Burger King is closing around 400 locations around the country

Wow. They must be doing very bad to close so many spots

People still eat Burger King?

Fat whores do not rejoice!

Decades of letting people have it their own way, and what have they got to show for it?

I had the worse meal experience at a Burger King 20 years and never went back.

With everything closing, what is the point of commercial space?

I'd eat at Burger King if it were more conveniently located. I've got 2 McDonald's that are closer than the Burger King in my area. I like the original chicken sandwich with the oblong patty. I also just like their French fries better than McD's.

I'm actually surprised. Not because BK is great or that they're always overrun with customers. But it's just one of those serves-it's-purpose fast food joints that is just sort of there. I like the Whopper if it's hot and the topping are relatively fresh. I've seen several new Burger Kings. Maybe the ones that are closing are ones that are corporate owned and they don't want to update.

Well shit. Not that I love it or anything, but it’s the only fast food joint with a veggie burger, that I’ve found at least. I only get one on road trips, but it’s nice to have a fast food option other than fries.

Sometimes a Whopper really hits the spot.

More bad news for poor people.

Ugh, I haven't been to a Burger King in a really long time. Like Subways, they all look like they haven't been renovated, or even cleaned in 10 years.

I'm not a fan of McDonald's, particularly, but they tend to renovate and keep them clean (at least the ones around me).

The one by Powell Street station in SF is huge and a dump.

Shit, I love whoppers. It's kinda sad because they've been around since I was a kid.

That’s about 2% of their locations. Calm down.

McDonald's is still a well-oiled machine.

Whoppers are better than Big Macs.

I feel like OP's thread title should have a lead-in like "Fat Whores in Mourning: Burger King..."

I haven't had a Burger King near me in a long time, but when I did, I really enjoyed getting a double cheeseburger and a side of onion rings. The onion rings were finely chopped onion somehow formed into a circle and deep fried. I don't even know how they did it!

I've been wanting to eat onion rings for a while.

God is finally punishing them for their Chicken Porn!

Some locations may be more endangered than others

R23- Milwaukee was not like this when Laverne and Shirley shared a basement apartment and worked at the shots brewery.

Who knew there were so many stealth Burger King fans on DL?

I saw an Instagram video recently that claimed onion rings are the least ordered items on the Burger King menu.

Which surprised me, as I fucking love onion rings.

r23 Sir, this is a Wendy's.

BK had a real estate directive for years that put their locations in the ghetto, never nice parts of town. The reputation then followed.

It costs almost as much as a regular restaurant so why bother? All fast food has become expensive.

I love the Impossible Whooper and the onion rings. But I typically only eat BK on road trips.

Better than McDonald's and Wendy's (which, at one point, had a black bean burger; but I haven't eaten there in years).

There are 7250 BKs in the US. So closing 400 is no big deal.

I pretty much only do fast food on road trips. I have barred my man from getting BK onion rings on road trips. He only eats them then, but they always make him sick. A couple of times with that and I was done! They are tasty, though.

[quote] in the span of 1 hour I fainted (in a drug store, getting aspirin), shit my pants while walking home and vomited all over my bed the minute I got home

[quote]Whoppers are better than Big Macs.

I don't think that's true, but whoppers are better that everything else on McDonalds' menu.

Burger King is expensive now. Someone upthread said something about poor people, but they can’t even eat fast food anymore. It’s so expensive now. A medium whopper meal by me is over $12 now. I remember when I used to pay $6 for that and not that long ago. Every time I look the price has gone up more.

R31 Closing 40 locations would be 'no big deal'. Closing 400 is a big deal - it brings their total below 7,000 locations. That's quite a hit.

R35 I remember when a Whopper meal was about $6 n my location, too. Yet back then, the minimum wage in my area was equal to that. Today, the meal is about $12 in my area, but min wage is now $13.50. Everything is relative.

Yes, 400 is a big number of restaurants to close, even if you still have 7000 open.

I used to work right by the one on 34th street over a decade ago and used to like going to it because it was never full, unlike McDonalds, despite the location. They closed years ago but they were actually always clean and the food was always hot and fresh there, again, despite the location.

Their Whoppers haven’t tasted the same since the ‘80s.

[quote]The one by Powell Street station in SF is huge and a dump.

Thank you ghost of Bette Davis.

Try a Taco truck or a local burger joint today.

This thread is making me hungry.

R8. Carl's Jr. of all places has a Beyond Meat™ burger that is very good. Unfortunately Mr. Carl is a Trumper so I feel guilty when I patronize it but they also have fried zucchini so what's a fat whore to do?

All the Carls Jrs they opened in NYC a few years ago closed pretty quickly.

Hardees/Carls Jrs should have never expanded to NYC. Totally wrong consumer base . They do better in the south and out west.

I don't think I've eaten at a Burger King for about 10 years. I hate their fries.

And Midwest I think r44

Yes, they didn’t do well here. I wonder if that’s why In & Out won’t come here. Maybe they don’t think it’s a wise financial choice.

Interesting R43 R44.

I am in California and we have 2 Carl's Jr in our central valley town. There is NEVER a line at the Drive-thru and we've wondered how the place stays in business.

r35 EVERYWHERE is expensive now. I had some IHOP gift cards I needed to use up. Had one breakfast entrée and a drink; bill was over $20, not including tip.

r46 In-n-Out, unlike most fast food chains, doesn't franchise. All of their locations are company-owned, so it's more difficult to expand. Add that to the fact that they do not freeze anything and that requires well-located distribution centers, it's even more challenging.

I would assume that prices have increased because they have to pay their workers more - which is a good thing. So I don't mind a $12 Happy Meal.

I hate In-N-Out fries aka chips. Their burgers are alright though, but plain. The hype is unjustified. However, their prices are great.

The pay raises are not the driving force behind 100% price increases. Minimum wage didn’t double during Covid. I’m tired of hearing that lame excuse.

These corporations are just GREEDY

Too bad. I prefer BK to McDonald’s.

We had the first SONIC burger place open in my state about ten years ago. A very big deal was made over the opening, as we only have Wendy's, McD's and Burger King for 'fast food' burgers. The franchise owners got plenty of press over SONIC, and they went as far as listing the future locations they were contracted to open over the following five years - five more, one each year, mostly in busy shopping centers. The sole location did well for a few months, but then the momentum quickly evaporated. On FB, people were saying they couldn't afford to take their family of four because it was way too pricey. Others were complaining about how long it took to get the orders out for a fast food place. Majority of reviewers simply didn't find the quality of the food worth the price. Of course, it's been ten years and no other location ever opened.

About twenty years ago, there was a 'boom' of Johnny Rockets - they were opening locations everywhere in my state, especially near the colleges in prime spots. Even though they were pricey, I always liked JR. Now they're all gone - one by one they all closed down within ten years or so. Their former restaurants are now all banks.

Anyone know how many BK locations there were in the US at its peak?

[quote] I don't think I've eaten at a Burger King for about 10 years. I hate their fries.

Really? They taste like real potatoes. They changed them years ago.

I like BK's fries also, and their fish sandwich is better than McDonald's. I think it has lettuce -- and maybe a bigger fish pattie? Not sure if it comes with processed yellow cheese (yuck!) like McDonald's fish does.

They should open up next to dispensaries.

I always liked that they had onion rings as a side and am surprised McDonalds never did that. I have a Whopper probably twice a year, I still like them and those chicken fries. The 2 closest Burger Kings by me closed so I figured something was up.

^^^ forgot to mention that every time I drive by Culver's the drive thru has a line so maybe that is the go to fast food burger place now?

Maybe they could replace these crappy Burger King’s with Arby’s! Arby’s is superior and yummy. And there’s never enough of them around.

McDonald’s absolutely wiped the floor with Burger King with their expanded breakfast offerings, the food and wait time is consistently better, and McD’s modernized most of their stores. I don’t like eating fast food but would always choose McD’s over the others becuase of the grease and that their fries aren’t as good.

Yeah, BK makes you wait longer. But the food is of a higher quality.

For what they charge now, rather spend $2 more and eat in a restaurant with real food. Maybe everyone won’t be so fat if food stays expensive.

We don’t have Carl’s Jr. anywhere around me-instead we have a couple of Hardee’s. I know they act like they are the same but they definitely aren’t. Hardee’s doesn’t have many of the items that Carl’s has—like the zucchini fries or Beyond Burger.

[quote]I've been wanting to eat onion rings for a while.

Good onion rings area so hard to find! I tried Sonic and it tastes like they dip the rings in pancake batter which is too sweet, and I'm a fat whore from way back.

A good onion rings and ketchup, maybe another dipping sauce but that's all I want in life!

[quote]For what they charge now, rather spend $2 more and eat in a restaurant with real food. Maybe everyone won’t be so fat if food stays expensive.

Let me know which restaurants serve lunch or dinner with real food for just $2 more than BK, which has combo meals at $12. Most decent restaurants with 'real food' are about $22 - $30 these days, not $14.

Burger King is gross. Eating any fast food even Shake Shack feels like putting garbage into your body.

This model requires underpaid labor.

[quote]I like BK's fries also, and their fish sandwich is better than McDonald's

Anytime I've ordered it they've cooked the shit out of it and it's inedibly tough.

R69 I live in a small town in New England. The local pub has entrees priced around $15. So not that much more than Frankenstein beef. I’m sorry you’re being ripped off with $30 entrees.

R68 there are some good frozen onion ring options like Nathan‘s or Alexia.

R74 I live in NE as well. PUB FOOD is not always quality food, and the pubs in my area which do serve quality food are priced at $20+.

Some of their stuff is better than McDs but a bunch closed down 20 years ago and they just haven't seemed to catch a break or hit any market innovations since then.

I suspect it will close entirely or shrink even farther in the next decade.

About three years ago, the patriarch of the family which owned all the franchises in my state passed away. The family sold the chain to an out-of state franchise owner who was interested in this area (I think the deal was in the works for a while, before the original owner's death). The local media did an extensive interview with the couple about a year or so after they bought them - one question was why they were closing so many.

Their answer was that Chase Bank was moving into the area, and made an offer to them on prime locations - selling these properties were more lucrative then holding on to the locations (all corner locations). Popeye's Chicken was also aggressively moving in and wanted a few locations - paying top dollar for the real estate, as well.

Of the remaining BKs, they were investing $1M per location (about a dozen left) to bring them 'up to current codes' and make them more appealing with renovations. They did the one near my house this past winter - honestly, I can't tell any difference. Still looks the same, the employees are still rude and impersonal.

Is this two fat people having a conversation about fast food?

[quote] there are some good frozen onion ring options like Nathan‘s or Alexia.

Hmm ... I like the Alexia sweet potato fries. Maybe I'll try the onion rings.

Their onion rings are delicious…

[quote]their fish sandwich is better than McDonald's

Does BK sell their fish sandwich year round or just during Lent? A few years ago I was craving a fish sandwich but McDonald’s was the only fast food place I could find that had them on the menu since it wasn’t that time of year.

There's a Vietnamese takeout place near my house that makes a version of the Filet O Fish, down to the slice of cheese. It was surprisingly delicious.

[quote]Does BK sell their fish sandwich year round or just during Lent?

Year round.

I’d rather have BK than the 4 Chik-fil-A who moved into town recently. The chicken and waffle fries were so bland I don’t understand the hype.

I like a McDonalds cheeseburger sometimes but now they ate screwing that up. I order with no onion and now they are going to cook the onion in. I hate those little freeze dried onions. I like slices of onion like on a Whopper

I miss Carl’s Jr. They had delicious sourdough bread with their burgers. And Fuddrucker’s and Checkers

There used to be a bunch of BKs in my area. Now there’s only one. I still love their chicken sandwich.

I tried Chik-fil-A again recently. Their sandwich is no where near as good as Popeyes.

[quote] Burger King is gross. Eating any fast food even Shake Shack feels like putting garbage into your body.

True, but every once in a blue moon your body craves something that isn’t great for it.

Chrissy Metz is shooketh.

[quote]R7 it's just one of those serves-it's-purpose fast food joints that is just sort of there.

They have onion rings!!

Chick Fil A never took off in my area. 2 opened a while ago, none ever since. Popeye's has taken over.

Erna loves BK because it gives her the shits for days.

I'd love a big juicy Whopper in my mouth right now.

For several years, there were 4 BKs in a 5- mile stretch on the same road in my city. A couple years ago one of them closed, the only one that sold the veggie patty that my vegetarian friend ate lol.

To answer R47, most fast food franchises are owned by investment funds, not individual entrepreneurs. They look at their investment performance in the aggregate, not merely at individual units. Also, losses in a biz or biz group can be offset by tax deductions gained, in some circumstances. When the bean counters have decided a restaurant or group of restaurants are overall a losing proposition, a fund will pull the plug, often on the entire chain in a region, often all at once. I've seen 2 chains disappear in this manner where I live.

A BK is about a mile from my home so I often have to drive past. The flame broiled scent as you go by is like fine mouth watering perfume.

What? The McDonald's in my area are owned by individual business people. Yes, there are some people who own more than one store.

Back in the 1990s they had a sandwich I loved, the BK Broiler. It was an actual chicken breast filet, not a ground breaded patty like everywhere else, with lettuce, tomato, and mayo on a big bun. It and an order of onion rings was my favorite fast food treat ever.

Once they discontinued that, I had little incentive to eat there.

r103, I just looked at their menu, where I see a number of chicken sandwiches. The one called BK Royal Crispy Chicken specifies "crispy white meat breast fillet."

Yes, R104, emphasis on "crispy," as in breaded. The BK Broiler was uncoated broiled chicken breast, hence the name. They've had a dozen different chicken sandwich recipes over the past 20 years; this is the latest one. I'm sure it's tasty, it's just not my BK Broiler.

r105. Oh, I see. I took "patty" to mean a disc of ground, formed chicken meat, as opposed to an actual chicken breast, and that that was the important distinction. Oh, well. Good luck in future chicken sandwich ventures.

R100 I'm curious as to which ones you mean. In my area, BK, McD's, KFC, Johnny Rockets, Sonic, Dunkin, Krispy Kreme (when we had them), - all are franchised. I'm not sure about Popeye's, Wendy's or Starbucks.

As I mentioned earlier, we had a chunk of BKs close when a new franchisee bought them a few years ago. He closed them to sell the property to Chase Banks - knowing the property was worth more than the income he would generate over the next 20 years.

I went to BK a few weeks ago. A few years ago they did extensive renovations. The girl that took my order from my car was at the window to take my money. Then she was at the window to give me my food. I asked if she was the only there and she said there was one other person that was waiting on the counters but there was no one in there.

Burger King's fries were awesome about 15 years ago during the FryPod era. Now, they taste like air fried mashed potatoes. FryPod fries were grease capsules... But they were *delicious* grease capsules.

The worst thing BK ever did was to ditch the liquid smoke. It was the one thing that made them actually TASTE "flame broiled".

BK has a *huge* quality difference between their corporate stores and their franchised stores. Most of the franchised stores are more expensive and worse than the corporate stores. Also, the franchise stores do gross things like microwave assembled burgers... lettuce and all.

I'm still pissed at BK for buying all the Hardee's stores in Florida ~25 years ago, then turning them all into Burger King stores or closing them while Hardee's was banned from returning to Florida until fairly recently. Thank sweet black baby Jesus Hardee's is finally allowed to come back to Florida now.

BK's Android app sucks even more than McDonalds' app used to. And their out of app prices are such a total brazen rip-off, it's impossible to justify eating there without using their app.

The above notwithstanding... Wendy's has gone even further down the shithole this century than BK has. I miss the delicious, mouth-watering Wendy's hamburgers of my 1980s childhood. Back when they dripped grease, and the edges had tasty little beef bits hanging off. Superbar spaghetti and meat sauce, tacos, and nacho chips. French fries proudly cooked in beef tallow. Now, their hamburgers are just kind of dry and leathery.

[quote] I miss the delicious, mouth-watering Wendy's hamburgers of my 1980s childhood.

Yes. Last summer I had a Wendy's burger for the first time since post grad. Unrecognizably mediocre compared to what it had been. No reason to return now.

Burger King is more expensive than McDonalds, but it tastes better imo. Burger King has opened many new restaurants here in Norway. They seem to have an aggressive expansion policy. Restaurants pop up everywhere here. There are more Burger King restaurants than McDonalds in my area.

When they dropped 'The Whaler', the best fish sandwich ever created, I sailed away.

Since the pandemic, the quality of fast food has decreased while the prices have increased. Starbucks, McDonalds, BK, etc etc have all tanked. The stuff used to be edible and affordable, not as much these days. I gave up on Starbucks and Dunkin ages ago. Their prices are horrendous.

R113 Same. We don't have Starbucks in my little town in Norway, but we have Espresso House. One frapino used to cost about 60 kr a year ago. Now almost 80 kr. I don't understand how it can increase by that much in just a year?

Burger King introduced an amazing chicken sandwich called the Chiking a couple years ago. It was a huge fresh chicken breast hand breaded and fried. You could get it with a deiclious spicy glaze. They spent years developing it and got it right. However the franchisees hated it because it took so much work and time to make. It was holding up some of the the drive throughs, so they replaced it less than a year after its launch with their current faster pre breaded offering which sucks. A lot of people loved that sandwich, and it could have gained more traction had they stuck with it. I haven't gone there since then and am not surprised theyre closing stores. They gave up on improving their food.

BK has never gotten fries right

Giving up 'The Whaler' (or cheese whaler) would have been like McDonalds giving up The Big Mac.

[quote]Since the pandemic, the quality of fast food has decreased while the prices have increased.

This is very true. Every now and then I crave a donut or coffee roll from Dunkin Donuts. I can not believe how small each of these items have gotten - even their muffins. They are about half the size since before the pandemic. And the prices keep skyrocketing.

R11, I live in a small town. The BK is quite dirty looking on the outside. Of the last five times I visited, a lady told me she was alone and it would be a long while before she could take more orders. I like their Rodeo Burger and $1.99 8 piece chicken nuggets. I don’t believe anyone will miss it.

R67, Carl’s Jr. is always a destination for me. When I was a boy, they expanded into my area. My mom and I quickly became fans of the Western Bacon Cheeseburger. BBQ sauce and an onion ring on a burger? Sign me up. They quickly left town in about two years. That tried again in a limited fashion ten years ago. That location lasted a bit longer. Maybe five years. It seems that truck stop ones are the only locations that make it in Texas. Luckily, BK has the Rodeo Burger and Wendy’s has a Bourbon Barbecue one. They hit the spot when my travel doesn’t make a CJ visit reasonable.

Good luck finding a Burger King in Columbus and surrounding areas, unless you want to go to the BK on Fifth. Don't go to the BK on Fifth if you value your time or your gastrointestinal health.

If you're hungry and Dunkin Donuts is all that's close forget about the donuts which are like powered air balls. Get bagels with butter or cream cheese and coffee or hot chocolate (7-8 dollars last time I checked)

[quote]I like their Rodeo Burger

For some reason in Canada this is called Roadhouse King

They need to get them robots working.

Meh, they'll be fine.

There are too many of them in small towns populated with less 25,000 people, they're not going to close in larger cities such as Memphis, Omaha or Saint Louis.

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