I used to like Boston Market, but I stopped going a few years ago. Why? They took away the napkins. I was incredulous and said so at the location I used to frequent for lunch:
“You’re a chicken restaurant. People eat chicken with their hands, and you’ve taken napkins off the tables?”
Yup. You had to ask for them at the counter, at which point they would grudgingly give you one or two. I haven’t been back since. From the article:
Restaurant analyst Aaron Allen says many of the brand’s problems predated its change of ownership. “It’s not the death of a thousand cuts, but many things contributed,” he said.
For one, he said, after distinguishing itself in the 1990s as a cut above fast food, it attempted to compete with those brands by holding its costs down — a move that ultimately led to a reduction in quality, which only undercut it further. “If you chase a lower price-point consumer you can price yourself out of business,” Allen says.
There are a lot less of them around my area than there use to be. I figured they were in trouble.
When the kids were little, it was a pretty good place to take the family, kind of like Applebees. Once the kids hit their teen years there was little reason to go. So I wasn’t aware of the decrease is quality.
Sounds like penny-pinching is doing them in the way Friendly’s was largely killed. (Use to be at least 7 in Monmouth County alone).
Looks like we’re down to 12 Boston Markets in NJ, I know at least 3 that closed in Monmouth County and there may have been more.
I don’t know of any of them in my area anymore – and I live outside Boston. They’re all closed. Ironically, the first Boston Chicken I ever ate at was on Boylston St. in Boston (It was Boston Chicken before they expanded into Meatloaf and the like and became Boston Market).
Too bad. They served real mashed potatoes and real vegetables and good rotisserie chicken. Far better than the nearby Fast Food emporiums, or the places at the local mall.
I used to love it in my single days. Great meatloaf, green beans, mashed potatoes, spinach. It was a treat to go there and get a good home style meal. I think we also went there when my kids were really little (12-13 years ago). But it’s been a while since we’ve been. Mostly because every location we went to closed.
I loved them when they were a big thing, back in the '90s and early 2000s. It’s probably been over a decade since I’ve eaten there, and there aren’t many – if any – left here in the Chicago area.
The grocery rotisserie had to be the end of Boston Chicken/Market. It was a place to grab & go a chicken before that was widely available at Walmart and Kroger.
Weird, we had the chickens in the store before the first Boston Chicken opened near us. So they thrived at least a dozen years with that competition. The sides and cornbread is what I thought kept them ahead of the grocery store chicken.
I know the very first Boston Chickens opened before the Supermarket chicken was popular, but I doubt that was the downfall. I think the penny-pinching detailed in the OP makes more sense.
Yeah, I suspect it was cost-cutting (and, as a result, decline in quality), as well as a growth of other, more novel offerings in fast-casual restaurants (as the article also notes).
I remember when the first Boston Market opened near me. It was ages ago (easily three decades), and when we tried it, I was favorably impressed. We didn’t go often, but one time we went after a bit of a time gap, and the food was noticeably poorer quality. We didn’t go back after that. And, again, that was ages ago. That location closed long ago, too, and I don’t know of any others around.
Boston Chicken expanded here when they took over the old Roy Rogers* locations. At least they gave a good discount to first responders (50% if I remember correctly); otherwise, I probably would have passed entirely
There was one near her that went viral a few months ago; seem the sheriff evicted them from their location. The photo was a bunch of sheriff’s vehicles & all of their equipment at the curb.
-* the old Roy Rogers were good & nothing like the modern ones that exist.
I, too, remember when they were called Boston Chicken. I used to stop in fairly regularly. The food was pretty good in those days, especially when they became Boston Market and expanded the menu. It was also a bit different than the sort of thing you could get at most fast food places.
There was only one of them in my city, and it closed a long time ago. It’s a Noodles & Company now. I still see their brand in the frozen meals department at the supermarket, but I honestly had no idea that the restaurants themselves were still in business.
I don’t think I’ve watched this video yet, but I generally like most of what this youtuber does on these types of topics. It’s a few years old, but it might still be relevant to this discussion.
The one near my work closed down a few months ago, reopened shortly after with a very limited menu, then closed for good a couple weeks ago. I would be sad, but the best quesabirria tacos and pineapple curry in town are in the same parking lot, so it’s difficult.
I just noticed the one in our city has closed. I used to like it a lot, years ago. I remember they had very good meatloaf, with a big choice of interesting sides. But more recently they were a shadow of themselves.
FWIW the Friendly’s near me used to have napkin a dispenser on every table. They took them away last year, and rarely bring napkins out with the meal. For a while, I would walk over to the counter and ask for napkins, figuring they were forgetting, and would take the hint, but nope. Now I bring my own.
What’s next? We have to bring our own utensils? Chairs? I don’t know enough about economics to draw any serious inferences, but it’s sounding like we are really in a race to the bottom here.
Same here-- in my single days it was a great place to get a take-out meal that was pretty darn close to home cooking.
I haven’t been to a Boston Market in years and years though-- possibly not in the 21st century, even. I can’t remember why I stopped-- did I stop going because their quality declined, or did they decline because people like me stopped going?
Honestly, the quality and service really suffered when they were owned by McDonalds. My wife and I loved the meatloaf, mashed potatoes and chicken before the takeover, but after our last visit about 8 years ago, we decided that the last few meals were disappointing and we started to branch out to other comfort food restaurant options.
