drive through) continues on with its 2/5 rating on Yelp.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/dunkin-sparks
Something I never understood about Walmart and other in-store restaurants is the fact that they aren't really a good fit for some parts of the day. McDonald's was able to serve a wide variety over most of the day as they have a well-established breakfast menu. While Subway does offer breakfast, it isn't exactly well-established and suffers from Subway's own inconsistencies. Dunkin at least would be a good fit for the breakfast crowd, but wouldn't really attract much for lunch or dinner. In some ways I wonder if the decision by Kmart to add Little Caesars to their in-store restaurants killed off their breakfast customers and was a factor in why so many Kmarts eliminated the in-store restaurants entirely (long before the mass closures started) I know that some Kmarts with Little Caesars did serve breakfast and other items but it was easily lost with the Little Caesars branding.
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Re: Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

Post by BillyGr »

Super S wrote: February 4th, 2021, 8:47 am Something I never understood about Walmart and other in-store restaurants is the fact that they aren't really a good fit for some parts of the day. McDonald's was able to serve a wide variety over most of the day as they have a well-established breakfast menu. While Subway does offer breakfast, it isn't exactly well-established and suffers from Subway's own inconsistencies. Dunkin at least would be a good fit for the breakfast crowd, but wouldn't really attract much for lunch or dinner. In some ways I wonder if the decision by Kmart to add Little Caesars to their in-store restaurants killed off their breakfast customers and was a factor in why so many Kmarts eliminated the in-store restaurants entirely (long before the mass closures started) I know that some Kmarts with Little Caesars did serve breakfast and other items but it was easily lost with the Little Caesars branding.
One might think that Dunkin, as they have leaned more towards focusing on the drinks end and less on the food, just figures they are good for those people shopping who want to grab a quick drink (and maybe a snack if something looks good while standing there facing the rack of stuff ordering that drink), not expecting most shoppers to be getting a full meal there (though it could be done).
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Re: Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

Post by storewanderer »

BillyGr wrote: February 4th, 2021, 9:26 am One might think that Dunkin, as they have leaned more towards focusing on the drinks end and less on the food, just figures they are good for those people shopping who want to grab a quick drink (and maybe a snack if something looks good while standing there facing the rack of stuff ordering that drink), not expecting most shoppers to be getting a full meal there (though it could be done).
Dunkin does run some real shoeboxes back east (have seen some in subway stations or transit centers that are about the size of a closet) so these Wal Mart locations may be just the right idea for them. They can staff with one employee and probably don't need to do a very major level of volume to stay open. Much cheaper to run than freestanding locations with a drive through for sure.
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Re: Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

storewanderer wrote: February 4th, 2021, 6:29 pm Dunkin does run some real shoeboxes back east (have seen some in subway stations or transit centers that are about the size of a closet) so these Wal Mart locations may be just the right idea for them. They can staff with one employee and probably don't need to do a very major level of volume to stay open. Much cheaper to run than freestanding locations with a drive through for sure.
As I've mentioned, I'm a retired Letter Carrier and there was one on my route that's located in a former bank and that place is just too large for the business it does. They retrofitted the existing drive thru and it's no where near the front of the building where the counter and seating space is-hugely inefficient. The franchisee does not own the building. For several years, the franchisee has been trying to get approval to build on a piece of property they own at an intersection of two busy state highways not even a mile from the current location which obviously would close. Last time I was in that area, I noticed construction appears to have started so obviously they finally got the go ahead. It's a much more visible location than where they are now and would never accommodate the large structure they're in now.
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