Our KFC in town sucks. I used to love it but the owners now must be just running it for a tax

[brewens]

writeoff or drug dealer front. Who knows what they are thinking.

Their reader board on one side has said, "Try a chicken Pot Pie" for going on three years now! I hear they are often out of product, even stuff that is being advertised nationally. How do you run something like that and so totally not give a shit?

A buddy recently retired and his first management job was at that Kentucky Fried Chicken in the 70's at the same site. He loves KFC but only eats there in other towns and says it is usually great. They tore the old one doen and rebuilt a new one not too many years ago. We just decided to go check out if it's a possibility we can buy that guy out and take it over.

If it's even in our ballpark, my girlfreind would manage it. Provided the guy will even consider selling. It's actually the first restaraunt you see coming into a town of about 50,000. That's what kills me about the reader board. It's the side facing the incoming traffic too. You don't bother changing it for over two years? It has to be like "Breaking Bad" or something. The dude has a high tech meth lab under there or something. He doesn't want nosey customers coming in.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

1. Maybe you should report these issues to corporate.

Franchises usually have to abide by certain standards.

[Renew Deal]

2. I get annoyed when KFC runs out of chicken

There was one near me that I used to visit after 10PM and they would be out of chicken. You can't have a Kentucky Fried Chicken without chicken. KFC should never run out of chicken.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. There was once a "Mexican" take-out place near me called George's

I would get flyers from George's so I decided to try the quesadillas that were advertised. Even though quesadillas are about the easiest Mexican food to make, George's never had them all 3 times I visited that place, even though they were advertised in the flyers. George's didn't stay in business very long.

[AwakeAtLast]

4. The one near me just went to pot, too

Wish I had enough money to buy a Bojangles and put it in Indiana.

But then, I like not weighing 500 lbs..........

[brewens]

5. If I bought a KFC, I'd need to take a drug like that one they give to alcoholics. I eat chicken and

I'll get violently ill! Otherwise, I'd be dead in a year! Still, it would be a great job for my girlfriend running the place. If it could make money, she'd do it. I kind of think with the location and all, the guys probably asking any takers for way too much. We're gonna check it out anyway.

[HeiressofBickworth]

6. If one pays attention, one can spot a failing business.

There is a movie theater in Seattle, part of a national chain, on a very busy street, showing a wide variety of movies, from popular to independent and foreign. I go there often. It's easy to get to by bus and there are lots of interesting restaurants around for a meal before the movie.

It's in a building that has been a movie theater since 1940. This tenant has operated it since 1989. For the past several years, you could see that the interior has worn out. Not dirty, but just over-used. And then small changes started happening. They used to have a minimum of two people in the front, one on the ticket window and one selling snacks and drinks. And then there was one -- did the ticket sales as well as the snacks and drinks. And then last weekend, the death knell was apparent: They announced that they would no longer be running coming attractions but would be going directly to the movie.

It's on prime real estate. I'm guessing the chain has a year or less left on the lease and the landlord is probably raising the rent. The chain will just drop it when the lease runs out. The chain did that with another theater in Seattle. It sat vacant for a while and then was leased by another local theater. It just had its grand opening last weekend. Maybe the same will happen with this theater, but in the meantime, it shows all the signs of a failing business.

[cemaphonic]

7. Which theater are you talking about?

[brewens]

8. I was in the beer business for years. With a bar, the first sign was a bad check, then more, then

a cash only delivery plan, then coming out to the distributor to get their beer. Once they started that slide, you never saw them recover and make it. If they couldn't take and pay for a sufficient delivery, you'd hear they were constantly running out of peoples preferred brands, running to the distributor to get a few cases when they had cash in the till. It happens all the time.

[sharp_stick]

9. Same thing happens in the restaurant business

When the deliveries start becoming cash only it's time to start looking for work.

[brewens]

11. Many places these days buy everything they can at Costco or similar places to get the best deal they

can. Makes it tough on the food service delivery outfits. Too bad really. All the small independants are gone in my area. Now it's only FSA pretty much in my area. We used to have a great little business that supplied all kinds of stuff, a seafood distributor and an awesome meat outfit. All gone. Kids I went to school with probably intended on making running those their career. Now it all comes from the big outfits in a bigger city 100 miles away.

Just like the beer distributors. We had five in my town at one time. Now two big ones own the road and they are not even locally owned. That means most of the profit leaves town too. Cut throat competition robs us of a lot.

[femmocrat]

10. The last chicken pot pie we got at KFC was terrible.

We never went back. They eventually closed down.

Sounds like a huge undertaking... good luck with it! You would certainly do a better job than the current owners.