Boston Market

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storewanderer
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Boston Market

Post by storewanderer »

Boston Market ran a promotion today for $3.50 whole chicken (regular price 12.09??) so I decided to go pick one up. This is a place I haven't eaten at in many years.

Arrived at the place and it was "drive through only." Windows filthy and boxes piled up in about 1/3 of the dining area. Not many people there, so decided to just go with it, despite some reservations with what I saw of the cleanliness and the "drive through only" thing. Order taker was very curt, and it became apparent they were understaffed (I think there were only two employees).

There were maybe two or three cars in front of me and it took close to 20 minutes to get through the line and get the chicken. I see they still swipe credit cards (no chip reader and no tap) despite having the same system as In N Out and KFC both of which have been running chip/tap for at least two years.

The chicken came out and it was really, really good. Juicy, the skin was well seasoned and had a nice crisp to it, I was very surprised. This is much better quality than I recall this product being. I don't think they typically discount in this manner, so I wonder what is up with them.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by Super S »

Boston Market has been gone from my area for a long time now. I miss them as well as Kenny Rogers Roasters. I felt that both filled a niche, and never really understood why they failed....there aren't a lot of restaurants specializing in chicken in my area.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by Alpha8472 »

Boston Market is really expensive on a normal day. The prices are absurdly high. Many people have never tried Boston Market and have no idea what kind of food they serve.

The chain must be really struggling if they have to offer a whole chicken for such a low price. They probably have so many unsold chickens in their refrigerators and they are about to go bad.

The company is probably in poor financial shape and this is a last ditch effort to attract new customers. It might work for them, if many of those customers come back for a return visit. However, many of the Boston Market restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area do not have drive thru windows. In this time of COVID in California, the restaurants have been banned from indoor and outdoor dining. Take out is the only option. Many people do not want to go to the trouble of parking and going inside just to get take out. Only the restaurants that have drive thru windows are surviving right now.

Perhaps, they should never changed their name from Boston Chicken. Chicken places seem to attract more customers. Boston Market really does not describe what the restaurant is about. Although, rotisserie chicken is good, perhaps the chain should think about going into fried chicken. The fried chicken trend is very profitable for Chick-fil-A and Popeye's right now.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on December 27th, 2020, 9:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by veteran+ »

I remember trying Boston Market way back several times.

Funny thing is that I loved their food........so delicious, but.............................every time I ate there my stomach got upset.

I went back several times (because it was so damn good) to see if something else was upsetting my stomach but it always ended up the same way, so I stopped going.

There must have been some ingredient they were using that caused this. I get a similar reaction when I used to indulge in Del Taco (Dell Taco was different and worse).

I wonder what caused that?
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Re: Boston Market

Post by storewanderer »

Maybe they have cleaned up their ingredients over the years, as I had no issues with the food yesterday or the leftover of it reheated in the oven today.

I guess the $3.50 whole chicken yesterday was part of a 35th anniversary promotion. The previous day had $3.50 1/4 chicken with 2 sides meals as part of the same promotion.

I see the chain was sold by Sun Capital last year and its unit count seems to be declining every year. I guess almost all of their locations are corporate operated, except some military base locations are licensed.

Based on my experience yesterday in terms of the quality of the food they seem to be doing very well. The rest of the experience seemed iffy, but the food quality was way above what I expected. After a few pretty awful grocery store roasted chickens in the past 5 years, this reminded me what a good one tastes like.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by babs »

Super S wrote: December 23rd, 2020, 9:52 pm Boston Market has been gone from my area for a long time now. I miss them as well as Kenny Rogers Roasters. I felt that both filled a niche, and never really understood why they failed....there aren't a lot of restaurants specializing in chicken in my area.
Etzell's Chicken in Seattle and Portland is a good alternative.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by Super S »

babs wrote: December 24th, 2020, 4:05 pm

Etzell's Chicken in Seattle and Portland is a good alternative.
Kinda wish there was something like that in the area between Tacoma and Tigard though. We have KFC, a few scattered Popeye's locations, and a few random Church's locations (which come and go and don't seem to last very long) in addition to deli chicken (grocery/Costco/convenience stores)
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Re: Boston Market

Post by storewanderer »

babs wrote: December 24th, 2020, 4:05 pm

Etzell's Chicken in Seattle and Portland is a good alternative.
Etzell's is a good alternative to Popeyes but I don't think it is really a like for like alternative to Boston Market given that Etzell's is 100% fried chicken... Boston Market doesn't even have a fryer in their facility.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by veteran+ »

storewanderer wrote: December 24th, 2020, 10:56 am Maybe they have cleaned up their ingredients over the years, as I had no issues with the food yesterday or the leftover of it reheated in the oven today.

I guess the $3.50 whole chicken yesterday was part of a 35th anniversary promotion. The previous day had $3.50 1/4 chicken with 2 sides meals as part of the same promotion.

I see the chain was sold by Sun Capital last year and its unit count seems to be declining every year. I guess almost all of their locations are corporate operated, except some military base locations are licensed.

Based on my experience yesterday in terms of the quality of the food they seem to be doing very well. The rest of the experience seemed iffy, but the food quality was way above what I expected. After a few pretty awful grocery store roasted chickens in the past 5 years, this reminded me what a good one tastes like.

Perhaps it was my unique tummy.

;)
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Re: Boston Market

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: December 24th, 2020, 10:56 am I see the chain was sold by Sun Capital last year and its unit count seems to be declining every year. I guess almost all of their locations are corporate operated, except some military base locations are licensed.
I know one of the few remaining ones locally closed up, sometime in the last year or so (not sure if before or after the current issues began, as it's an area I don't go through that often). That one was a small strip plaza near a local university, and also has a sub shop and a coffee shop (along with a pharmacy and pet food shop and liquors), so also not sure how much the colleges not being in may (or may not) have impacted it.
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