An article in Ocala’s Star Banner this morning, talks about two recent fast food chain locations closing in the the past week. The article blames the economic climate as the main factor for the store closings, but I beg to differ.  While I’m not exactly their target customer, I am not above a quick drive through meal once or twice a month.  If we’re being honest, I quite enjoy a Big Mac now and again.  Also, I’m very big on supporting our local economy and entrepreneurs.  I visited each of these restaurants a total number of once and I’m here to tell you it wasn’t the economy that shut them down.

The first of these to open and the first to close was Whatabuger, a franchise that I was unfamiliar with when it opened here in Ocala and I found myself, one early afternoon, on my way to a homeschool playdate, running late and without the bag lunch that we were supposed to bring.  Whattaburger was not far out of our way, so I decided we’d give it a shot. We ordered two Whataburger meals and one Whataburger Jr. Meal, each came with fries and a soda.  I utilized the drive through option and the woman who waited on us was so rude and nasty that if I wasn’t in such a hurry I would have stopped in and complained to the manager.  The store was not at all busy, as far as I could see there was no one in the dining room and there was only one car in front of us at the drive through, yet we still had to pull over and wait about 15 minutes for our order.  The woman who brought it out wasn’t exactly friendly. In retrospect, I actually did have time to complain, but I didn’t and  I pulled away, now very late for our commitment and didn’t look at the sandwiches till we got there.  The sandwiches were so poorly constructed that they wouldn’t stay together and there was so much mayonnaise on the bun that we had to borrow a knife to scrape it off.  It seemed that they didn’t even try to stack the sandwich properly, you’d almost think that they had to actually try to make this so bad.  I threw mine out and if you knew how much I hate waste, you’d know it must have been really bad.  I never went there again.

Backyard Burger was a much anticipated opening – they claim that their burgers are as good as if you grilled them yourself and while I didn’t think they would be quite that good, I was hoping for a little more sophisticated alternative to the McDonalds/Burger King route. Once again, running late, I didn’t have time for lunch if I was going to get my children to guitar lessons on time.  I raced down Easy Street, dropped the kids off and thought I’d grab a burger.  I pulled into Back Yard Burger, where I was the only customer.  I ordered the Mushroom Swiss burger (one of my favorites, usually) and the seasoned fries.  The women at the window, while not rude like our friend at Whataburger, certainly wasn’t friendly.  You know what?  We all have to do our jobs, right?  And if you’re taking my money, smile and say thank you.  She didn’t.  The burger, while more edible than the one above, seemed to have been quick grilled and then put in an oven to finish.  The meat had that gray tinge that you get if you don’t sear beef before roasting it.  The fries were soggy and cold and needless to say, I never went there again either.

Please know that I’m not taking these closings lightly, people are out of work because of them and I completely empathize.  Especially in a slow down economy, if you’re going to be in business, make sure your employees are treating your customers well, thanking us as they take our money and being polite and friendly.  Make sure that your product is fresh and hot and make sure that your customers don’t feel like they’ve been fleeced when they leave your establishment.

Let’s not whine about how we didn’t have time to build a following before the recession, let’s try to make ourselves stand out in a sea of mediocrity.  There are businesses that are still making money in this economy and especially if you provide a lower cost meal alternative for families that can’t really afford to go to a sit down restaurant at this point in time, you’re in a good position to make some money.

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