Boston Market

[Alpha8472]

I noticed that the Pleasant Hill Boston Market was totally emptied out. I am shocked since that location seemed to do decent business. It was one of the only ones still left in the San Francisco Bay Area.

[storewanderer]

It appears they are still open in Oakland (one unit; another unit there closed during COVID), San Francisco, Daly City, and a couple others toward San Jose.

Also for some reason they still have two open units in Fresno.

The Reno unit still has everything inside unless it was emptied out very recently. It has been for lease for a while, no takers, which surprises me. I thought Starbucks would jump on that for a drive through space.

[norcalriteaidclerk]

Boston Market has closed more locations in recent weeks.

Roseville and Pleasant Hill, CA are both gone. Not sure if Sacramento is still there.
Albuquerque, NM is gone.
3 of 6 metro Denver (where their HQ is/was) appear to be gone
At least a couple metro Phoenix units are gone

Appears to be various closures in other metros too.

Their store locator now goes to a broken link but you can go to online ordering to find active stores. Many closed stores are still listed for online ordering but say unavailable.

Sacramento Arden(2300 Fair Oaks)remains active.Roseville(5003 Foothills)is still listed though online ordering at the latter location is 'temporarily' unavailable.

[storewanderer]

Sacramento Arden(2300 Fair Oaks)remains active.Roseville(5003 Foothills)is still listed though online ordering at the latter location is 'temporarily' unavailable.

Roseville is out of business. Fair Oaks seems to be open.

Recent reviews for many CA locations are scary. Didn't look much outside CA, not as many recent reviews. Some of these remaining CA Boston Markets are/were pretty high volume units specifically Daly City and Lawndale are/were high volume units for the company. Fair Oaks was also pretty high volume.

Noticed a San Jose location that is still open but has FOR LEASE signs in the windows. Not sure what that is all about.

The online menu for the CA locations has fewer items than the CO locations. Multiple missing side items for some reason in CA.

[ClownLoach]

It looks like the last survivors in Orange County have permanently closed as well, Laguna Niguel, Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach. Their website is a mess and still shows you can order pickup at the Tustin location that closed at least two years ago.

[storewanderer]

It looks like the last survivors in Orange County have permanently closed as well, Laguna Niguel, Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach. Their website is a mess and still shows you can order pickup at the Tustin location that closed at least two years ago.

Tustin location reportedly reopened 2 weeks ago after being closed for 3 years.....

As they are randomly closing tons of locations for whatever reason they randomly reopened this one...

I really don't get it.

Maybe Reno one can reopen. Hopefully gets deep cleaning first, and will have spinach and new potatoes on the menu (the CA ones don't have those items anymore but the others still appear to).

[ClownLoach]

It looks like the last survivors in Orange County have permanently closed as well, Laguna Niguel, Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach. Their website is a mess and still shows you can order pickup at the Tustin location that closed at least two years ago.

Tustin location reportedly reopened 2 weeks ago after being closed for 3 years.....

As they are randomly closing tons of locations for whatever reason they randomly reopened this one...

I really don't get it.

Maybe Reno one can reopen. Hopefully gets deep cleaning first, and will have spinach and new potatoes on the menu (the CA ones don't have those items anymore but the others still appear to).

I'm really puzzled by the Tustin situation because there was signage up for another restaurant and construction setting up. I wonder if they subdivided the suite and reopened in a smaller format? Although I'm not over there very often anymore so whatever was under development could have fallen through.

[storewanderer]

I'm really puzzled by the Tustin situation because there was signage up for another restaurant and construction setting up. I wonder if they subdivided the suite and reopened in a smaller format? Although I'm not over there very often anymore so whatever was under development could have fallen through.

Looking at photos on Google it appears the old tables, equipment, etc. are all still in place. They appear to have hung some new decor on the walls in the dining area and may have a new sign out front (or cleaned the signs really well).

I am quite perplexed by this series of events as well.

Some of their best volume units were supposedly in California though.

[ClownLoach]

I'm really puzzled by the Tustin situation because there was signage up for another restaurant and construction setting up. I wonder if they subdivided the suite and reopened in a smaller format? Although I'm not over there very often anymore so whatever was under development could have fallen through.

Looking at photos on Google it appears the old tables, equipment, etc. are all still in place. They appear to have hung some new decor on the walls in the dining area and may have a new sign out front (or cleaned the signs really well).

I am quite perplexed by this series of events as well.

Some of their best volume units were supposedly in California though.

The old signs were definitely removed so they must be new. The online pictures make it look like the front signs were installed to the left of the original sign location; you can see the faint label scar from the old one painted over. The side sign is in the same spot. Only thing I can think of is that they are on the hook for a long term lease and they tried to sublease it out but then the replacement tenant lost their funding and fell through. There was definitely something new that was going in there after they closed - it had construction walls around it with a tropical color scheme. I don't think another chain was going in so it could have been the franchisee trying to create their own concept? Also if it's the same franchisee as the other recently closed OC stores then they could have relocated some old furniture and equipment over there to reopen. This is in one of the few Tustin/Irvine shopping centers not owned/operated by Irvine Company (I want to say it's managed by Kimco although not owned by them); they wouldn't allow a sublease and would have just worked out something to break the lease deal then bring in a more productive tenant. I always thought one of their less publicized failure points was the lack of drive through units; they built a lot of high visibility corner lots that could have been configured differently to accommodate a drive thru but chose not to do so and maintained their symmetrical trademark visual appearance. As we have seen when chains in California have drive thru lanes they're exponentially more profitable and productive. Although the now closed Laguna Niguel location had a drive thru... Somehow every time I drove past that store there was always at least two or three cars in line.

[storewanderer]

These typical public Boston Market units are all corporate operated. The only units they have that aren't corporate operated are a few military base or truck stop units.

I noticed quite a few CA units had no drive through. I think whoever the franchisee (they used to have franchisees but all units went corporate by the time McDonalds took over if not before) in CA was, did a lot of going into in-line spaces, perhaps it was faster/easier to build those. For instance the units around Sacramento (except possibly Davis) all had drive throughs. Yet multiple bay area units, no drive through, and same situation in SoCal.

Aside from that every other Boston Market I've ever seen (CO, NV, AZ, NM, FL, etc.) has a drive through.

The Reno Boston Market usually had a car or two in drive through too. They were drive through only most of the time for basically their last 2.5 years of operations. Real half hearted efforts to reopen inside, some issues with the building, sewage vent from dishwashing room, and bathrooms were a disaster that needed a demolish-re-do. But before COVID, drive through also usually had 1-2 cars in it and there would always be at least a few tables of customers eating inside (nothing like the crowds of the 90's when the line was long and they had a ton of employees). Inside had been open a bit more the last few months, but toward the end they started closing it again.