Sunday, December 23, 2012

Reasons To Support Burger King On Clark.

      
Burger King is good enough for NorthWestern.
Isn't it good enough for Rogers Park?
               The history of Burger King in Illinois is more interesting than one would expect. The first Burger King in Illinois to open was in Mattoon, Illinois in 1957 and is independent of the official Burger King Chain. It was named Burger King to complement the Frigid Queen ice cream shop in town. This restaurant was state trademarked in 1959. The Florida chain of Burger Kings opened the first Burger King in Illinois in Skokie in 1961.By 1967 there were fifty Burger Kings in Illinois from the Florida chain. The inevitable law suit followed Burger King of Florida, Inc. v. Hoots (1968). The final decision came down in favor of the Florida chain which had a federal trademark, but they couldn't build a Burger King within 20 miles of the Mattoon Illinois location to respect their state trademark.


Take a load off and relax in
this awesome comfy chair!
Catch up on the local news
while having some lunch!


           







     Reasons to support a Burger King on Clark.

            1. Traffic Calming. Extra traffic from drive thru
            2. Jobs are created.
            3. More eyes on the street and increased foot traffic on Clark.
            4. Taxes are being paid on an otherwise unproductive lot.
            5. Everyone else has one, why don't we?
            6. The "Internet Zone" with free wifi (pretty likely)
            7. Computers for public use (possibly)
            8. Contemporary Burger King with cafe style seating
            9. Burger King may start delivery to your door.
           10.Whopper just turned 55 and "I'm hungry"!



            This article from Business Insider Advertising (How Burger King Went From McDonald's Greatest Rival To Total Train Wreck) gives a good look at what happened with Burger King from 2003 and on and the endless slew of hilarious and unpopular marketing campaigns that Burger King tried to regain market share. The most memorable marketing recently of Burger King was the bizarre King. Bob Garfield of Ad Age is quoted "Likewise the King ... is not only un-animated but frozen in place, a grotesque death mask of a grin, like something out of a John Carpenter movie. You don't know whether you're going to have it your way or he's going to have his way with you." Reading the article we see that sales have declined since 2008. March 2011 Burger King lost the number two spot of burger sales to Wendys. Justice Holdings acquired Burger King in April 2012.

              France is welcoming Burger King back after a fifteen year absence with two new stores in 2013. "A Burger King spokesperson on Thursday told FRANCE 24 that the restaurant at London’s St Pancras station was consistently packed with “French visitors coming off the Eurostar.”" What a weird situation to picture. French taking the Eurostar train that travels underground from France to England underneath the English Channel and then swarming the Burger King there in London en masse. Flickriver has 18,580 pictures of Burger King related pictures, actually very interesting in a morbid way. This article describes the  remodeling going on at some Burger King franchises right now in western Michigan. The are installing  computers for customer use, free wifi in their "Internet Zone" and cafe style seating.

Extra Bonus, as you exit you can see how tall you are!

2 comments:

Organic peregrine terra cotta bricolage cruelty- free locally outsourced maple nut crunch said...

As long as they aren't tolerant of constant hobo shenanigans like the McDonald's on Granville and the former one next to the Loyola El.
My fondest memory of the Mickey D's express is some very, very haggard guy waved to me as I walked in, like we were old friends. He did have a good setup before he hit me up for money, but they constantly let this stuff happen, and they constantly let it happen now.

Philip McGregor Rogers said...

@DUI, I agree about the hobo shenanigans not being tolerated, thats why people are signing the petition. I will hear what the alderman has to say first in January. Not sure a petition would stop a BK anyways.

Researching fast food is very bizarre! I do appreciate your underground reporting from the trenches of fast food!