El Pollo Loco

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storewanderer
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El Pollo Loco

Post by storewanderer »

I don't know what is going on with El Pollo Loco. I have been very loyal to this chain for many years but recently there are changes there that have really taken away from my enjoyment of the chain:

1. They previously had 2 brewed unsweetened iced teas. One was regular, one was a mango passion fruit ("Tropical") black tea. These were both fresh brewed Gold Peak branded. They had been offering these for the past 15+ years. Something happened a few months ago where the Tropical was unavailable due to supply chain. Then it came back, for about a second. Then they discontinued it.

2. Previously, the Pollo Bowl, Quesadillas, and salads used chopped Chicken Breast. Now they use chopped whatever chicken type they feel like using. Previously the chopped whatever chicken they feel like using was reserved for value menu items like Taco al Carbon or burritos. So the quality has become very inconsistent on these items now. It is usually still very tasty though.

3. They took the salsa bars out during COVID and decided to not return the salsa bars, but still advertise they offer "unlimited" salsa free with meal purchases. I am fine with no salsa bar, prefer not having a self serve salsa bar actually as it was often a mess and a wait to use it. The locations in my area however do not want to offer "unlimited" salsa. The locations have to pack up these 1 ounce cups of salsa. This is very labor intensive. The cups are frequently not full either. If ordering online you ask for as many salsa as you want and they do not fulfill the request. If I order 8 pieces of chicken and 8 tortillas that will be shared among 4 people I need to have, at least, 8 of those little salsa cups. The locations only want to give out a few 1oz containers of salsa for such orders, and if you order a single meal, good luck getting more than 1 or 2 of those 1oz cups of salsa, and real attitude if you ask for more. I have even offered to pay for the salsa if it such a problem but they have no way to charge.

4. In past years they always have Tamales for the holidays. This year, no Tamales. No Hot Chocolate either.

5. Not much left on the menu in the way of salads, etc. They seem to have really cut variety.

6. Pricing. They still coupon a lot and still have one $5 combo meal (a "shredded chicken" quesadilla) but the regular pricing seems to be getting out of hand. A small side item is now 3.99. A 2 piece breast/wing meal is close to $10.

I am not sure what has happened this year, but this chain seems to be losing its way. The other side of me is saying: are they just trying to focus on CORE menu items to simplify operations?

The growth story for this chain when it went IPO was supposed to be marketing as a healthy lifestyle type chain and adding new items to capture new customers (non-Hispanic customers) with more healthy food options, more salads, etc. At this point with menu changes, ingredient changes to fattier chicken in items that previously used lean breast, and item cuts they seem to be abandoning that strategy. Maybe the strategy wasn't working.
Brian Lutz
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Re: El Pollo Loco

Post by Brian Lutz »

There's one near here and I've only been a couple of times. The biggest issue I've run into is that they don't have napkin dispensers available in the restaurant, and skimp on the napkins for what can be a rather messy meal. The food is still decent, but I'm not a huge fan of the place. Last time I went the dining room was also being poorly maintained (possibly due to lack of staff on what seemed to be a rather busy day) and the cashier was barely awake when we ordered, possibly stoned.
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Re: El Pollo Loco

Post by Jeff »

My local store has the pozole and hot chocolate on the menu, but no tamales. I have been very disappointed with the chain recenty. The portions have been small and the chicken has been dry and overcooked. I have been going to other local chains (like Juan Pollo) and ditching EPL. My store also has bad service and gets orders wrong consistency.
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Re: El Pollo Loco

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: December 13th, 2022, 12:45 am 3. They took the salsa bars out during COVID and decided to not return the salsa bars, but still advertise they offer "unlimited" salsa free with meal purchases. I am fine with no salsa bar, prefer not having a self serve salsa bar actually as it was often a mess and a wait to use it. The locations in my area however do not want to offer "unlimited" salsa. The locations have to pack up these 1 ounce cups of salsa. This is very labor intensive. The cups are frequently not full either. If ordering online you ask for as many salsa as you want and they do not fulfill the request. If I order 8 pieces of chicken and 8 tortillas that will be shared among 4 people I need to have, at least, 8 of those little salsa cups. The locations only want to give out a few 1oz containers of salsa for such orders, and if you order a single meal, good luck getting more than 1 or 2 of those 1oz cups of salsa, and real attitude if you ask for more. I have even offered to pay for the salsa if it such a problem but they have no way to charge.
Sort of surprising that places even use those little cups for something like that. They could get ones that are larger (like 4 or 5 oz size) and that would be easier for everyone. They might cost a bit more per cup, but in the end they'd use fewer, so it would even out, plus it would take less time to fill and cover fewer, larger cups.

Then again, why would they want to actually make sense? ;)
storewanderer
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Re: El Pollo Loco

Post by storewanderer »

BillyGr wrote: December 13th, 2022, 12:57 pm

Sort of surprising that places even use those little cups for something like that. They could get ones that are larger (like 4 or 5 oz size) and that would be easier for everyone. They might cost a bit more per cup, but in the end they'd use fewer, so it would even out, plus it would take less time to fill and cover fewer, larger cups.

Then again, why would they want to actually make sense? ;)
My guess at this point is the cost of the cup and the cost of the labor filling the cup far exceeds the salsa cost... no matter if it is 1oz of salsa or 4oz of salsa... so these 1oz cups are really stupid.

They have a 2oz cup they use for salad dressing. I think they'd be better off using that at the smallest for the salsa. Then they can impose some kind of salsa policy and then charge for extra salsa.

I really think the reason they used the 1oz cups with the old "salsa bar" was because this was a way of controlling how much people took. But it was not unusual to watch people spend 3-4 minutes at the old salsa bar after buying a large family meal at El Pollo Loco and fill up 20-25 of those little cups with salsa (or onions, or cilantro). This was a rather labor intensive process for the customer and in some cases waiting customers impatience would make people "move" or just quit filling cups. El Pollo Loco serves their grilled chicken with tortillas and when the core hispanic customer eats the chicken they basically eat chicken/salsa/tortilla all together at once so quite a bit of salsa is part of the meal and it really is what makes the meal.

Also with the old salsa bar for dine in or even on to-go orders that were in a bowl, I would just scoop salsa directly onto the food item and not mess with the little cups. I like to use extra salsa in the Pollo Bowl and also put extra salsa onto the loco side salad (which used to have pico on it when served years ago but at some point they stopped doing that).
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Re: El Pollo Loco

Post by storewanderer »

This chain just changed its "Rewards" program. Previously the program was real simple- you spend $50 (accumulate) and then it threw you a $5 "Reward." In order to accumulate purchases you could either have them scan a QR code from the app or you could scan a barcode on the bottom of the receipt later.

You could use the "Reward" in any increment you wanted on any full price transaction (could not combine any coupon/offer with a reward redemption) and it worked like a good on anything coupon. The rewards expired after like six months.

New program - now you accumulate "points." The only way to do this is to scan the QR code during the purchase (no more scanning a receipt after purchase).

New program is really not generous. You earn 10 points per dollar spent. Cheapest redemption is 3,500 points for a drink OR 2 churros OR taco al carbon (retail value around 2.59 on these items; the taco should only cost $1 there is almost nothing on it). So under the old program you would spend $35 and then get back $3.50 in rewards good on anything. Now you spend $35 and you get a free drink or 2 free churros worth $2.59.

At least there are still some $5 combo meals (usually one specific option per location) available. Solid deal.
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Re: El Pollo Loco

Post by Alpha8472 »

These rewards programs start out good, and then the companies change them making them worse. The rewards keep people coming back. If the rewards are not enticing, then you end up losing those customers. This will backfire and end up decreasing business.

This is similar to other fast food restaurants where the rewards were once generous and now they are awful. I ended up patronizing these restaurants much less.

The rewards programs that I liked best were the free items of the week. I liked Jack In The Box when they would have so many free items just for making a purchase. Jack In the Box got rid of the free items and now have slightly discounted items or buy 2 for $5 or something similar.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on April 1st, 2023, 11:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
storewanderer
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Re: El Pollo Loco

Post by storewanderer »

I really liked the fool proof Rewards Accumulation with El Pollo Loco. While you could not redeem the Rewards with a coupon, you could redeem on any item. So I would just redeem the $5 Reward (received after spending $50) on one of the $5 Combos and it came out absolutely free.

Some other Rewards Programs work in this same, I call it fool proof, manner. You get 10% back based on what you spend. It is just a question how much you have to spend to get it. BJ's has a similar thing but there you spend $100 then get a $10 Reward good for 90 days. BJ's sends surveys after you go there that give 25 bonus points so that is good. Steak N Shake is spend $20 get $2 Reward good for 1 year- this program was granting credit based on posted full prices even if your order is discounted (50% off drink/shake in the afternoon).
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