Retail Watchers

So apparently Church's Chicken is changing its name to Church's Texas Chicken with a new logo (the international outlets are still called Texas Chicken). I'm not sure I like the idea. The logo is extremely bland, and Church's doesn't have much of a "Texas" heritage like places like Whataburger and H-E-B have cultivated.

Reminds me of how Schlotzsky's tried to rebrand as "Schlotzsky's Austin Eatery" and backpedaled on the idea, keeping some design elements but not changing the name.

Google maps already rebranded them as Church's Texas Chicken a while ago. Maybe they are trying to make it sound like their chicken tastes better because of Texas?

I don't associate them with Texas at all as it doesn't taste any different than any other state.

My initial reaction is this is ridiculous.

Then I thought about Kentucky Fried Chicken and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and realized maybe this isn't a bridge so far.

Not sure why they need to rebrand though.

Haven't been to a Church's in years (There are 3 in WA, closest one is 60 miles away) but I can't imagine a lot of people would associate fried chicken with Texas. Louisiana or Kentucky seem more plausible, and even Carolina (Bojangles) wouldn't be too far off the mark.

Overseas Church’s is called Texas Fried Chicken (because “Church” has a questionable connotation in Asia) They do offer jalapeños, which is a Texas thing.

Church's has been announcing what sound like major expansions over the years but it never seems to pan out. I rarely see a Church's in my travels, save for a few I know of in tough neighborhoods in NorCal that have been around for many decades.

Even small expansions don't seem to pan out. I can't figure out what the issue with the concept is that holds back their expansion. They seem to have a number of old, long established locations. They have a low cost model to build out new locations and their product seems good enough.

It seems like ever since Popeyes sold this chain it has just sort of lingered along. No boom or bust.

storewanderer wrote: ↑August 10th, 2022, 11:30 pm Church's has been announcing what sound like major expansions over the years but it never seems to pan out. I rarely see a Church's in my travels, save for a few I know of in tough neighborhoods in NorCal that have been around for many decades.

Even small expansions don't seem to pan out. I can't figure out what the issue with the concept is that holds back their expansion. They seem to have a number of old, long established locations. They have a low cost model to build out new locations and their product seems good enough.

It seems like ever since Popeyes sold this chain it has just sort of lingered along. No boom or bust.

Church's definitely seems to be contracting more than anything else. A store in town moved into a 1990s-build fast food restaurant space in 2003, but closed about a year ago. And meanwhile, the Church's Chicken restaurants I know of have either closed or having been hanging around for decades.

Meanwhile, other chicken restaurants in Texas have charged ahead. Bush's Chicken, Chicken Express, Popeyes, and Golden Chick are all opening stores. Even Bojangles' is dipping its toe back in the waters again in Texas after a handful of restaurants in the mid-1980s. The other restaurants haven't achieved total success and some have failed, but they've all been building new stores and expanding, whereas Church's...hasn't.

The problem with Church's is that their food just isn't that good.

The chicken has a relatively bland taste to it and their sides are nothing spectacular. They do have good biscuits though.

For the same price, I'd take Popeye's any day of the week.

Brian Lutz wrote: ↑August 10th, 2022, 11:02 pm Haven't been to a Church's in years (There are 3 in WA, closest one is 60 miles away) but I can't imagine a lot of people would associate fried chicken with Texas. Louisiana or Kentucky seem more plausible, and even Carolina (Bojangles) wouldn't be too far off the mark.

Church's has come and gone in a couple other places in WA. The Dairy Queen in Woodland became a Church's with a sloppy conversion....I remember signs on the doors where the Dairy Queen logo was covered with black paint. The food was unremarkable, and I remember they insisted their rolls, biscuits, or whatever "did not need additional butter because it was baked in" when I asked for butter (which they did not have) because I thought they were on the dry side. Oddly, that location became another small restaurant or two and is now a Dairy Queen once again. Another location opened in Vancouver, WA in a former A&W in Orchards that did not last long, it is now some kind of Indian restaurant I believe. The only one I have seen recently is in Lakewood, WA which looks as if it was something else at one point. These locations all seem like very low budget franchises to me.

Historically Church's was a "value" chicken chain. The whole point of Church's was a low price point. It was like the discount version of Popeyes (when Popeyes owned it). Small restaurants, complete and total push on price. The side item quality was reflected in the pricing (poor) but I thought the core chicken and biscuits were certainly an acceptable value for the prices they charged. Their pieces were a little odd and I think they may allocate more than 8 pieces from a whole chicken by piece count (like they somehow get the white side into 3 pieces).

The biscuit comment is funny also. I had the same experience when I asked for butter because I found the biscuit to be quite dry. But they really don't have condiment size butter- it is a cost cutting thing. A service oriented place would have gotten you some butter from their large tub they use to top the biscuits with after baking but I have not found discount fried chicken places like Church's to have particularly strong customer service.