Boston Market

I'm going to jump right into the story today in this podcast and kind of back it up with a story you may have heard before.

But the story goes in the early 1990s, Boston Market rolls into Atlanta and starts taking market share right in Chick-fil-A's backyard.

Now, 1990 is a little different.

I remember I grew up here.

They're not coming after our widgets.

They're not coming after, they're coming after solutions.

Does what you have in your company solve a problem for me or me and my business or me and my family or me and my community? Does it solve a problem? So they're in the boardroom, 1990s, Boston market rolls in and they start taking market share from Chick-fil-A in their own backyard.

And the leadership team, as this story is told, is arguing with Truett Cathy.

We loved Boston.

Boston Market.

We used to

stop in Gainesville, Florida on the way home from Disney World.

Is that like American Deli?

No, Boston Market.

It's like they had like rotisserie chicken, mac and cheese.

It's good.

So they are cutting checks, which are essentially...

I don't know, Boston Market gift cards for them to the tune of $4 billion.

That's

crazy.

I love Boston Market.

Oh, great brisket with brown gravy.

I'm so sad it's gone.

The only way to grow in this emerging global fast food war was for McDonald's to assemble its own portfolio of brands and cuisines.

By 2001, McDonald's had acquired Boston Market to fight KFC, bought a Midwest pizza chain to fight Pizza Hut, and invested in a tiny Denver Mexican chain called Chipotle to fight Taco Bell.

Each move was aimed at chipping away at Yum! brand's dominance across Mexican, pizza, and chicken.

Yet it was Mexican that held the greatest potential.

With the clock ticking, Ackman had to force a positive market reaction fast.

He went public with a 100-page presentation, asserting that the company was leaving billions on the table and that shareholders deserved more.

He demanded that McDonald's spin off its real estate into a separate entity, borrow billions to fund share buybacks, and divest non-core brands like Chipotle and Boston Market to refocus exclusively on burgers.

Despite their contentious relationship with Steve, McDonald's saw Chipotle as their high-growth asset of the future, but Ackman saw differently.

It's just very...

White dick in a male prostitute in Africa? It's called Boston Market.

Boston Market, exactly.

But it's very...

It's expensive, though.

That's really funny.

I just keep thinking of Boston Market for some reason.

Like, are we all craving Boston Market?

Well, okay.

Are you familiar with the chain Dig In? I think it's now called Dig.

Like it's like a roast chicken.

And there's like a mac and cheese.

But instead of this sort of like orange mac and cheese in Boston Market, it's like, you know, it's like I have a cloth bound cheddar mac and cheese.

So this was a really hard pill to swallow and to just try to get through is how I approached that year.

And again, I was struggling a lot of emotions and still trying to figure out this singleness and being alone and Then the following year, I was dreadfully alone again on Thanksgiving, and I remember standing in line for a good maybe hour or two just to get a single plate of a Thanksgiving meal at Boston Market.

And came home and ate it by myself.

And vowed that Thanksgiving that I would never allow that to happen.