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    The Week

    Burger King's home delivery plan: A 'couch potato's dream'?

    By The Week's Editorial Staff | The Week – Wed, Jan 18, 2012

    America's No. 3 burger chain is testing a new plan to get its mojo back: Delivering Whoppers to your door

    Burger King may have lost its spot as the No. 2 U.S. burger chain to Wendy's, but it's not taking its demotion sitting down. (McDonald's is still comfortably No. 1.) BK is borrowing a page from the pizza playbook and rolling out home delivery of its signature Whoppers, fries, and other fast-food fare, starting at a handful of Washington, D.C.–area locations. Some caveats: No fountain drinks, coffee, breakfast foods, or milkshakes; delivery costs $2 an order; and you must live within a 10-minute drive of a participating Burger King. But BK not only guarantees 30-minute delivery — it's promising the Holy Grail of burger delivery: "Proprietary thermal packaging technology" that will keep your fries crisp and burger "hot and fresh." Is this "couch potato's dream" the key to Burger King's comeback?

    Delivery is a no-brainer for BK: Arguably, home-delivered Whoppers and fries are "disastrous for a country struggling with an ever-expanding collective waistline," says Rene Lynch in the Los Angeles Times. But from a business perspective, this idea seems sure-fire, especially if Burger King really can keep burgers and fries from turning into a soggy mess en route. Let's face it: "Home delivery is convenient, and Americans love convenience."
    "Burger King gives home delivery a try"

    But are we really this lazy? Here's the flaw in Burger King's plan, says Hamilton Nolan at Gawker: The King wants you to pony up an extra $2 "to wait 30 minutes to get food from a restaurant that is less than 10 minutes away." For that to work, you have to believe that American burger junkies consider the walk from couch to car to be "too strenuous" and value inertia "far more than they value either their own money" or their need for more immediate gratification.
    "Home delivery of fast food is the inevitable next step"

    This will succeed — if BK works out the kinks: BK isn't aiming for the obese-slacker market, says Michael Rosenwald in The Washington Post. It's targeting busy families. And in my own test run, the results were "pretty darn good: The fries were hot and crispy, the Whopper was fresh and unsoggy," and ordering online was a breeze. On the other hand, it took the food an hour to arrive. If BK can feed time-crunched America's "insatiable" burger appetite a little faster, it really "might be on to something."
    "Having it your way at home: Taste-testing Burger King delivery"

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    • None of your Business
      None of your Business  •  4 mths ago
      PRobably will keep some drunk/stoned drivers off the road, which is always a good thing!
      • Tristain
        Tristain 4 mths ago
        You don't think the pizza delivery guy is stoned? It takes him an hour and a half to drive three blocks and half the time he shows up to the door with nothing but a handful of Parmesan and a confused look on his face.
    • Dudenohair
      Dudenohair  •  4 mths ago
      So why is it acceptable to have a pizza delivered (carb-loaded diabetes time bombs in a box) but unacceptable to have a whopper and fries delivered? Let companies serve their customers and let the market decide. If you would rather have tofu, then eat tofu.
      • Diogenes
        Diogenes 4 mths ago
        Well Said.
      • Steve
        Steve 4 mths ago
        Yeah,alot of the people i work with do just that and ALL our insurance rates go up every year because of the consequences....the healthy pay for the unhealthy and the responsable for the irresponsable
      • James
        James 4 mths ago
        Average slice of pepperoni pizza=280 calories
        Whopper Value Meal (small)=1200 calories
        Just a thought, but I do agree with you, to each their own.
    • Steven
      Steven  •  Quincy, Massachusetts  •  4 mths ago
      You can get pizza delivered or Chinese food delivered, and if you know the right people you can get drugs and prostitutes delivered, why not burgers. Doesn't being fat fall under the right to free speech?
      • 11
        11 4 mths ago
        Free speech? Good lord this country is dumbing up!
      • Steven
        Steven 4 mths ago
        If dying your hair blue is considered free speech, why isn't being fat free speech?
        ps Nice fish
      • Dan
        Dan 4 mths ago
        That's not free speech. That's freedom of expression which is NOT the same thing. You need words for it to be speech.
    • NA
      NA  •  4 mths ago
      And the driver's have to wear King masks, yeah!
      • beachbunny
        beachbunny 4 mths ago
        and the awesome King Crown!!!! :-)
    • gary
      gary  •  4 mths ago
      I've been saying this for years. Now, lets get an anything delivery service, "pick up some beer, pack of smokes, 10 crunchy tacos from Taco Bell, 2 liter of Sprite." "OK sir, we'll be by in the next 45 to an hour, that'll be $15" Outstanding! That's America! That kind of service may just save you from a DUI. Healthy? of course not, that's not the point at all. But when your all stoned hanging out in the garage with your friends drinking beer are you thinking organic? "Dude, I could really go for some fresh tossed greens right now" "Hey man, are you going to finish that squash?"
      • IcedGreenTea
        IcedGreenTea 4 mths ago
        I lived in a town which had exactly that service, for a while. It was called Waiters on Wheels and they would bring you anything from any restaurant in town. They also partnered with various restaurants to create a collection of menus. I was a grad student living without a car so I used their service on occasion.
      • gary
        gary 4 mths ago
        Take me, Take me to this town IcedGreenTea, let us live out our years in this wonderful place you speak of.
      • Eric S
        Eric S 4 mths ago
        You can get this service with taxi's where I live. Beer, cigs, groceries, whatever you want.
    • A Yahoo! User  •  4 mths ago
      Now if I can just find someone to answer the doorbell for me!
    • Jerry
      Jerry  •  4 mths ago
      So if I get up and drive to BK and wait in line to order. Wait for the order to get prepared then drive back home..... Hummmm just about breaks even I would say.
    • A Yahoo! User  •  4 mths ago
      It's not the time. Ten minutes to get there, ten minutes to get your order, and ten minutes back to the house. That's 30 minutes that can be spent watching Netflix.

      Of course, this opens up all sorts of possibilities for new employment. It depends, of course, on whether BK will be providing the vehicles, or if the employee will be required to maintain some beater for this purpose. Anyway, unless a delivery guy can make at least four deliveries per hour (how productive is the drive-thru window in comparison), I don't see BK making much on this deal.
    • James
      James  •  4 mths ago
      I'm accustomed to people picking up a bag of garbage from my driveway, not getting one delivered to my door.
    • Diogenes
      Diogenes  •  4 mths ago
      I'm all for it. My SAFEWAY delivers. Why not BURGER KING?
    • Charles B
      Charles B  •  Manila, Philippines  •  4 mths ago
      We have Mcdo to the door for years now..Roughly $1.00 charge no min order.. Just have to live in the right place..like not in USA where they tell you how you should live and what your kids need to eat...take note I'm not a Fat A** and I order once a week
    • JIMMY
      JIMMY  •  4 mths ago
      One poster gave me an idea. Start up a local than delivers it all. Burgers and fries or chinese or pizza, bud lite and marlboros, a little weed and somone intimate to consume it all with you!
    • Ryan
      Ryan  •  Los Angeles, California  •  4 mths ago
      Every time I think I am out, they pull me back in!!
    • Oops! Try again.
      Oops! Try again.  •  4 mths ago
      After my last trip to my the BK Lounge (my former favorite burger) and paying $7 for a crappy lunch I decided to try Rally's again. Not bad! For the price they're fresher and better tasting than BK. YMMV, but BK has gone to the dogs.
    • Bret
      Bret  •  4 mths ago
      Why not improve the quality of the food.. your burgers taste like school lunch burgers from way back when.. 'mystery meat' we used to call it.
    • markj
      markj  •  Norfolk, Virginia  •  4 mths ago
      Great Idea! Munch, Munch, Munch! BELCH! F*ART! S+HIT!
    • yahooblows
      yahooblows  •  4 mths ago
      Their key market is clearly potheads.
    • Billy Jackson
      Billy Jackson  •  Altamont, Illinois  •  4 mths ago
      My beef is with MCDonalds,The lack of beef to be frosise,Have you seen the BIG MAC lattly?Whats big about it,the pattys are so thin you can see through them ,$ buchs for a burger,and it has les than 4. OZ of meat,Now if they used 2 Quarter pound pattys,and actually put that second slice of cheese on it,like they used to.It would be worth the 4 bucks.
    • CIA ran 9-11
      CIA ran 9-11  •  4 mths ago
      The chinese have been delivering food for a long time. Why is this news?
    • Doomsday
      Doomsday  •  New York, New York  •  4 mths ago
      So if You are a couch potato eating french frys.... Does that make You a Cannibal ?
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