Is McDonald's deserting the high street?

[Bletchleyite]

McDonalds deserts are poor.

I dunno, I'm quite partial to a McFlurry, and being gluten intolerant it's nice to be able to have an ice cream not in a cone.

 

[najaB]

I dunno, I'm quite partial to a McFlurry, and being gluten intolerant it's nice to be able to have an ice cream not in a cone.

McFlurry and fries to dip in it. Don't knock it until you've tried it.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Going back to McDonald's, I note the OP mentioned the one at the top end of Briggate in Leeds. Does anyone else remember when that was briefly a branch of Wendy's, about 18-20 years ago?

Apparently they attempted to break into the UK by opening 2 branches, that one in Leeds and allegedly one somewhere in Bradford, though I never saw where it was. You'd have thought that London would be a must, but it seems not!

I vaguely remember the burgers I tried being pretty good, though they had many different sorts- too many to try them all.

 

[Darandio]

Going back to McDonald's, I note the OP mentioned the one at the top end of Briggate in Leeds. Does anyone else remember when that was briefly a branch of Wendy's, about 18-20 years ago?

Apparently they attempted to break into the UK by opening 2 branches, that one in Leeds and allegedly one somewhere in Bradford, though I never saw where it was. You'd have thought that London would be a must, but it seems not!

I vaguely remember the burgers I tried being pretty good, though they had many different sorts- too many to try them all.

Must admit I didn't even realise they had come over here. Turns out there were more than that though, and some in London.

https://www.thecaterer.com/articles/28286/wendys-uk-pull-out-nets-15m

Wendy’s decision to pull out of the UK has made the burger chain more than £1.5m on selling the leaseholds to its restaurants.

The results of the sale of Wendy’s restaurants shows how strong the competition is for sites in central London, especially when fast food restaurants are looking for new outlets.

McDonald’s paid about £750,000 to take over Wendy’s London sites in Shaftesbury Avenue and York Way, near King’s Cross. Wendy’s received another £750,000 for returning its flagship restaurant in Oxford Street to landlord Norwich Union, which then leased the site to McDonald’s.

Wendy’s had 10 leaseholds in Britain. Rents are generally set for five years, so when a rental agreement is ended early the tenant may be given a pay-out if the property market is booming. If the market slumps and there is little demand for property, the tenant may have to make an extra payment to the landlord or the new tenants

The chain’s Briggate restaurant in Leeds was also taken over by McDonald’s, for an undisclosed sum. Wendy’s was paid £50,000 for assigning the lease of its Croydon branch to sports and camping equipment chain The Outdoor Group.

The chain’s Watford branch went to travel agent First Choice. In west London, KFC took over Wendy’s Acton branch and Greggs took over its Hounslow restaurant.

Wendy’s paid undisclosed sums to the new tenants, as well as a year’s rent – about £89,000 – to return its branch in Uxbridge, Middlesex, to the landlord.

Wendy’s was paid an undisclosed sum to return its restaurant in Wood Green, north London, to its landlord. The building has since been leased to the clothes shop Next.

Competition was fierce for Wendy’s restaurants, said estate agent Andrew Smith, of Blair Kirkman. “When you get players like Burger King and KFC in the running, there’s lots of competition to gain the market share.

“Speed was especially important here – Wendy’s was pulling out of the UK completely, so it wanted companies that had the financial clout to move very quickly. There was interest from independents, but the big fast food chains had the advantage.”

Wendy’s blamed high property and operating costs when it announced the closure of its company-operated restaurants in Britain last October. It still has about 40 franchised restaurants in the UK, other parts of Europe and the Middle East.

 

[najaB]

Apparently they attempted to break into the UK by opening 2 branches, that one in Leeds and allegedly one somewhere in Bradford, though I never saw where it was. You'd have thought that London would be a must, but it seems not!

Stranger things have happened: Project Pie is an American pizza chain with one location in Europe. London? Paris? Berlin? Nope, Dundee.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Must admit I didn't even realise they had come over here. Turns out there were more than that though, and some in London.

https://www.thecaterer.com/articles/28286/wendys-uk-pull-out-nets-15m

That does make more sense... I remember a staff member at Leeds saying there was just that one and Bradford, though they may have thought it only worth mentioning the ones nearby.

 

[Busaholic]

Going back to McDonald's, I note the OP mentioned the one at the top end of Briggate in Leeds. Does anyone else remember when that was briefly a branch of Wendy's, about 18-20 years ago?

Apparently they attempted to break into the UK by opening 2 branches, that one in Leeds and allegedly one somewhere in Bradford, though I never saw where it was. You'd have thought that London would be a must, but it seems not!

I vaguely remember the burgers I tried being pretty good, though they had many different sorts- too many to try them all.

Wendy's certainly had one on the Strand in London, close by Charing Cross Station (and also, incidentally, one of the first Central London branches of McDonalds). They were more expensive than McDs, but the burgers were of a superior quality and lacked a vinegary gherkin, for which thank the Lord. Other than that I only remember that (a) they were the first to introduce the one queue, before the Post Office or anyone else did and (b) the second and last time I ever went there the person in front of me chose to pay the approx. £5 total cost in 5p pieces, which the (sole) assistant took about ten minutes to count! There were a few others in central London too, tho' I forget the locations.

 

[nlogax]

Must admit I didn't even realise they had come over here. Turns out there were more than that though, and some in London.

Yep, I remember going to the KX one a year or so before it closed. Decent burgers, shame Wendy's decided not to stay.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

There was a Wendy's in the shopping centre in Epsom for a while. It was located where Superdrug are now.

 

[Groningen]

Project Pie seems to be also at: High Street | Unit A3/4 Intu Shopping Centre, Bromley BR1 1DN, England. It seems to be named: Glades.

But yes; the website of http://www.projectpie.co.uk/locations only shows Dundee.

A pie is not a pizza!

 

[najaB]

Project Pie seems to be also at: High Street | Unit A3/4 Intu Shopping Centre, Bromley BR1 1DN, England.

That location has closed.

 

[Busaholic]

Project Pie seems to be also at: High Street | Unit A3/4 Intu Shopping Centre, Bromley BR1 1DN, England. It seems to be named: Glades.

But yes; the website of http://www.projectpie.co.uk/locations only shows Dundee.

A pie is not a pizza!

The Glades is the old name for the shopping centre, still used by many local people my sister tells me.

 

[Bletchleyite]

A pie is not a pizza!

Actually that's exactly what the word means in Italian. They don't do pies like you get here.

 

[Bletchleyite]

McFlurry and fries to dip in it. Don't knock it until you've tried it.

Riiight

 

[najaB]

Riiight

I fought it, literally for years, until I gave in: Best. Thing. Ever.

 

[jon0844]

There was a Wendy's in the shopping centre in Epsom for a while. It was located where Superdrug are now.

There was one in Friern Barnet and I loved it. Real shame they left as their burgers were great (and rather large, although this was before restaurants were pressured to stop doing the massive meal deals).

 

[GusB]

I vaguely recall friends taking me to Wendy's during my one and only "pleasure" visit to London (back in early 1993, so it wasn't yesterday). There was probably a fair bit of alcohol involved, so the details escape me, but I do recall it being much better than the McD/BK offerings at the time. It would be only slightly more than a year later that I dropped out of uni and found myself having to find a job quite quickly, and that's when I first became part of McDonald's crew. It was er... an interesting time, shall we say. The branch I worked in had a prime high street location, but that summer was quite a hot one and I'm guessing that much trade was lost as people headed for the beach. They were sending people home in droves as there was nothing to do.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

I don't think I've ever seen a Wendy's in the UK. Is it the same brand/franchise as the Wendy's restaurants in the US?

 

[yorksrob]

I dunno, I'm quite partial to a McFlurry, and being gluten intolerant it's nice to be able to have an ice cream not in a cone.

Not a patch on a Brown Derby I'm afraid.

 

[cf111]

McFlurry and fries to dip in it. Don't knock it until you've tried it.

Prefer to dip them in strawberry milkshake myself!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not a patch on a Brown Derby I'm afraid.

A what?

 

[Lrd]

A what?

Presumably this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Derby

 

[yorksrob]

Presumably this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Derby

No, this:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Locat...py-Grays_Thurrock_Thurrock_Essex_England.html

 

[yorksrob]

Generally I prefer Burger King to MacDonald's, particularly since they haven't done potatoe wedges for about three years. However, unless I've got a few hours spare to wait for the queue of three hundred people to get served, it's not particularly practical as 'fast food'.

 

[Darandio]

I don't think I've ever seen a Wendy's in the UK. Is it the same brand/franchise as the Wendy's restaurants in the US?

Yes, it was and it was something I wasn't aware of either. It's nearly 20 years ago since they pulled out though.

 

[D6975]

Bristol (Broadmead) used to have two McDs, but one of them closed down about 2-3 years ago.
The remaining one is incredibly busy on a Saturday.
There's a Wimpey in Torquay, saw it when on holiday, but it's not where it used to be on the seafront it's up in the town now.
Many years ago I used to visit the Wimpey opposite King's Cross station for breakfast when in London in the early morning.

Little Chefs seem to have pretty much disappeared too, can't remember the last time I saw one. Remember the one at Tyndrum?

PS remember Hagenbach's? The up north Greggs of the 70s. Here in Bristol we had Mountstevens, now long gone.

 

[Darandio]

Little Chefs seem to have pretty much disappeared too, can't remember the last time I saw one. Remember the one at Tyndrum?

Little Chef were losing money arse over tit and were bought out earlier this year. They are nearly all now rebranded as a variety of other things.

 

[yorksrob]

Little Chefs seem to have pretty much disappeared too, can't remember the last time I saw one.

Expensive, but used to do a good breakfast.

 

[Kite159]

Slightly off-topic but still related to McDonalds, anybody think of a worst designed restaurant than the McDonalds at Waterloo, mainly due to its lack of a meaningful queueing system. Could do with being redesigned to remove some of the centre seating to have a proper queue (like Burger King in Waterloo). Rather than the free-for-all it is at the moment

 

[yorksrob]

Slightly off-topic but still related to McDonalds, anybody think of a worst designed restaurant than the McDonalds at Waterloo, mainly due to its lack of a meaningful queueing system. Could do with being redesigned to remove some of the centre seating to have a proper queue (like Burger King in Waterloo). Rather than the free-for-all it is at the moment

There wouldn't be anywhere left to sit ! The branch is a quart in a pint pot.