Wendy's

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cjd
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Wendy's

Post by cjd »

My town used to have two Wendy's (for most of the larger chains this is the case). The one on my end of the town was from the 70s, and closed during 2015. The one on the other end of town was built around 2004 I'm guessing. While most other Wendy's here have remodeled, all this one has gotten is painted over wallpaper and the hanging lights removed, which makes it darker at night. It still seems to have good service.

I don't eat there as often as I'd like, mainly because it's on the far end of town. It just seems odd to me that Wendy's seems to have a smaller presence here compared to other chains. It also doesn't seem as busy to me. It doesn't help that their lighting makes them seem dark and uninviting at night. I always see very few if any cars there on a weekend night compared to other places.

Has anyone noticed this in your area? To me Wendy's has always been the classier fast food place (like the slogan "It's better here") It just seems whenever I go there's always a small demograhic there (typically retirees in groups). I suppose it's not surprising, given Wendy's reputation and positioning. Of course it could be if I went during lunch during the week it might be different.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by Super S »

Wendy's doesn't have quite the market penetration that some of the larger chains have. Some towns have only a single location, where others have many. Wendy's also has had some franchise issues, on a trip along the Oregon Coast a few years back I saw a few buildings that were easily identified as former Wendy's, but no open locations.

I do think they have good quality food and are a little better as far as variety. In all honesty, they have the fastest drive-thru by far in my area.

They have been on a remodel/rebuild spree lately and some of the remodels have been very thorough. I haven't really noticed any dark locations though, most seem to have good lighting.

One area they have faltered at though is their attempts at breakfast menus. It seems like every few years there is an advertising blitz about new breakfast menus, but after a month or two they get out of breakfast entirely every time. The only time I have ever had breakfast from Wendy's was at Portland International Airport, where it wasn't really anything memorable but it wasn't necessarily bad. It seems like Wendy's exited PDX, however.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by cjd »

Out of all the fast food places, I never tried breakfast at Wendy's, well Subway for that matter either.

It bemuses me that this location has not been remodeled, because as you say many have been lately. All of the other locations around me have gotten the remodels with new signage, and the wood tile floors, LCD fireplace and TVs. Most of these are probably early to mid 2000s locations. There was an older 70s one in the town to the north that was demolished and one of the new modern style building replaced it. I'm not sure if the Wendy's to the south of me was remodeled yet or not, it is from about the same era as the one here but may have been closer to the late 2000s.

I like the variety of food at Wendy's and when I leave I don't feel like I've eaten a lot of empty air. That is the feeling I get when I know I ate a lot of junk food yet still feel hungry.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by Brian Lutz »

Around here Wendy's seems to do well, but they have generally been slow to remodel older locations. There have been a few instances where older locations were either torn down and rebuilt or closed and replaced with new locations nearby, and a handful of new build locations opened recently as well. There are also a lot of older locations (dating back as far as the late 70s when they started opening restaurants here) that remain largely unchanged since the early 90s, with the only recent updates being the addition of Coke Freestyle machines. That said, Wendy's drive thru speed has slipped a bit since the early 90s when they were blazing fast (at least at the one I went to) but they're still pretty fast compared to a lot of the competition.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by cjd »

One thing I've noticed with the Wendy's location here is that the first drive through window is closed when I go. It's a big poster on it, so I suspect that is always the case. So you pay at the pick up window, which does slow service down. Although, the older second location only had one window if I remember right.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by Brian Lutz »

This weekend I was at one of the older Wendy's locations nearby (Evergreen Way in Everett) and found that it recently received a full interior remodel to an appearance package similar to that of the new build locations in the area. Not quite as nice as the newer locations, but much nicer than what was there previously. At the same time the interior has been remodeled, so far the exterior has remained completely untouched. I have some photos, but I need to find somewhere to post them.

As for breakfast at Wendy's, I've had it a couple of times at an airport location and the food seems reasonably good. Not the type of thing I'd go out of my way for (not that I'd go out of my way for fast food breakfast, with the possible exception of an occasional Chick-Fil-A Spicy Biscuit) but reasonable.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by storewanderer »

I am in close proximity to two Wendys that serve breakfast (one in a Wal Mart, one in a gas station). I am kind of surprised they have kept serving it, as business seems really slow and the gas station one opens pretty late.

The biscuits are okay. The chicken does not seem to be as good as the chicken on their lunch/dinner chicken sandwiches. This is not like Chickfila where the breakfast chicken is just as good as the lunch/dinner chicken, just a smaller size piece.

The star at Wendy's breakfast is their breakfast potatoes. Like small potato wedges, very crunchy and very tasty, if not a bit overly salty. They should serve those all day.

Their breakfast burrito isn't bad either, especially for a frozen/microwaved burrito.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by rwsandiego »

In college Wendy's breakfast bar was my go-to. They had delicious freshly scrambled eggs. Loved their hash browns, too. Instead of being a patty they were little circles. McDonald's was my pancake, er, "hotcake" place. Good times.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by Brian Lutz »

Earlier in the thread I mentioned that Wendy's has been slow to remodel older locations around here, but recently that's changed, and now there are near-simultaneous remodels happening at both the Silver Lake and the Broadway locations in Everett. The Evergreen Way location remodeled its interior a few months ago but as far as I can tell has not done anything to its exterior, at least not yet. The Silver Lake location is getting a full inside-and-out remodel though. Not sure what the Broadway location is doing since I'm not over there all that often. I'm also not sure what the Marysville location is doing, as they seemed to be somewhat newer than the other Everett locations but last time I was there they seemed even more dated than the older locations, and service was somewhat less than stellar on my last visit.

As for serving breakfast, a quick search of locations in this area on their locator finds only one location that serves breakfast in Kent (which, if I recall correctly, is connected to a gas station.) The Wendy's they used to have in Sea-Tac Airport served breakfast as well, but it closed last year when the central marketplace area they were in was shut down for a remodel, and as far as I know they aren't coming back afterward.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by Alpha8472 »

Wendy's seems popular in my area, but only due to the fact the only other burger competition is Burger King.

Some Wendy's have added self checkout using large touch screens that look like tablet computers. I have seen a row of 3 on a counter apart from the regular cash registers. They took cards but no cash. The cups were on the counter and were self serve. With this format they are going to lose a lot of money with people helping themselves to free drinks.

Wendy's keeps a rotating variety of new sandwiches, which makes them a little more appealing than Burger King. Burger King has not come out with anything exciting in years.
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