Carl's Jr. & Hardee's Testing 4 for $6 Menu

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Re: Carl's Jr. & Hardee's Testing 4 for $6 Menu

Post by storewanderer »

We still get mailer coupons from Carls in Reno about every 2 weeks. The coupons aren't especially great but there are a lot of them. The coupons are good at any Carls except Hawaii. I have used these coupons in CA many times including bay area, Sacramento, and in OR. Sometimes the prices come out slightly different when I redeem them in CA.

Do you know of any remaining corporate Carls locations down in SoCal? The corporate locations always had lower prices than the franchisees. I know they've done a ton of refranchising but supposedly they did keep a small number of corporate units down in SoCal.

The Reno Carls has awful prices and they are much higher than NorCal franchisees. The Reno Carls are owned by a group who owns a few random units in SoCal and also owns the Payless Food chain (I think that is down to one location now).
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Re: Carl's Jr. & Hardee's Testing 4 for $6 Menu

Post by Bagels »

I no longer receive the coupons because the RedPlum switched their delivery service from USPS to the LA Time's weekly "local newspaper," and the city of Irvine considers them to be litter (given how many were never picked up). Same thing w/the Yellowpages some years back. Bummer, because I miss getting the ads and coupons. A couple of the Carl's Jr. coupons were exceptional - typically a $5 combo meal (raised to $5.55 in 2019) and $1 premium side or dessert (raised to $1.29 in 2019).

There were about a dozen locations within a 10 minute drive from me, but none are corporate owned (and most have the same owner). Four went out of business in the past few years. I sometimes stop at a Santa Ana location that sells the Big Hamburger and Double Cheeseburger for $2.50 each, but the rest of their pricing is no better. Oh well.
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Re: Carl's Jr. & Hardee's Testing 4 for $6 Menu

Post by storewanderer »

Bagels wrote: August 25th, 2022, 5:13 pm I no longer receive the coupons because the RedPlum switched their delivery service from USPS to the LA Time's weekly "local newspaper," and the city of Irvine considers them to be litter (given how many were never picked up). Same thing w/the Yellowpages some years back. Bummer, because I miss getting the ads and coupons. A couple of the Carl's Jr. coupons were exceptional - typically a $5 combo meal (raised to $5.55 in 2019) and $1 premium side or dessert (raised to $1.29 in 2019).

There were about a dozen locations within a 10 minute drive from me, but none are corporate owned (and most have the same owner). Four went out of business in the past few years. I sometimes stop at a Santa Ana location that sells the Big Hamburger and Double Cheeseburger for $2.50 each, but the rest of their pricing is no better. Oh well.
There are still a few corporate locations around Orange County.
You can find them by going here:
https://cke-ats-bridge.com/
Enter zip code and search, then in next screen, click select location. Then it will show up as corporate location in the following screen. For instance: https://cke-ats-bridge.com/?step=3&id=31104

Pricing is pretty awful at these sites too. At least the zucchini is only 3.49. BBQ Chicken 7.29.

For instance in Santa Ana these are corporate locations:
3325 S. Harbor
2511 S. Bristol
1830 N. Bristol
1809 E. Edinger


This is franchise in Santa Ana:
1943 E. 17th St.
1720 E. Dyer
18601 Airport
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Re: Carl's Jr. & Hardee's Testing 4 for $6 Menu

Post by Bagels »

storewanderer wrote: August 25th, 2022, 10:42 pm
Bagels wrote: August 25th, 2022, 5:13 pm I no longer receive the coupons because the RedPlum switched their delivery service from USPS to the LA Time's weekly "local newspaper," and the city of Irvine considers them to be litter (given how many were never picked up). Same thing w/the Yellowpages some years back. Bummer, because I miss getting the ads and coupons. A couple of the Carl's Jr. coupons were exceptional - typically a $5 combo meal (raised to $5.55 in 2019) and $1 premium side or dessert (raised to $1.29 in 2019).

There were about a dozen locations within a 10 minute drive from me, but none are corporate owned (and most have the same owner). Four went out of business in the past few years. I sometimes stop at a Santa Ana location that sells the Big Hamburger and Double Cheeseburger for $2.50 each, but the rest of their pricing is no better. Oh well.
There are still a few corporate locations around Orange County.
You can find them by going here:
https://cke-ats-bridge.com/
Enter zip code and search, then in next screen, click select location. Then it will show up as corporate location in the following screen. For instance: https://cke-ats-bridge.com/?step=3&id=31104

Pricing is pretty awful at these sites too. At least the zucchini is only 3.49. BBQ Chicken 7.29.

For instance in Santa Ana these are corporate locations:
3325 S. Harbor
2511 S. Bristol
1830 N. Bristol
1809 E. Edinger


This is franchise in Santa Ana:
1943 E. 17th St.
1720 E. Dyer
18601 Airport
Good tip! Looks like the South OC locations are franchise but many in North OC are corporate. Unfortunately, doesn’t look like pricing is much better at corporate stores: Big Hamburger for 2.99, and fries for about $1 less, but most everything else is the same.
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Re: Carl's Jr. & Hardee's Testing 4 for $6 Menu

Post by storewanderer »

Surprisingly bad pricing on core menu items (Famous Star, Western, BBQ Chicken). They have kept so few corporate locations, I wonder if they have any promotions or test items, etc.
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Re: Carl's Jr. & Hardee's Testing 4 for $6 Menu

Post by storewanderer »

Tried the Carls "A-1" Double Cheeseburger today. I had it with just one piece of meat and omitted mayo (poor value that was at 3.49, but only wanted one piece of meat). Very tasty. I highly recommend it. They put some "canadian steak seasoning" whatever that is onto it, which goes well with the A-1 flavor. This version comes with onion rings. One of the tastiest fast food burgers I've had in quite some time.

The single patty larger patty version which costs 8.19 (no way) has sliced red onions and I am not sure if that would work better or the same as the onion rings.

Also Carls now wants tips (bucket sitting next to the register) yet they no longer carry your tray of food to the table (they put it at the end of the counter and yell at you that it is ready).
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Re: Carl's Jr. & Hardee's Testing 4 for $6 Menu

Post by veteran+ »

TIPS?

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

For what? Cholesterol?
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Re: Carl's Jr. & Hardee's Testing 4 for $6 Menu

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: December 30th, 2022, 7:12 am TIPS?

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

For what? Cholesterol?
To be fair, their cooking process with the char broiler burns off a lot of the fat on the burgers...
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Re: Carl's Jr. & Hardee's Testing 4 for $6 Menu

Post by veteran+ »

Not really..............................

:roll:
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Re: Carl's Jr. & Hardee's Testing 4 for $6 Menu

Post by buckguy »

I'm surprised either chain is still around, although they apparently have big "transformational" plans. https://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciakels ... 9c0ec06033 It sounds like one pilot area did very well, but the second did more modestly. Carls Jr lost their halo a long time ago and Hardees has grown and retrenched more times than I can remember---they seem to do best in small towns and underserved exurbs but even in those places, they often seem to come and go.

The idea of combining a burger place that had a following in an intensely competitive burger market with a mediocre burger place known mostly for breakfast must have seemed like a good idea "on paper" but they've never really made it work very well. The Carls Jr menu didn't play well with Hardees customers who were used to a cheap but forgettable burger and didn't want to pay more even if it was something better. The franchisees didn't like it either, but still they seem to be trying to tinker with some version of a common operation. It's difficult to find numbers on their domestic operations for Hardees, which is the larger operation in the US, but I'm guessing it's less than it was 10-15 years ago.
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