CHECKERS
REVIEWING NEW MENU - IMPROVED AND DOING BETTER
EDITOR: BEATING COVID —
🔘 The first Burger STAND ALONE with no dining room indoors was kind of a novelty two decades ago but who could have predicted COVID and that kept some of their stores alive because they were drive through only. Yet many fast food restaurants died with sit in, some restaurants are alive today because they were equipped for and did a large take out business.
🔘 That meant retrain staff, or some had to get new staff, and better take out packaging so your 8.00 dollar hamburger, fries and coke didn’t land in your lap or on your floor mats in your Enzo Ferrari during take out.
🔘 My favorite Chinese restaurant ( I do not eat at open food Buffets — too many hands play with and touch the food ) did a huge take out business, and that kept them comfortable during COVID, and my favorite Italian Restaurant does 50-60 incredibly great large pizzas and take out a night in addition to great capacity. ( at $22-24 per pie)
🔘 Prices have gone up but both have a following because of consistency and simply great food priced accordingly to the market.
DOING BETTER — In 2014, Wellspring sold Checkers to another private equity firm, Sentinel Capital Partners. On March 23, 2017, Checkers announced that it would be sold to Oak Hill Capital Partners for $525 million.

Checkers & Rally’s Partners with No Kid Hungry To Help Provide Up To 1 Million Meals
The national drive-thru restaurant franchise has teamed up with No Kid Hungry to ensure that millions of children have access to the food they need
TAMPA, Fla. — Checkers & Rally’s, an iconic and innovative drive-thru restaurant chain known for bold and flavorful food at an exceptional value and its people-first attitude, is partnering with No Kid Hungry, a national campaign to end childhood hunger in America, and donating $100,000, enough to provide up to 1 million meals to children in need.
“Checkers & Rally’s is deeply committed to the nearly 900 communities we serve, and by partnering with No Kid Hungry, we are able to make a big impact toward connecting kids with nutritious meals so that no child goes hungry,” said Checkers & Rally’s CEO Frances Allen. “We’re proud to be partnering with a campaign that does so much good for so many children and families in need.”
More than 11 million children in the United States live in households that don't have enough food for every family member to lead a healthy life. No Kid Hungry is ending childhood hunger through effective programs that provide kids with the food they need, such as school breakfast, and afterschool and summer meals.
“We are incredibly grateful for our partnership with Checkers & Rally’s,” said Diana Hovey, Senior Vice President at Share Our Strength, the organization behind the No Kid Hungry campaign. “ With the continued support of committed partners like them, No Kid Hungry is helping children all over the country get the nutritious food they need to succeed.”
Based in Tampa, Fla., Checkers & Rally's Restaurants, Inc., an iconic and innovative drive-thru restaurant chain known for its "Crazy Good Food," exceptional value, and people-first attitude, operates and franchises both Checkers® and Rally's® restaurants. With nearly 900 restaurants and room to grow, Checkers & Rally's is a proven brand with flexible building formats that is aggressively expanding across the country. Checkers & Rally's is dedicated to being a place where franchisees and employees who work hard can create opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities.
In recent years, the brand has earned several of the industry's most prestigious awards including: "#1 Most Crave-able Fries" by Restaurant Business; Best Franchise Deal and "Best Drive-Thru in America" by QSR Magazine; Top Food and Beverage Franchise by Franchise Business Review; the "Hot! Again" award from Nation's Restaurant News and has consistently been ranked on Entrepreneur's Franchise 500. For more information about franchise opportunities with Checkers & Rally's, please visit www.checkersfranchising.com.
Stepping Up To The Pump — Based on their ‘corpo-guano’ or promises made by the corporation, it would appear they have made somewhat of an improvement since the days of their penny stock. Thats about what Checkers shares were and many folks lost big. In reality their burgers were fresher and better than Mickey-D.
🔘 I had a friend who bought a ton of their stock when it went public and lost 1000 percent when it dropped to a penny stock. He spent weeks thinking about what he was going to do to his stockbroker. He lived, thank goodness—
🔘 Location, location, location — I saw problems when they first opened. The converted mobile home theory with no dinning room killed 50% of their business in areas with inclement weather, and many folks like myself after enough mishaps do not regularly eat in their car. I much prefer dropping my crumbs and sauce on a table than dropping same in my lap.
🔘 One spilled orange drink (orange is the worst and strongest dye coloring agent) from a McDonalds cost me 125 dollars worth of new carpeting and console removal to clean and reinstall in my wife’s car. I do not eat in the car and she never let me use it after that during food hours.
🔘 One of the parallel biggest problems they have, the mortality of they’re thinking when they basically created a drive in which the customer when exiting, are the short curbs which direct you to plow right into 45 MPH blindsided traffic which adjusting for the Florida driver is doing sixty. And rumors are true. Florida drivers drive by sound. The one here on East Bay is a very particularly dangerous exit. I avoid that and walk up to the window and leave via the back way out to come back alive another day going around the block to a street with a light —
🔘 The killer is you have to eat in your car, since it’s 96 degree heat and 80% humidity, no breeze and I’ll pass on a hot burger spilling over with my sweat. In Florida our summers hover at 92-97 with really high humidity. Sitting outside and cooking hotter than the burger I got just turns me off.
🔘 THE BOTTOM LINE — To be fair a few times I thought their burger was better than Mickey-D but I'm not that impressed frankly with the layout. But today COVID changed everything and MICKEE-D dropped another notch, they became notches higher with two take out lines and fast service.

CORPO GUANO STATEMENT — DE BULLSHITTED —
At Checkers we make everything fresh to order and the second it’s done we deliver it right to your hungry hands — 🔘 We prefer hands — when we threw them at the car window — we missed —
We take pride in preparing and serving food the right way; hot, juicy and full of flavor because there’s nothing fresh about burgers sitting under a light bulb.
🔘 But drive in windows and short lunch times sometimes warrant pre-cooking, if you like cold or old food — those are heat bulbs, not light bulbs — but better than McDonals or Burger Barf—
What exactly makes our burgers so mouth wateringly delicious? It’s a perfect blend of spices that we generously sprinkle on every burger after tossing it onto the grill. Juicy stuff huh?
🔘 Every body has secret blends of sauces or spices — just buy steak seasoning for the same effect on your grill — garlic powder — mustard powder — 3/4 cup baking mix — paprika — pepper— seasoned salt — about as secretive as the New York Times.

It’s a process we call seared and seasoned. It’s something you’ll call delicious.
🔘 No secret process — its a grill burger hot plate, gets hot on the grill and then placed on the top side flattens the burger and cooks the burgers second side at the same time — no flipping — faster by 40% —
When it comes to toppings, if it's not 100% fresh, it's not getting loaded on to our food. And when we say fresh we're talking sliced-daily tomatoes and onions, and crisp iceberg lettuce, fresh. How’s that for a fresh approach to freshness?
🔘 NOTE — these guys really think fresh food is a novelty — I have never seen sliced tomatoes or sliced lettuce from a can, this is stupid — and guaranteed they are put in the chiller overnight — today food is too expensive to toss.
There's fast food and then there's Checkers food. From our seared and seasoned Burgers and crazy good Wings to our rich and creamy Milkshakes and famously Seasoned Fries, our food always comes fully loaded with unique flavors that are real, and really, really good. Let the craving for that one-of-a-kind Checkers flavor begin.
🔘 NOTE: Guys, I had your wings, undersized, over cooked and tasted horrid, hope you learn how to buy and make wings. Nothing like in the pictures. I do a Texas on them — El Paso!
MORE CORPO GUANO AND TRUTH — Well, impressive, the Corpo-Guano was well written last time I visited a Checkers, THE WINGS SUCKED, I swore off ever returning but since this section is devoted to Hamburgers which is their lead item served in what we call “ CONCOCTION OF THE WEEK”. Like many fast food and burger joints the menu usually featured five thousand items all made with less than ten basic ingredients plus a few exotics. Which might include:
LIKE TACO BELL, THEY REARRANGE THE ITEMS AND CALL IT SOMETHING NEW —
I get feedback and a lot of negative feedback FROM ALL COMPANIES about employees, from employees and from bosses about employees. Understandable, the long hours, low pay, slow advancement and tough customers.
BUT thats only part of it, as the beginner job standard of the industry relies on many youngsters. Most might not exactly feel the food industry as a career. The usual reason is to afford car insurance.
As many of the shift hours take away from schoolwork time and when the grades fail, the job goes. The answer is fair pay, create a career, not a burger flipper and hire more mature workers.