Burger King zaps menu, image

USA Today ^ | 3/21/04 | Brucer Horovitz

[Dane]

MIAMI

[capitan_refugio]

"I don't even want to know what the artificial mayonnaise contains."

It's sometimes called "Miracle Whip."

"Water, vinegar, soybean oil, hiigh fructose corn syrup, sugar, modified food starch, salt, contains less than 2% of egg yolks, eggs, maltodextrin, cellulose gel, mustard flour, artificial color, potassium sorbate as a preservative, xanthan gum, spice, cellulose gum, paprika, natural flavor, dried garlic."

Homemade mayonnaise:

Egg yolks, dry mustard, salt, cayenne, lemon juice, vinegar, confectioner's sugar, olive and/or safflower and/or sesame oil.

[XBob]

53 - "Burger King is a British company. Any questions?"

Not any more.

Burger King was founded in the late 50's by Pillsbury, to compete with McDonalds. The Whoppers were great back in those days, the best hamburgers in the world. (I used to ride my bicycle 3 miles and across a mile wide river, just to get one of their great whoppers for 40 cents.)

Then they started expanding, popping up everywhere and the quality went down, but still good.

Then in the late 80's or early 90's, they sold out to a British group, and became a British (home of the worlds worst hamburgers) Company. And the burgers started really going to hell.

About 18 months ago, the british consortium was losing it's ass and sold out to a group of American franchisees and some other American investors. So, it's an American company again.

They are working hard to bring back Burger King to it's former glory and recoup their investment. I hope they succeed.

[capitan_refugio]

Sarge, I'm going to pull rank on you here. It's not realistic to bring back the original "price," but we can calculate the original "cost" in today's money.

If we use the old rule-of-thumb (since you're an "Old Sarge") that the time value of money causes the price to double every 12 years, then a $0.37 burger in 1957 would be worth about $7.00 today. I could get out the inflation charts and do a proper calculation, but frankly, I'm too lazy, and I think you get my drift.

[capitan_refugio]

I'm pretty sure they have branched out into Nevada and Arizona. Still family-owned. I used to go to In-N-Out #4 on Foothill Blvd. in Pasadena when I was in high school. Lots of classmates got part-time jobs there. A little cramped at that location, but close to cruising on Colorado Blvd Saturday nights!

[XBob]

2 - "Their hamburgers hurt my stomach. MickeyD and Wendy's don't. Can they fix that, because I like the flavor?"

Try a different burger king. There is still a high variability, left over from the lousy british days. And one of the things they do/did was to flame broil the burger patties, then put them in a 'warmer' or maybe just a stainless steel pot. Then pull them out, after who knows how long, and mcrowave them, and make your burger.

One BK near here, I still won't go to, because every time I ate one of their burgers I got diareaha. So I go to another one a few miles away, where the burgers are 'fair'.

But, when I have time, I go for a sit down hamburger, at Cowboy Reds, a local establishment (one only), which makes by far the best hamburgers in the world. And their 'small' burgers are 1/2 lb, and like the old campbells soup commercial - 'mmm, mmm good'.

[Your Nightmare]

I just happened to post an inflation calculator earlier today: http://www.bls.gov/cpicalc.htm

$0.37 in 1957 = $2.45 in 2004

[petercooper]

instead of BK, gimme a couple slices of pizza any day

[yankeedame]

Their problem may be "unmentionable" do to political correctness. For years Burger King's advertising has been geared toward the African-American community and they are now stuck with that image. If they can effectively change their advertising to market to everyone instead of primarily one sub-community, they should become more profitable.

BINGO! But I've noticed this in lots of fastfood and snack food advertising besides BK.

A few that leap to mind are McDonald's with it's hip-hop "I'm lovin' it!"; Sprint with it's "Obey Your Trust!"; and the one from Hersey's Chocolate Bar, the hip-hop,rapper type guys going back and forth re: "With almonds" or without.

It's a well know fact that advertisers zero in on the consumer group that has the most disposal income. So it would appear that "minorities", who are said to be disadvantaged and poor, certainly have $$ to spend....and do.

[Old Sarge]

Ya know, that's scary. $5.43 is my math by your method, but your point is well taken.

[Sabertooth]

Their hamburgers hurt my stomach. MickeyD and Wendy's don't. Can they fix that, because I like the flavor?

Always order "off the broiler, no microwave," otherwise the BK burgers are pre-cooked, steamed, and zapped before you get them.

[erasmus605]

Where is Culvers located?

[erasmus605]

Thanks for the correction. I was out of date. I know they've been expanding recently.

[capitan_refugio]

So much for that old rule-of-thumb! It sounds more like a double every 18 or so years.

Thanks for the link. I had not seen that before.

[birbear]

McDonald's is currently focusing its marketing on the "Black Community" as well. The catch phrase is to call it "Mickey-Dee's."

In Sacramento, CA my friends and I (as white bread as possible) called it Mickey D's 15-20 years ago. I don't think it's anything current, or necessarily anything "Black Community" about it. If anything, it was in response to McDonald's association with Disney (a la Mickey Mouse).

[capitan_refugio]

In #126, "Your Nightmare" posted a nifty inflation calculator. It not as bad as I thought - maybe I'm still having "nightmares" about the Jimmy Carter years!

[Old Sarge]

Aren't we all, jefe, aren't we all...

[birbear]

Jack in the Box has pretty good onion rings. Real onions.

I'm surprised it took 59 messages before somebody mentioned Jack in the Box. Best mass produced burgers for a nation wide chain, in my opinion. The Ultimate Cheeseburger can't be beat. Their fries kind of suck, but yeah, the onion rings are super though.

And the best commecials!

[capitan_refugio]

LOL. Whenever I hear the term "jefe" I think of that corny Steve Martin movie, Three Amigos. "Jefe" and "plethora."

[N. Theknow]

I hear your complaint on the botched orders.

I do not like ketchup and only prefer mustard pickle and onion. I also do not like cheese of any kind. Burger King got and kept my business for years because by the time I got my special order at McD's it was time for the afternoon coffee break instead of lunch.

Last time I stopped at BK - I ordered my double Whopper with no cheese, mustard, pickle, onion only. I got a Whopper with everything and EXTRA mustard, pickle and onion and double cheese.

It took two (2) more tries before they got it right.

And my regular Coke - Took a sip and said, "Hmmm, I must have pressed the wrong button and gotten Diet Coke. I should pay more attention." Got another cup, took care to press the right button - Diet Coke! Emptied the cup, went to another machine, pressed the button - Diet Coke!

OH BTW - As we ALL know - NO drive through of any fast food restaurant can be trusted to get the order right on anything.

[Protagoras]

Where is Culvers located?

I have only seen them in Wisconsin and Illinois so far, but they might be elswhere.