# Goodbye to another place I used to like - Boston Market sucks now **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 28, 2015, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758 "2015-04-28T23:39:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/21 "2015-04-29T19:45:41Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > When I was in the hospital, a friend brought me some food from Boston Market. I ate a little of it, then returned to hospital food. /close thread ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/22 "2015-04-29T20:05:48Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > /close thread /reopen thread Man the SD is a tough crowd! There is no way BM (heh heh) is as bad as hospital food, unless your hospital is affiliated with a fine dining restaurant. But keep telling yourself that you’re better than those plebes that eat from [shudder]\* chain restaurants\*. [the horror!] Maybe someday you’ll believe it. As for the subject of the thread, maybe it’s a specific restaurant. We still get napkins at ours. Though I do think not having trash bins is a silly thing. I haven’t noticed the premium sides, though maybe they are ones I don’t normally get. ---
**Author:** ![mischievous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mischievous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mischievous)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/23 "2015-04-29T20:13:35Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > They never expanded up to the part of the country where I live now, so I haven’t experienced their decline, but according to Google Maps the location where I worked is now a bank. (Funny enough, it was also a bank _before_ it was a Boston Market, something which we learned one day when one of my co-workers flipped a mystery switch in the walk-in freezer that didn’t seem to go to anything, only to discover, courtesy of an armed police response a few minutes later, that it was a silent alarm that had never been deactivated.) That’s hilarious. I’m picturing the look on the cop’s faces. “There’s an in-progress armed bank robbery! …at a fried chicken place?” “Uh, lunch break?” OTOH, my boyfriend informs me that some fast food restaurants installed silent alarms in their walk-ins because robbers would herd the staff into them and then block the door. So it could have been installed by Boston Market and then forgotten with staff turnover. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/24 "2015-04-29T20:24:17Z")
> [@mischievous](#): > > OTOH, my boyfriend informs me that some fast food restaurants installed silent alarms in their walk-ins because robbers would herd the staff into them and then block the door. So it could have been installed by Boston Market and then forgotten with staff turnover. We did specifically learn from the cops that that silent alarm was associated with the bank that used to occupy the building, so it wasn’t that - just an oversight on the part of the remodelers. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I haven’t noticed the premium sides, though maybe they are ones I don’t normally get. You know, I think that to this day I can still recite from memory all the side dishes we served back when I was there, just from having to recite the entire list over the drive-thru headset every time some clueless customer decided to ask what sides we have instead of looking at the menu board; Mashed potatoes, stuffing, mac & cheese, creamed spinach, squash, sweet potato casserole, steamed veggies, green beans, cinnamon apples, potatoes au gratin, tomatoes au gratin, garlic dill new potatoes, chicken noodle soup, chicken tortilla soup, coleslaw, chicken salad, potato salad, tortellini salad, side Caesar, baked beans, corn, cranberry relish, rice pilaf, and cornbread. (90% of the time I rattled off that list, they ended up going with mashed potatoes and stuffing.) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/25 "2015-04-29T20:32:52Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > As for the subject of the thread, maybe it’s a specific restaurant. We still get napkins at ours. Though I do think not having trash bins is a silly thing. I haven’t noticed the premium sides, though maybe they are ones I don’t normally get. It’s probably an independent store instead of a company or large franchisee. The company stores and big players tend to keep up the details. It’s the solo or small-franchise owner/ops that get to the point where they try to save nickels by not putting out napkins or trash bins that have to be emptied. And it’s usually slow suicide, as others have pointed out - the place is so unpleasant or annoying that even regulars stop going back, provoking further frantic cuts… ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/26 "2015-04-29T20:43:35Z")
All I know is the one near me had a banner reading “RIBS. Hurry! Limited time only!” that they had up for exactly 11 months and 2 weeks. 2 weeks after taking it down, it went right back up for another 6 months (to be replaced with a new banner reading “PULLED PORK. Limited time only!”). ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/27 "2015-04-29T21:16:53Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > All I know is the one near me had a banner reading “RIBS. Hurry! Limited time only!” that they had up for exactly 11 months and 2 weeks. 2 weeks after taking it down, it went right back up for another 6 months (to be replaced with a new banner reading “PULLED PORK. Limited time only!”). And it was the same batch of meat! ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/28 "2015-04-29T21:27:22Z")
> [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > No more napkins. That’s right - a restaurant that seves chicken you mostly eat with your hands… puts out no napkins. I haven’t eaten at a Boston Market in over 10 years. But the napkin thing they must have taken that straight out of Subway’s playbook. They put one napkin in your bag with your sandwich and that’s it. If you want more, you have to ask the cashier for extra, and then the employees look at each other like, _well if you don’t tell, I guess I can give you a couple more_. Are paper napkins that expensive? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/29 "2015-04-29T21:32:04Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > I haven’t eaten at a Boston Market in over 10 years. But the napkin thing they must have taken that straight out of Subway’s playbook. They put one napkin in your bag with your sandwich and that’s it. If you want more, you have to ask the cashier for extra, and then the employees look at each other like, _well if you don’t tell, I guess I can give you a couple more_. > > Are paper napkins that expensive? Subway is pretty unique among fast food chains in that _all_ of its locations are franchised - IIRC, there’s only one company-owned location, right next to corporate HQ, and it’s more of a test kitchen than a business that’s expected to generate a profit. Franchise operations are going to tend to be bigger penny-pinchers than corporate-owned restaurants because they have to pay a franchise fee on top of all the usual expenses that come with running a restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/30 "2015-04-30T01:42:22Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > And it was the same batch of meat! 😃 Funny, that’s exactly what I said to my wife. We don’t eat there… ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/31 "2015-04-30T16:10:17Z")
Not just one location. I noticed this pence before and up I thought that too. But my OP was from another store, same napkin policy. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/32 "2015-04-30T16:56:37Z")
> [@russian\_heel](#): > > I’ve eaten at BM _snickerrrr…_ ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/33 "2015-04-30T18:26:23Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I quit going to the local BM long ago: the food was yummy, everything was just fine, but the price was too high for the amount of food provided. Yummy, but small and expensive portions. Yep, I haven’t been to a Boston Market in years; because it was just too expensive. > [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > The third point (charging more for “premium” sides, which used to be called “regular” sides) is a way to cope with rising food and supply costs without simply upping the menu prices. > > The other stuff - especially the napkins thing - is utter crap, and a bad sign for the chain. Who’s with me on this… if a restaurant only raises prices on part of their sides; to call them “premium sides” it only serves to highlight the fact that there’s a price change. Most people don’t pay attention to that kind of thing. I’d think that raising prices on ALL of the sides would have a better chance of going unnoticed as compared to suddenly having “premium sides” on the menu. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/34 "2015-05-01T00:23:29Z")
Don’t worry. Once all this minimum wage increase stuff comes about they will raise all the prices, not just a few sides. Gotta pay the people that walk your food to the table for you somehow. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/35 "2015-05-01T01:14:35Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > Yep, I haven’t been to a Boston Market in years; because it was just too expensive. > Who’s with me on this… if a restaurant only raises prices on part of their sides; to call them “premium sides” it only serves to highlight the fact that there’s a price change. Most people don’t pay attention to that kind of thing. I’d think that raising prices on ALL of the sides would have a better chance of going unnoticed as compared to suddenly having “premium sides” on the menu. Nah. What they NEED to do is remove those items from the steam table for a few months; THEN bring them back\* as “premium” sides. \*that is, make new batches of them. Don’t just toss them in the freezer for 90 days. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/36 "2015-05-01T01:35:02Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Don’t worry. Once all this minimum wage increase stuff comes about they will raise all the prices, not just a few sides. > > Gotta pay the people that walk your food to the table for you somehow. Margins are rarely so tight they can’t afford it. It’s more often just that people will let them get away with it. It’s a nice opportunity to introduce a price hike and blame it on something else. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/37 "2015-05-01T11:58:10Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > McDonald’s bought the chain in 2000 and sold it in 2007, so it hasn’t been involved in about eight years. So I don’t think you can blame them for the current state of the restaurants. I live in the burbs of a large city. We have a fair number of mid to high-end restaurants, but, sometimes I don’t want to take out a second mortgage to eat out, and it’s nice to clog your arteries with some tasty fast food once in a while. Prior to 2007, we had one and only one fast food establishment in town—McDonald’s. So, you can understand my excitement when it was rumored years ago that a second fast food joint was coming to town. I’m salivating at the prospect of maybe Popeye’s or Bojangles setting up shop (I loves me some spicy fried chicken, dirty rice and cat-head biscuits!). Instead, we got Boston Market. _Meh, a bit better than McDonald’s, I suppose—but, I really wanted those big greasy biscuits._ They lasted about a year, closed shop and opened again as…you guessed it—another McDonald’s. :mad: To this very day: 2 McDonald’s and nothing else. \* Hey kids, where’d ya like to eat tonight, Restaurant Medure, Ruth’s Chris…or McDonald’s?\* ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/38 "2015-05-01T13:30:01Z")
> [@Tibby or Not Tibby](#): > > … They lasted about a year, closed shop and opened again as…you guessed it—another McDonald’s. :mad: > > To this very day: 2 McDonald’s and nothing else. > \* > Hey kids, where’d ya like to eat tonight, Restaurant Medure, Ruth’s Chris…or McDonald’s?\* Well the choices now are Restaurant Medure, Ruth’s Chris…McDonalds or McDonald’s? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/39 "2015-05-01T13:57:31Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > It’s probably an independent store instead of a company or large franchisee. The company stores and big players tend to keep up the details. It’s the solo or small-franchise owner/ops that get to the point where they try to save nickels by not putting out napkins or trash bins that have to be emptied. And it’s usually slow suicide, as others have pointed out - the place is so unpleasant or annoying that even regulars stop going back, provoking further frantic cuts… Yeah, the BM by me has napkins, and even a little area near the drink machine that has various barbecue and hot sauces and little cups if you want them. I mostly go and get a half-sandwich and a couple of sides (new potatoes and usu. spinach) for lunch as takeout. I don’t honestly know if they bring out your food or not these days. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758/40 "2015-05-01T15:12:15Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Panera used to have Items and Premium Items. The basics were REALLY basic, like a piece of ham and a slice of cheese on some bread, w_ **hile the Premium Items included optional upgrades like flavor** _. That sentence made me laugh immoderately. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-to-another-place-i-used-to-like-boston-market-sucks-now/718758.md?page=3)