Boston Market

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Re: Boston Market

Post by storewanderer »

Boston Market removed the half broken and not working properly hot food case and installed a shiny brand new hot case in the local location. The side items are now very hot and the new case certainly looks a lot better than the old case, which is currently sitting in the parking lot looking like it came out of a dumpster. Did not see any other upgrades or changes.

Good to see this; hopefully the location sticks around.

The manager and cook continue to be the only employees on duty most of the time.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by DFWRetaileWatcher »

I have to imagine Boston Market is on its way out of DFW soon.

Typically, in a big restaurant chain like this, you'll have some locations that a good and some that are bad. In Boston Market's case, all of the locations in the Metroplex are just plain awful. Whoever is managing these stores isn't even making an earnest effort to improve them.

I know they already shuttered a bunch of them in Addison / Far North Dallas in the past couple of years.
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Re: Boston Market

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DFWRetaileWatcher wrote: August 10th, 2021, 6:08 pm I have to imagine Boston Market is on its way out of DFW soon.

Typically, in a big restaurant chain like this, you'll have some locations that a good and some that are bad. In Boston Market's case, all of the locations in the Metroplex are just plain awful. Whoever is managing these stores isn't even making an earnest effort to improve them.

I know they already shuttered a bunch of them in Addison / Far North Dallas in the past couple of years.
All of the locations are corporate owned... I don't think much effort is being made to improve anything. They still swipe credit cards too, no Chip, despite that their register software can run Chip (same software is used at In N Out and KFC).

The reviews in DFW area look pretty similar to other areas for this chain. However one location 730 W. Centerville Road in Garland caught my interest- first it has a higher average rating on Google than the others, at 4.3, secondly it says it is open 24 hours? I was thinking maybe it is a truck stop but no it is just a normal looking building. Do they have a breakfast menu? I have no clue how it makes any sense for a Boston Market to be open 24 hours? Also it doesn't look like it has a drive through? Who is going to go there between about 8 PM and about 11 AM? Also even lunch historically has always been a weak meal period for this chain with dinner being the strongest meal period for them.

If the product is done properly, a number of items on the menu, are quite good. But this doesn't seem to be the easiest to execute concept. I have had pretty good luck locally but it seems like it has very few employees, who have been there a while, and seem to know what they are doing.

What I find most funny is this chain... back in the 90's when it went under, one of the issues cited was they over-couponed. So they were pushing through too many sales with coupons and it had a very bad impact on their margins. Fast forward to today and it is like nothing has changed- they are running constant e-mail coupons of 1-2 day duration: buy one get one free meals a lot of the time, sometimes a $5 off any purchase, sometimes $5 off $10, sometimes 50% off a family meal, $5 1/4 chicken/2 side meal, etc. Also their prices for online ordering are for some reason higher than in the location even if you order through their website and physically pick up inside the location.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by DFWRetaileWatcher »

storewanderer wrote: August 10th, 2021, 10:21 pm
DFWRetaileWatcher wrote: August 10th, 2021, 6:08 pm I have to imagine Boston Market is on its way out of DFW soon.

Typically, in a big restaurant chain like this, you'll have some locations that a good and some that are bad. In Boston Market's case, all of the locations in the Metroplex are just plain awful. Whoever is managing these stores isn't even making an earnest effort to improve them.

I know they already shuttered a bunch of them in Addison / Far North Dallas in the past couple of years.
All of the locations are corporate owned... I don't think much effort is being made to improve anything. They still swipe credit cards too, no Chip, despite that their register software can run Chip (same software is used at In N Out and KFC).

The reviews in DFW area look pretty similar to other areas for this chain. However one location 730 W. Centerville Road in Garland caught my interest- first it has a higher average rating on Google than the others, at 4.3, secondly it says it is open 24 hours? I was thinking maybe it is a truck stop but no it is just a normal looking building. Do they have a breakfast menu? I have no clue how it makes any sense for a Boston Market to be open 24 hours? Also it doesn't look like it has a drive through? Who is going to go there between about 8 PM and about 11 AM? Also even lunch historically has always been a weak meal period for this chain with dinner being the strongest meal period for them.

If the product is done properly, a number of items on the menu, are quite good. But this doesn't seem to be the easiest to execute concept. I have had pretty good luck locally but it seems like it has very few employees, who have been there a while, and seem to know what they are doing.

What I find most funny is this chain... back in the 90's when it went under, one of the issues cited was they over-couponed. So they were pushing through too many sales with coupons and it had a very bad impact on their margins. Fast forward to today and it is like nothing has changed- they are running constant e-mail coupons of 1-2 day duration: buy one get one free meals a lot of the time, sometimes a $5 off any purchase, sometimes $5 off $10, sometimes 50% off a family meal, $5 1/4 chicken/2 side meal, etc. Also their prices for online ordering are for some reason higher than in the location even if you order through their website and physically pick up inside the location.
Interesting.

I didn't notice the same problems with the Boston Market locations in the Detroit area or Metro Atlanta (which were still run somewhat halfway decently) that I do in DFW.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by mbz321 »

A new Boston Market opened in my area less than 6 months ago (in a former Pizza Hut). I haven't tried this particular location yet (Feasterville, PA if anyone wants to read), but the majority of the reviews are pretty awful (mainly mentioning cold/old food and/or overpriced).
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Re: Boston Market

Post by storewanderer »

DFWRetaileWatcher wrote: August 11th, 2021, 5:59 am
Interesting.

I didn't notice the same problems with the Boston Market locations in the Detroit area or Metro Atlanta (which were still run somewhat halfway decently) that I do in DFW.
I think it all depends on the employees in the individual location. There are a couple around Dallas with average ratings above 4...

Boston Market HQ is in a Denver suburb and the locations around Denver have pretty poor reviews.

I have to think the guts behind this chain are pretty strong for it to have survived this long. The period of McDonald's ownership must have accomplished something, I'm not sure what. Recall the original plan of McDonald's was to buy it for real estate and shut it down but once they bought it they decided to keep it operating as a chain.
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