NO GO at BO's?

If you are a regular reader of this swill, you probably know that I worked for Bojangles for a few years late in my working days. I worked for the Bojangles corporate stores department and not a franchisee.

I have been retired for several year, but I still occasionally stop in at a corporate Bojangles to visit with some folks who I worked with there. The Bojangles near my home are franchised stores so I rarely go into those.

A couple of weeks ago, I made a critical error and stopped at a Bojangles on Barnes Street in Reidsville. I had not been in that store in three years, and it only took a minute for me to remember why. It was such a bad experience that I went home and went online and wrote about my experience on their website. They are actually one of Bojangles' larger franchisees. But that didn't make my experience any better. Here's what I told them about my visit.

 "Three years ago, in April 2022 I stopped at your Barnes Street location in Reidsville at 7:20 PM on a Saturday night. I wanted an 8-piece family box. There was no food visible in the hot food well at the front counter. It was in pans under the heat strips. I asked for an 8-piece box and the young man told me "I will have to check and see if we have 8 pieces of chicken". I told him not to bother. If you don't have chicken ready at 7:30 on a Saturday night, you aren't really in the chicken business. They were too busy closing to serve customers. I didn't go back there until tonight. I went in at 6:45 and asked for the 2-piece special. The young lady told me that they didn't have any thighs and that she could check on how long it would be. I told her not to bother. There were only 4 legs in the pan beside her. This was your last chance with me. You are in the FRIED CHICKEN BUSINESS! I expect you to have fried chicken available at the peak of dinner time. It's obvious that you can't do this. I won't bother trying again!! If you aren't going to have chicken available in the evening, close down at 2:00 PM. It is apparent to me that your employees are closing down on their own schedules anyway."

I would have written more but I was closing in on the space limit. Have they contacted me? Of course, not. I wasn't expecting them to contact me. 

So, what to do? Years ago, we had a training director at Casa Gallardo who told us that customers would vote with their feet. If we didn't give them what they wanted, their feet would take them somewhere else. Thanks, Tommy. 

The next time I want fried chicken; my feet will take me somewhere other than the Bojangles in this area. Tommy was right.