Friendly's mini-restaurants: it's not fast food -- not, not, not
Filed under: Food
Friendliness alone isn't getting the job done for Friendly's restaurants any more -- sales have dipped 7 percent since 2004. In an attempt to capture the antsy diner, the chain is opening new, smaller stores that break the old waiter-takes-your-order model in favor of customers ordering at the counter and having the food delivered to their table.
The first Friendly's Express debuted this week in Mansfield, Mass. The privately-held corporation hopes to take the concept to up to 300 locations in the East.
So what's different from the typical Friendly's? Size, for one; the Express's footprint is only two-thirds that of its big brother, with only 40 seats. The menu is also pared down to the casual meal essentials; sandwiches, salads, drinks and ice cream.
Most appealing to me, who quit going to Friendly's years ago because of the slow service -- the Express hopes to trim the time from when you order to when you receive your food to six to eight minutes. That's pretty quick for made-to-order food.
I'm guessing this concept will also allow the chain to enter food court settings, a mouth-watering slice of the market. The first store opened in 1935 in Springfield, Mass., as Friendly Ice Cream. In 1940, hamburgers were added, and over the years the chain grew to its present 500-plus outlets.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
8-06-2009 @ 5:28PM
Steve Johnson said...
Friendly’s consistently focuses on listening to the consumers and understand that time is of the essence for most. Retooling the menu, footprint, and service quality fit in with how the consumers are reevaluating the price, service and product equilibrium. If they had not done this they would be losing customers to the Grocerant niche filled with ready to eat and ready to heat food.
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8-08-2009 @ 3:03PM
majianxiao2 said...
ssssss
8-08-2009 @ 7:23PM
Lisa said...
Every Friendly's that I have been to have been dirty. The bathrooms were nasty, the floors were nasty, and they smell dirty. Nope won't eat there but I do love their ice cream.
8-08-2009 @ 3:15PM
geomcd said...
That may please some people, but I wouldn't go there. I don't enjoy standing and looking up at some menu. If they don't bring a menu to the table, I go somewhere else.
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8-08-2009 @ 7:23PM
Lisa said...
Too good to look up at a menu???? What a snob.
8-08-2009 @ 3:43PM
Dee said...
I stopped going to Friendly's because it always appears dirty. The carpets are full of old food and smells.
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8-08-2009 @ 3:46PM
janice said...
Friendly's is owned by a Florida based company that routinely buys up established companies and forces them into bankrupcy in short periods of time. They have done this nationwide and one of those companies was one my husband worked for. 20 years of his life down the tube in one day...no warning, so nothing. I will never eat at Friendly's or buy their products nor will I ever go to any other company owned by the parent company. They are unfair to their employees and their families........
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8-08-2009 @ 4:12PM
Ken Howes said...
I grew up in the Springfield area, but now live in a part of the country where Friendly's has no locations (they had one about 20 miles from here about 30 years ago, but it's gone now). Every time I go back to visit my family, one must-go location is Friendly's.
Perhaps a few of the older Friendly's locations aren't well-maintained; I don't know that. But the location in the Holiday Inn in Holyoke has always been clean when I've been there.
As far as the Express idea, I think that's not bad. No, it's not the kind of gracious sit-down service one expects at a more expensive location. But it's fine when you're going for a hamburger and some ice cream.
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8-08-2009 @ 11:48PM
Karen said...
Hi Ken, Same here. I'm from Agawam living in NC now. Love Friendly's. Do you remember their cheese danish?Fried clam roll? I used to go to the one on Northampton St. In Holyoke :)
I hope the mini restaurant works out for them.
8-08-2009 @ 4:16PM
bobbb said...
friendlys are known for their dirty unsanitary conditions fast or not
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8-08-2009 @ 6:11PM
linda said...
Friendly's in Lebanon, New Hampshire isn't very clean and the cooks give me the shivers.....
8-15-2009 @ 6:06PM
mike said...
Had to laugh when I read Linda's reply .... the Friendlys in Lebanon NH is the pit, period. Service is so slow, you can be seated for dinner & order for breakfast. Some of the people back where the food is made do indeed look creepy. And it doesn't feel clean (except compared to the KFC in Lebanon, where everything looks dirty). And you know the old saying, if they can't keep it clean where the customer CAN see ... you can only imagine what its like where the customer CANT see.
8-08-2009 @ 4:22PM
tylerlauren said...
This is in my town, can't wait to try it. A great idea
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8-08-2009 @ 4:23PM
S Price said...
Had Friendlys in Syracuse, NY. Very good. Went to Friendlys in Myrtle Beach this year. The food is good. But it was a wait for both breakfast and a simple hamburger and fries at 7 pm
I had to find the waitress and tell her that my husband was diabetic and suffering from a bad headache and needed food ASAP. That hamburger was taking way too long, and people who had come in before us had their food. Management needs to look at these things if they want to stay in business.
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8-08-2009 @ 4:38PM
Ryan said...
Service at Friendly's has always been decidedly not friendly
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8-08-2009 @ 4:45PM
lms said...
My family always loved Friendly's, and we still miss it. There's
one thirty minutes away from us in Boardman, OH. It's pretty
clean and the service is ok. The one in my town closed
many years ago. The problem was the management, no
one seemed to care about service. Also the restaurant some-
times smelled of sewage. Not a great way to attract customers.
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8-08-2009 @ 4:49PM
Wolfster said...
So their solution, instead of retraining their staff or hiring more staff so it isn't so bloody slow, is making the customer do half the work and less comfortable seating arrangements? They'd better be dropping their prices like a stone, too.
Btw, don't forget to report spam comments. The only way to convince the editors that we hate it is to hate it openly.
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8-08-2009 @ 4:50PM
jon said...
this is not a new concept for Friendly's. Friendly's tried a similliar express idea in two locations in Massachusetts around 1988 one store in Framingham and the other in Sudbury.
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8-08-2009 @ 4:56PM
auntiej said...
I used to take my nieces to friendlys quite a bit til it closed.. mostly cause the kids enjoyed it... but i will say.. when we had good service.. it was the actual server that made a difference and even acted like they cared .. hire better wait staff... people like to be waited on when they go "out" to dinner..
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8-08-2009 @ 4:58PM
Michael said...
Friendly's on North Main in Concord, NH was always wonderful,
I met some of the greatest people who worked there, and ate there in the early 1990s I left many drawings on napkins along with tips, happy times there.
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