7 ms·

This idea is here already, at least in the UK. If you go into a motorway service station, exhibition centre or a railway station then you are presented with a c

This idea is here already, at least in the UK. If you go into a motorway service station, exhibition centre or a railway station then you are presented with a choice of restaurants, coffee places and other stores. So you could have 'Delice de France' next to a 'Burger King' and half a dozen other places to 'choose from'. What is not obvious is that one company, e.g. someone like 'Compass' group, run all of the franchises at the site. So the choice is a fake one, the infrastructure behind the store fronts is all the same with the same loading bay for all the 'different' stores. The coffee may appear to be different and you might be able to choose between your favourite Italian/American/British coffeehouses and the coffee may even taste different in each of the different outlets, however, you won't get cheap or brilliant coffee, no matter what you believe about your chosen brand as, at that location, it is all coming from the same company. This company has just franchised a few brands to operate its storefronts from. Luckily people are easily fooled and they do not ever think to ask if the same company is behind all the apparent 'choices' they have on site. Communism was more honest, they didn't have fake brands.

walterbell 8y ago
Thanks for the background, that explains a lot about UK rail station food. Is this model also used in German rail stations?
sonnyblarney 8y ago
I don't think the choice is 'fake' at all. 'Operated by' really means owned by: the IP, processes, foods, experiences are created entirely separately, it's just one owner. If the food is good and people like it then hey. That said, I do wonder about quality, freshness, real experience, real innovation - no doubt scale provides all sorts of advantages, but it cuts out other things as well. There are zero 'scale' restaurants in my neighbourhood and I don't miss anything really - other than a coffee chain store. There's a knock-off Chipotle which fills the only hole I might miss on occasion!
contingencies 8y ago
Communism was more honest, they didn't have fake brands. Sincere smiles from an automated food retail startup in China. We are going for 100% personalized orders, in essence the consumer defines the recipe (nominally after discovery from a set of pre-ordained options they are free to deviate from entirely).
chrisseaton 8y ago
I don’t really understand what you think the core of the problem is? Why should a consumer care who owns the franchise? What difference does that make to me? If you have a service station with a Starbucks and a Burger King are you saying they both secretly serve the same coffee? I’m sure Starbucks franchise agreements do not allow that and it will be the coffee that Starbucks select and roast (whether you think that’s good or bad), not the coffee Burger King supply. So there is a real difference and a real choice there isn’t there? They share a loading bay and a till system? Why on earth do care about that?
- lucas_membrane 8y ago
  Because it is fake competition, which is pretty much what we get anymore. With real competition, one of the two places might do a better job of pleasing customers and get most of the business. With real competition, the employees preparing and serving the food will get a free market wage. Otherwise, it is all Disneypeople serving Disneyfood.
  - winningcontinue 8y ago
    it's not been free market competition for a long time. I look out at the number of Pret a Mangers that office workers around me go to at lunch. It's like watching pigs going to the troughs to feed. The buildings empty, the pigs go to the next available spot and they return to their pens. They don't really give a shit really how long the lines are. Also fast food employees getting free market wages? They get minimum wage and if they work there for two years, they get a dollar increase to their wage. That's it, there is no lateral promotion.
- tomc1985 8y ago
  Part of the original notion of 'brands' was that they convey a promise to the buyer about the nature and quality of a product. It's a betrayal of the consumers' trust if the franchised version does not live up to the original brand's standards
  - gruez 8y ago
psergeant 8y ago
> the choice is a fake one I can’t buy a Whopper at Pizza Express, the parent companies of both are owned by different people, both parent companies have different supply chains and the franchising rules for both are separate. In what way don’t I have a choice? Because Compass are contracting the cleaning, logistics, and personnel (who, for what it’s worth, will go through entirely different franchise-mandated training)? Seems a bit of a reach.
jpatokal 8y ago
At one point triple combos of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell ("Kentacohut") were common in Singapore -- and they didn't even try to hide it, there was a single shared counter for ordering. One in the US: http://www.dailypress.com/news/york-county/dp-nws-ypq-kentacohut-closing-20160602-story.html http://www.dailypress.com/news/york-county/dp-nws-ypq-kentac...
- lostapathy 8y ago
  FWIW, those 3 show up together worldwide because those 3 brands are all owned by "Yum Brands." In the US the trucks that deliver generally show branding for all 3 brands + Yum.
- jamesrcole 8y ago
  > and they didn't even try to hide it Why would they? I don't see why it's something to hide, as if they're doing something wrong.
- lewisflude 8y ago
  > Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. :(
  - bausshf 8y ago
    LOL it's been almost 5 months and websites still haven't been able to comply with this? Anyway this works: http://web.archive.org/web/20171013204131/http://www.dailypress.com/news/york-county/dp-nws-ypq-kentacohut-closing-20160602-story.html http://web.archive.org/web/20171013204131/http://www.dailypr...
    - lewisflude 8y ago
      Thanks for finding a EU-friendly link! And I agree, it's absolutely astonishing that 5 months in, there are still websites left that haven't worked out a compliance solution.
techopoly 8y ago
I've noticed food courts in American malls seem to have a similar setup. I remember ordering "bourbon chicken" at a Cajun-style restaurant in a food court and realizing it tasted suspiciously similar to the Teriyaki chicken served at the Japanese stall next door.

walterbell 8y ago

Thanks for the background, that explains a lot about UK rail station food. Is this model also used in German rail stations?

sonnyblarney 8y ago

I don't think the choice is 'fake' at all. 'Operated by' really means owned by: the IP, processes, foods, experiences are created entirely separately, it's just one owner. If the food is good and people like it then hey. That said, I do wonder about quality, freshness, real experience, real innovation - no doubt scale provides all sorts of advantages, but it cuts out other things as well. There are zero 'scale' restaurants in my neighbourhood and I don't miss anything really - other than a coffee chain store. There's a knock-off Chipotle which fills the only hole I might miss on occasion!

contingencies 8y ago

Communism was more honest, they didn't have fake brands. Sincere smiles from an automated food retail startup in China. We are going for 100% personalized orders, in essence the consumer defines the recipe (nominally after discovery from a set of pre-ordained options they are free to deviate from entirely).

chrisseaton 8y ago

I don’t really understand what you think the core of the problem is? Why should a consumer care who owns the franchise? What difference does that make to me? If you have a service station with a Starbucks and a Burger King are you saying they both secretly serve the same coffee? I’m sure Starbucks franchise agreements do not allow that and it will be the coffee that Starbucks select and roast (whether you think that’s good or bad), not the coffee Burger King supply. So there is a real difference and a real choice there isn’t there? They share a loading bay and a till system? Why on earth do care about that?

lucas_membrane 8y ago
Because it is fake competition, which is pretty much what we get anymore. With real competition, one of the two places might do a better job of pleasing customers and get most of the business. With real competition, the employees preparing and serving the food will get a free market wage. Otherwise, it is all Disneypeople serving Disneyfood.
- winningcontinue 8y ago
  it's not been free market competition for a long time. I look out at the number of Pret a Mangers that office workers around me go to at lunch. It's like watching pigs going to the troughs to feed. The buildings empty, the pigs go to the next available spot and they return to their pens. They don't really give a shit really how long the lines are. Also fast food employees getting free market wages? They get minimum wage and if they work there for two years, they get a dollar increase to their wage. That's it, there is no lateral promotion.
tomc1985 8y ago
Part of the original notion of 'brands' was that they convey a promise to the buyer about the nature and quality of a product. It's a betrayal of the consumers' trust if the franchised version does not live up to the original brand's standards
- gruez 8y ago

psergeant 8y ago

> the choice is a fake one I can’t buy a Whopper at Pizza Express, the parent companies of both are owned by different people, both parent companies have different supply chains and the franchising rules for both are separate. In what way don’t I have a choice? Because Compass are contracting the cleaning, logistics, and personnel (who, for what it’s worth, will go through entirely different franchise-mandated training)? Seems a bit of a reach.

jpatokal 8y ago

At one point triple combos of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell ("Kentacohut") were common in Singapore -- and they didn't even try to hide it, there was a single shared counter for ordering. One in the US: http://www.dailypress.com/news/york-county/dp-nws-ypq-kentacohut-closing-20160602-story.html http://www.dailypress.com/news/york-county/dp-nws-ypq-kentac...

lostapathy 8y ago
FWIW, those 3 show up together worldwide because those 3 brands are all owned by "Yum Brands." In the US the trucks that deliver generally show branding for all 3 brands + Yum.
jamesrcole 8y ago
> and they didn't even try to hide it Why would they? I don't see why it's something to hide, as if they're doing something wrong.
lewisflude 8y ago
> Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. :(
- bausshf 8y ago
  LOL it's been almost 5 months and websites still haven't been able to comply with this? Anyway this works: http://web.archive.org/web/20171013204131/http://www.dailypress.com/news/york-county/dp-nws-ypq-kentacohut-closing-20160602-story.html http://web.archive.org/web/20171013204131/http://www.dailypr...
  - lewisflude 8y ago
    Thanks for finding a EU-friendly link! And I agree, it's absolutely astonishing that 5 months in, there are still websites left that haven't worked out a compliance solution.

techopoly 8y ago

I've noticed food courts in American malls seem to have a similar setup. I remember ordering "bourbon chicken" at a Cajun-style restaurant in a food court and realizing it tasted suspiciously similar to the Teriyaki chicken served at the Japanese stall next door.