Boston Market

Romr123
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Re: Boston Market

Post by Romr123 »

Hadn't realized they were quite as well-distributed in Michigan as they are--must be a reasonably healthy franchisee. They have had an inline strip center location for many years in the city of Detroit which is a bit unusual...just south of University of Detroit.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by storewanderer »

Romr123 wrote: February 10th, 2021, 10:24 am Hadn't realized they were quite as well-distributed in Michigan as they are--must be a reasonably healthy franchisee. They have had an inline strip center location for many years in the city of Detroit which is a bit unusual...just south of University of Detroit.
Those locations are all owned by the corporation (they seem to have some truck stop and military locations that would be franchises), they don't seem to franchise anything at this point.

They seem to have pockets of locations in certain areas remaining but the distribution is kind of odd. Not many left in CA- 2 in Fresno, a scattering around the bay area, 2 in Sacramento, and a scattering around SoCal. Only NV location is in Reno and then nothing east until Denver or south until Phoenix. One location in Albuquerque then nothing until well into Texas.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by bryceleinan »

storewanderer wrote: February 7th, 2021, 11:41 am
Alpha8472 wrote: February 7th, 2021, 6:11 am 10 day quarantine for all workers from the date of the positive test. The managers might have tested positive. No one is there to open the restaurant.

The local big box retailer put up a sign. "Money center is closed for 14 days." That retailer has a policy of 14 day required quarantine. I do not think it is enough as some people with COVID take longer than 14 days to get over it.

Plexiglass shields do not work as my coworker caught it despite plexiglass in front of the entire pharmacy. The virus goes around the gaps under the glass.
I haven't seen any other food service locations close for this long of a time period including grocery stores where there are reported positive tests multiple times in a given week.

But the circumstances may be different with this one- given it seems to have few employees if they lose even one or two people there are not enough to replace them and reopen.

I think a combination of plexiglass and table in front of the counter to make that six foot distance is the best precaution at this point and will continue to be a good precaution in future winters to help with flu season. But so far I see either or (mostly plexiglass) but not both.
Pizza Factory was closed for a week or so out here in Dayton due to COVID. Subway was closed for a few days as well.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by storewanderer »

bryceleinan wrote: February 12th, 2021, 10:36 pm
Pizza Factory was closed for a week or so out here in Dayton due to COVID. Subway was closed for a few days as well.
Boston Market opened back up again at some point in the past couple days. Same employees as before and things look like they did before. Maybe some kind of an issue with equipment.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by wnetmacman »

Boston Market is also opening in some more unusual places - Truck Stops, through TA Petro. The Lafayette, LA location shut down its traditional Country Pride Restaurant in favor of a Boston Market. My first question was simple: Why?

The hours are cut down like a typical BM to lunch and dinner only, no breakfast. The menu is a typical BM menu, but that doesn't attract truckers. it's been open over a year now, and is profitable, but I still don't see how.

Having said that, the food is decent, but not cheap. I've been known to go there occasionally, as it's close to my office. My understanding is that TA Petro is rolling this out in multiple locations, though I haven't seen another one. The website only lists Lafayette and Denton, TX thus far.

For the older MSG question - their website shows in a press release that they do not use it. Additionally, MSG allergies are real, though hard to diagnose. My wife and her mother cannot eat anything that contains it, or they get violently ill.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by buckguy »

They used to have a relationship with Stop & Shop that extended to include Giant Landover with refrigerator case goods from their menu. I don't recall seeing them at Giant anymore, which now has more autonomy than in the past.

Clearly, they are willing to try some non-traditional channels. They established themselves as a slightly upscale option, but their current locations vary a lot from place to place in terms of the local economics. I know they've opened new locations in recent years but I wonder if some of the big geographic shifts date back to their bankruptcy or the Sun Capital buyout. Sun isn't exactly known for investing in its operations.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by storewanderer »

buckguy wrote: February 19th, 2021, 4:44 pm They used to have a relationship with Stop & Shop that extended to include Giant Landover with refrigerator case goods from their menu. I don't recall seeing them at Giant anymore, which now has more autonomy than in the past.

Clearly, they are willing to try some non-traditional channels. They established themselves as a slightly upscale option, but their current locations vary a lot from place to place in terms of the local economics. I know they've opened new locations in recent years but I wonder if some of the big geographic shifts date back to their bankruptcy or the Sun Capital buyout. Sun isn't exactly known for investing in its operations.
The location in my area is from the mid 90's, but well positioned; however it just seems forgotten. I don't think it even gets 100 customers total in a day. Maybe if the average transaction is $20 which I suspect is the case, it somehow works out, given there are usually only 2 employees and it has rather short hours (has gone from 11-5 to 11-8 recently).

I suspect had Sun Capital not sold it to the current ownership group, many more locations or possibly the entire chain would have been shut down at this point.

Also I wonder who is getting the royalties from the frozen food line. The frozen food line does not appear to sell any of the items they sell in the restaurant
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Re: Boston Market

Post by Brian Lutz »

The frozen foods appear to be manufactured by Bellisio Foods (best known for the Michelina's brand) using the name under some sort of a licensing deal. It looks like they used to license the Chili's brand as well, but no longer do so. Since 2016, Bellisio is actually owned by a company from Thailand, of all places.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by storewanderer »

Have tried various of the dessert items at Boston Market due to an ongoing $1 item promotion (zero advertisement about this at the location, but on the website).
Chocolate Chip Cookie- quite good cookie. This one is baked in the store, might be a Nestle dough.
Brownie- rather airy brownie, not overly rich, not oily, again pretty good but may not have the density and thickness typically expected of a brownie. Can't tell if this is baked in store or not.
Apple Pie- frozen pie defrost and sell. A very shallow pie. Not too sweet. Nothing special about it but a perfectly acceptable pie.
Pecan Pie- excellent pie, quite rich, staggering calorie content but forget about that
Chocolate Cake- quite good cake- not too rich, icing is more of a chocolate sauce like consistency. Again does not seem overly sweet compared to how cake usually is.
Carrot Cake- seems like pretty standard carrot cake, similar calorie content to the pecan pie but not nearly as good.
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Re: Boston Market

Post by storewanderer »

Was going to give this place a run today, hadn't been there in a while.

Was deserted mid afternoon except for two cars, I guess employees. Two handwritten signs on the doors stating drive through only... back to that again... One of the signs then said, I quote, including spelling, "THIS ENCLUDES CURBSIDE AND ONLINE ORDERS." At first I thought it said excludes until I realized no the door really is locked. Doors were really not clean looking at all so just opted to go elsewhere.
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