Americans love to eat chicken, and there are plenty of fast food options for those looking to get their fix.
Popeye’s, Chick-fil-A, KFC, Raising Cane’s, Church’s…then again, it’s not hard to find chicken. But one restaurant you don’t often hear mentioned in discussions anymore is Boston Market.
This may have something to do with the old saying “out of sight, out of mind” because finding the Boston market isn’t easy these days. Founded in 1985 as Boston Chicken, the restaurant was headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania, and at one point had more than 1,200 restaurants in the 1990s. According to the Wall Street Journal.
But over the next few decades, the bottom fell.
The number of stores in the Boston market will be reduced to 300 by 2023, and the Wall Street Journal said it will shrink to less than 30 stores by early 2024. The Boston Market Wikipedia page says there are currently 22 stores remaining, but the Wall Street Journal says the actual number may be fewer than 20.
Citing a 2023 report from Nation’s Restaurant News, the outlet said Boston Market owner Jay Pandya faced “hundreds of lawsuits from vendors, franchisees and employees over unpaid bills” when he filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 8, 2023.
At the time, he cited liabilities of $10 to $50 million, according to reports.
But Pandya’s application and another attempt were rejected by the court, the Wall Street Journal reported.
So what happened to Boston Market and its delicious rotisserie chickens to cause such a decline?
Restaurant analyst Aaron Allen told FCNews that the chain is “hurting itself by driving down costs — a move that ultimately leads to lower quality and will only further erode its quality.”
Additionally, a big problem in the Boston market is that grocery stores are starting to offer rotisserie chicken, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“The chain ends up seeing companies like Costco offering the same thing at a much cheaper price,” retail and restaurant expert Steve Feldman reportedly said.
Because of this, it may be difficult for the Boston market to be taken off life support.
Read the original article at pennlive.com.