Restaurants removing televisions

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Re: Restaurants removing televisions

Post by storewanderer »

BillyGr wrote: December 29th, 2022, 11:09 am
Alpha8472 wrote: December 28th, 2022, 5:18 pm Maybe the cable bill is too much for the restaurant. The television might not even have an antenna to pick up broadcast TV. Perhaps some restaurants used to pay for cable news channels. Fox News isn't free.
They might not, but they could certainly purchase one from any store for less than most cable companies charge for one month, and then they can use it indefinitely at no further cost. These days, there is always something available on "regular" TV, either the network channels or one of the many that show up on subchannels.
This may be it. During COVID when the dining rooms were closed some of these franchisees may have looked at the constantly increasing cable bill and said why are we paying this, nobody is even coming in here? And why do we have a TV here in the first place?
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Re: Restaurants removing televisions

Post by cjd »

I went to the Wendy’s in the next town for lunch, which I’ve never been to before.

It appeared to have been remodeled maybe 5 years ago… it has the LCD fireplace with couches in front and wood like tile on the floor.

I was surprised to see there were two televisions, still installed, and functional.

Instead of just showing broadcast TV, they were showing some kind of special broadcast. At the bottom was an alternating bar that showed the current temperature and time and then showed the five day forecast (kinda like the Weather Channel).

The right column was showing different Wendy’s promos and combos. At the top left was the Wendy’s logo.

The programming seemed to be talking about new movies and showing different kid themed activities. I think some news headlines were on at first.

I’ve only been to one other Wendy’s that had this remodel, and it had only one television and I don’t remember what it showed.

I was just surprised to see Wendy’s keeping TVs and going to have its own custom channel. Most restaurants even when they had TVs just showed some random cable channel.
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Re: Restaurants removing televisions

Post by Bagels »

Pre-COVID, McDonald's was requiring franchisees to have cable / satellite (built into their franchisee agreement as they came up for renewals). Franchisees were suppose to show sporting events of local interest otherwise news the rest of the time (sans weekends, when children's programming was suggested). No channel preference was given, although news did not include opinion programming. Of course, most crew could careless. The problem was cost -- commercial subscriptions to cable / satellite cost significantly more than individual subscriptions. The cost of regional sports networks (again, commercial subscriptions cost significantly more) continued to surge to the point that McDonald's allowed operators in select markets to forgo them. During COVID, when dining rooms were shuttered, McDonald's finally dropped the cable / satellite requirement. Probably won't pursue it again,, as most people used their own personal devices for entertainment.

Burger King introduced a design in the 2010s that featured comfortable, reclining chairs equipped with personal televisions (similar to an airplane) and the ability to order (and have delivered) food. BK probably thought they'd win more lunch business as people looked to relax, but I bet it attracted a type of customer that was undesirable. I can't think of a single location that retained this format, and many kept their previous generation furniture for decades.
cjd wrote: July 3rd, 2023, 1:05 pm I went to the Wendy’s in the next town for lunch, which I’ve never been to before.

It appeared to have been remodeled maybe 5 years ago… it has the LCD fireplace with couches in front and wood like tile on the floor.

I was surprised to see there were two televisions, still installed, and functional.

Instead of just showing broadcast TV, they were showing some kind of special broadcast. At the bottom was an alternating bar that showed the current temperature and time and then showed the five day forecast (kinda like the Weather Channel).

The right column was showing different Wendy’s promos and combos. At the top left was the Wendy’s logo.

The programming seemed to be talking about new movies and showing different kid themed activities. I think some news headlines were on at first.

I’ve only been to one other Wendy’s that had this remodel, and it had only one television and I don’t remember what it showed.

I was just surprised to see Wendy’s keeping TVs and going to have its own custom channel. Most restaurants even when they had TVs just showed some random cable channel.
My local Wendy's has the custom content, too, but it's placed over regular programming, so I suspect it's a feature specific to the TV.
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Re: Restaurants removing televisions

Post by Alpha8472 »

My nearby BK remodeled a few years ago and it has one TV. It plays Atmosphere TV which is a channel that shoes viral videos and commercials. There is a Burger King logo on the screen at all times and in between videos it shows BK advertisements.

The other nearby BK restaurants have removed their televisions.
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Re: Restaurants removing televisions

Post by Brian Lutz »

Over the past few weeks. I've seen what appears to be a new "ambient" channel playing on TVs in a couple of the local McDonald's locations. In the roughly 30 minutes my wife and I were there tonight eating dinner they had a variety of content including a news blurb, a movie trailer, a clip from the old Little House on the Prairie TV show, a couple of ads for McDonald's food items, a travel video, a couple of bits of trivia and a clip from a college graduation address. At the bottom of the screen was a ticker that showed things like news headlines, sports scores (in just about the most useless format possible, it didn't even say what sport the scores were for) and weather. I would assume they have one of the Atmosphere TV providers doing a custom channel for them, and are in the process of rolling it out because it's a little rough right now.
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Re: Restaurants removing televisions

Post by Romr123 »

Almost sounds like something from Gas Station TV (www.gstv.com)...they're based about 6 miles from us.
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Re: Restaurants removing televisions

Post by Alpha8472 »

I went inside a remodeled Wendy's today. It is about a year old remodel. However, it is really bare bones. It has the new floor, chairs, and tables, but it doesn't have a fireplace. I see a wall where the fireplace would go, but it is blank. There are some sofa style chairs and some closed off outlets. I assume it might have been planned for a large TV instead of a fireplace at one point. The TV was never installed.

This restaurant doesn't even have ordering kiosks. It has 2 Coke Freestyle machines in the dining room and one is not plugged in. That seems like a waste of money. Drink cups are not on display. You have to get them from the employees.

The dining room is so bland. The color is just white. They used to have fireplaces and fancy wood accents in newly remodeled Wendy's. Now it is really cheap looking. I think it looked better with the classic 70s style solarium windows and brick walls. At least it had style.
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Re: Restaurants removing televisions

Post by ClownLoach »

Alpha8472 wrote: November 11th, 2023, 8:00 pm I went inside a remodeled Wendy's today. It is about a year old remodel. However, it is really bare bones. It has the new floor, chairs, and tables, but it doesn't have a fireplace. I see a wall where the fireplace would go, but it is blank. There are some sofa style chairs and some closed off outlets. I assume it might have been planned for a large TV instead of a fireplace at one point. The TV was never installed.

This restaurant doesn't even have ordering kiosks. It has 2 Coke Freestyle machines in the dining room and one is not plugged in. That seems like a waste of money. Drink cups are not on display. You have to get them from the employees.

The dining room is so bland. The color is just white. They used to have fireplaces and fancy wood accents in newly remodeled Wendy's. Now it is really cheap looking. I think it looked better with the classic 70s style solarium windows and brick walls. At least it had style.
It really depends on how much or how little the Wendy's franchisee wants to pay. I think they should not have as much leeway. There is a Wendy's in Corona that looks like original opening day 1990-ish inside and meets the exact same description as the barren remodeled one you describe, bleak wallpaper and a mostly empty lobby area with only a handful of tables all pushed against that solarium window. . Others are bright, colorful, TVs and such playing and a lively environment.
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Re: Restaurants removing televisions

Post by cjd »

None of the Wendy’s in my area have ordering kiosks, they all only have one soda machine, and they all have the cups behind the counter. I don’t know if any fast food operation except maybe one McDonalds location that lets you grab your own cups at the counter, and that was a few years ago.
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Re: Restaurants removing televisions

Post by storewanderer »

cjd wrote: November 20th, 2023, 6:38 pm None of the Wendy’s in my area have ordering kiosks, they all only have one soda machine, and they all have the cups behind the counter. I don’t know if any fast food operation except maybe one McDonalds location that lets you grab your own cups at the counter, and that was a few years ago.
The self serve cups with ordering kiosk are pretty common with Panera, Steak N Shake, and one other chain I am struggling to remember now. I've seen self serve cups next to McDonalds kiosks about three times in my entire life after hundreds of McDonalds visits. Thanks to the no self serve drink initiative and no more $1 drinks I have largely quit visiting McDonalds in the last half of 2023 though, and don't miss them one bit.
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