Burgers & fries prices

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Discussion

C70R

17,596 posts

103 months

Monday 1st May 2017
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Granfondo said:
C70R said:
ambuletz said:
C70R said:
Do you really want/need me to tell you about the quality of meat you get at Wetherspoons?
if you're in a wetherspoons you're not in there for quality. at £7 having your free pint of guiness with it is pretty much half the cost of the meal. the 'gourmet' burger meal being a firm favourite.
"Gourmet" is pure marketing b*llocks. What you're getting is knock-down price, low-quality meat. That's great if you enjoy it, but not remotely comparable to a higher-end burger restaurant selling decent meat.
Now who's been taken in by "marketing b#llocks"? biggrin
Having seen the industry from the inside, you'll need to trust me on this.

C70R

17,596 posts

103 months

Monday 1st May 2017
quotequote all
Driver101 said:
C70R said:
Burwood said:
C70R said:
Driver101 said:
battered said:
These points have it. If burgers are such a road to riches, open a shop, then come back here and tell us how it funds your Ferrari at 3k a month.

As to suites at 35k a night, who cares? If they want £1000 cocktails and 5 crisps for £50, more fool them. It employs people, including the woman combing the carpet. Plenty here employ a cleaner when the lazy bds could do it themselves, what's the difference?
If it was so hard to make profit on a burger bar, why is there an explosion of them all over the place? I can only think that so many people are opening burger businesses as they realise the money to be made?

Boozy Cow give their profits away to charity. They've managed to afford to give away nearly £500,000 in the last two years from two restaurants.

They only started a couple of years ago and had the additional expense of moving one of their two restaurants to bigger premises and have now opened a further two restaurants.

The owner predicts that the charitable donations will exceed £1m per year.

So what is he doing do much better than all the other burger bars that he can afford to pay out significant amounts of money whilst funding his lavish lifestyle?
I was aware of Boozy Cow, but had no idea that they reportedly made £125k/site clear profit on two sites in a year (I thought they had 6). Do you have a source?

If it is 6 restaurants, given the price of commercial property in Scotland (they have restaurants in Dundee and Stirling FFS), it's hardly shocking that they might be able to make £40k clear profit on a site that's open 360+ days a year. Their cheeseburger costs the same £8.50 as Byron is charging at their site in Soho.

You don't need me to do the maths, but that's basically £100 profit per (Scottish) site, per day, after costs. That's hardly the kind of money that's going to make anyone rich...
I've read the article. it was when they had TWO locations and the 250k was claimed to be a years trading.

http://www.scotsman.com/giving-back/charities/booz...
Interesting. That was dated in 2016, and makes no reference to the number of locations (or whether it's Boozy Cow alone).

This article is from March 2016, and cites 6 locations across the "group" - I'm confused.
https://dailybusinessgroup.co.uk/2016/03/boozy-cow...

Either way, we're talking about £100 a day or £600 a day, on Scottish ground rents and wages, selling food at the same price as London. How much do you think that would translate to in a London-based eatery?

Love the idea that he's also funding his "lavish lifestyle" from the business too. The article you linked said "businessman Garreth Wood, the son of the oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood". Sounds like he's probably donating the equivalent of his salary and bonus - no mean feat in itself - but hardly like he needs to take a wage from the business.
Did you read the article?

It doesn't say he's selling 6 Boozy Cows, he's selling 6 of his other businesses. They are pubs and clubs.

There is 4 Boozy Cows. Those profits were made off two places as Stirling and Dundee opened later.

You think he's donating all the money he's earning and living off his retired father?

I didn't realise the debate was London v. The rest of the country. Edinburgh and Aberdeen aren't the cheapest of places either.
Yes. I think it's very likely to be a pr stunt that he can afford, with a view to growing the chain off the back of it.
Having seen the books of high-end burger restaurants (admittedly in London), I can tell you that the profit margins (with decent quality ingredients) isn't close to other high street restaurants.

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 1st May 2017
quotequote all
a burger meat is usually the left over bits, minced. A high end burger is an oxymoron. if the meat is steak or aged cuts far enough but the principle of burger meat is fatty mince, not a load of pretentious bks.

C70R

17,596 posts

103 months

Monday 1st May 2017
quotequote all
The Spruce goose said:
a burger meat is usually the left over bits, minced. A high end burger is an oxymoron. if the meat is steak or aged cuts far enough but the principle of burger meat is fatty mince, not a load of pretentious bks.
I'm sorry, but you're simply wrong. I don't know where your information is from, but that doesn't apply to well-sourced burger meat. An awful lot of time and effort goes into getting the right blend of cuts and meat/fat ratio.

Edited by C70R on Monday 1st May 22:26

hungry_hog

2,189 posts

187 months

Monday 1st May 2017
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Byron, Patty & Bun and GBK I think are good. More expensive than the normal fast food chains - but a bigger portion and nicer ingredients.

The place that puzzles me is Shake Shack. £9 for a "double" basic burger which is in reality tiny. Add on to that £3 for fries and £3 for a soft drink - you are looking at £15 for a small burger and chips. If you swap the fizzy drink for a shake or get more topping on your burger, it's the best part of £20.

It seems to me if a place has a strong brand from the US, people get swept up in it, take selfies and queue up with their mates. The quality of the food is almost irrelevant.

Probably the nicest burger I have had was in Goodmans (well known steak chain - I know sacrilege to order a burger there! As I recall the menu price for that was around £15 with a large portion of chips. When you take into account the surroundings, service etc. much better value than some of the trendy places.

Edited by hungry_hog on Monday 1st May 22:49

tuffer

8,849 posts

266 months

Tuesday 2nd May 2017
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I have tried Shake Shack in Canary Wharf a few times as it is right next to the office. They are not bad but not a great deal of flavour to the burgers, at least they are hot though unlike Byron Burger. Shakes are nice though. I have placed myself on a ban though, weight has crept above 14 stone.....

Burwood

18,709 posts

245 months

Tuesday 2nd May 2017
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The Spruce goose said:
a burger meat is usually the left over bits, minced. A high end burger is an oxymoron. if the meat is steak or aged cuts far enough but the principle of burger meat is fatty mince, not a load of pretentious bks.
Yeah, the harvester wither spoons variant maybe but the ones I eat are primo. I make my own regularly also. Aged rib in the mix. No st in my burgers smile

brianashley

500 posts

84 months

Tuesday 2nd May 2017
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
Here we go.....the truth at last !! I have to lose 1/2 stone .I feel bloated over 12.7 stone .

markcoznottz

7,155 posts

223 months

Tuesday 2nd May 2017
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Couple of Burger King franchises that I use, (far too much actually, I love the whopper), are closing and have only been open a year! That's brand new buildings as well owned by the same franchise I believe. Really small drive throughs but someone must have got there fingers burnt. Burger King never seems busy enough I'm sure just the busy ones i.e. Motorway services will carry on.

ambuletz

10,692 posts

180 months

Tuesday 2nd May 2017
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markcoznottz said:
Couple of Burger King franchises that I use, (far too much actually, I love the whopper), are closing and have only been open a year! That's brand new buildings as well owned by the same franchise I believe. Really small drive throughs but someone must have got there fingers burnt. Burger King never seems busy enough I'm sure just the busy ones i.e. Motorway services will carry on.


I noticed about 8-9 years go loads of BKs seemed to close around london. which sucked as I loved their 99p burgers, they were much tastier then McDs or KFC and used sliced vegetables instead of tiny mouse-sized diced pieces of onion.

Frybywire

467 posts

195 months

Wednesday 3rd May 2017
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ambuletz said:


I noticed about 8-9 years go loads of BKs seemed to close around london.
Yeah large one in Kingston closed around that time, and if that branch couldn't survive with that footfall, I fear they may be Buggered King.

ambuletz

10,692 posts

180 months

Wednesday 3rd May 2017
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Frybywire said:
ambuletz said:


I noticed about 8-9 years go loads of BKs seemed to close around london.
Yeah large one in Kingston closed around that time, and if that branch couldn't survive with that footfall, I fear they may be Buggered King.
yup, I was at uni there and used to go there loads, it was the perfect location and it always seemed fairly busy too. yet now it's a 2nd HSBC!

kingston12

5,473 posts

156 months

Wednesday 3rd May 2017
quotequote all
Frybywire said:
Yeah large one in Kingston closed around that time, and if that branch couldn't survive with that footfall, I fear they may be Buggered King.
The problem is that large footfall usually equals much larger rent so it still might be difficult to make it pay.

kingston12

5,473 posts

156 months

Wednesday 3rd May 2017
quotequote all
ambuletz said:
yup, I was at uni there and used to go there loads, it was the perfect location and it always seemed fairly busy too. yet now it's a 2nd HSBC!
That's what I can't understand. There are lots of bank branches closing down everywhere, but HSBC choose to open a second branch right opposite the first one in a building that was presumably too expensive for BK to make work.


HTP99

22,443 posts

139 months

Wednesday 3rd May 2017
quotequote all
kingston12 said:
Frybywire said:
Yeah large one in Kingston closed around that time, and if that branch couldn't survive with that footfall, I fear they may be Buggered King.
The problem is that large footfall usually equals much larger rent so it still might be difficult to make it pay.
I believe the large Burger King in Guildford Ladymead is going too, it is pretty big.

Sa Calobra

Original Poster:

37,011 posts

210 months

Wednesday 3rd May 2017
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Does anyone still eat at BK? It's not that much different to McDs and to be honest most BKs that ive been in always look slightly 'greasy'? Tired? Compared to slick McDs.

Wendy's couldn't make the UK work and they had great burgers. Average people seem to default to McDs for burgers it seems.

brianashley

500 posts

84 months

Wednesday 3rd May 2017
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[quote=Sa Calobra]Does anyone still eat at BK? It's not that much different to McDs and to be honest most BKs that ive been in always look slightly 'greasy'? Tired? Compared to slick McDs.

Wendy's couldn't make the UK work and they had great burgers. Average people seem to default to McDs for burgers it seems. [/quot


maybe once a month. Its ok.... aint going to die etc . I prefer this than 5 guys

curlyks2

1,028 posts

145 months

Wednesday 3rd May 2017
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From here.


PurpleAki

1,601 posts

86 months

Wednesday 3rd May 2017
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Damn sight nicer than any McDonalds burger.

JKRolling

537 posts

101 months

Wednesday 3rd May 2017
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One of my favourite burger establishments is the Original Patty Men" in Birmingham

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g1...

Not the cheapest but certainly one of the best