Chick-fil-a or Schlotzky's up north

[gdsdiscgolfer]

Neither of these fast food chains have penetrated to the Northeast region. Is there any particular reason for this? I love them and think opening a franchise might be a goldmine.

[Peeda]

I think schlotzkys was in bad financial shape. Sort of the same deal with krisy kreme I guess, great product but bad management. My friend used to eat at one all the time and got to know the owner a bit. Apparently he would bitch about management. Like they weren't reponsive, and he wanted to downgrade the store size because real estate is very expensive in southern california, but they weren't being flexible about it. Apparently they ousted the senior management or something and went bankrupt, so maybe things are getting better now. No idea about chick-fil-a.

[MrBlue]

There was a Schlostzky's around 57th and 6th in Manhattan about 2-3 years ago. The food was ok, got decent lines during lunch. It closed down a couple of months after I started working around there. I don't think it ever gained any traction.

All the shops there lived and died by the lunch crowd and there were a lot of competitors for the lunch crowd. Probably no less than 10 sandwich places and 10 restaurants in a 2 block radius.

A jamba juice opened up across the street recently and it's been a huge hit. *shrug*

[NobodysFreak]

I live in Northern Jersey and there are two Chick-fil-a locations within a reasonable distance from my house. My understanding is that the franchise has one HUGE flaw, namely, they're not open on Sundays. Both of the stores I know of are located within malls so you're losing a major amount of business by not being open on Sunday.

[OpenWheel]

[ QUOTE ]
I live in Northern Jersey and there are two Chick-fil-a locations within a reasonable distance from my house. My understanding is that the franchise has one HUGE flaw, namely, they're not open on Sundays. Both of the stores I know of are located within malls so you're losing a major amount of business by not being open on Sunday.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's true. But most of the articles about the company and the founder's decision about Sundays, say that they gain back quite a bit of that loss by attracting better quality employees and having significantly lower turnover then the industry averages.

I guess lots of folks dig knowing there's always going to be one day a week off without trading shifts, plus it gives a sense of management caring about their well-being.

[fleece_me]

chik-fil-a isn't a franchise.