KFC announced that it has followed though on its promise to remove trans fats from its fried chicken and potatoes, without affecting the taste. Although the new cooking oil is more expensive, the company said it will not raise prices to cover the increased cost.

KFC has built a family-friendly cooking and grocery-shopping site here. And KFC fans can visit the KFC site to watch exclusive footage of the Colonel's recent promotional Zero Gravity experience and look for a secret message that could unlock a chance to win one of 10,000 $1 KFC gift checks.

You'd think they could've sprung for some entirely free items, but, anyway. This announcement is really good news. It shows chains can remove trans fats without affecting classic tastes, and that it's an investment, but a worthwhile one.

UPDATE: Oops! Taco Bell, too.

Posted by QSMama at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Don't know about you, but I was ready for this weekend somewhere around, oh, Tuesday afternoon. So let's have some Friday Fun.

• I know I shouldn't be laughing.

• To promote its new 7 Layer Crunchwrap, Taco Bell will let one fan propose marriage during a TV baseball game using one of those virtual behind-the-plate signs (pictured here). In love with a baseball fan—and ready to tie the knot? Visit the Taco Bell site and click on the "7 Layers of Love" icon from April 26 through May 27. Once there, submit "7 reasons why your significant other would be lucky to marry you" as the winner will be chosen on the basis of creativity, appropriateness to theme, and the ability to display true love. (Sic. Whatever that is. Ack.)

• Caffeine Corollary #1: The cheaper it is, the more you can drink. (Granted, this is coming from an admitted latte freak, so maybe I need a new system of corollaries.) Anyway, Coffee Beanery says it will continue to offer 30 cent coffee on the 30th of every month. There are locations in most every state, so look for one near you if you're needing a cheap buzz this Monday.

• Don't care for the concept (it's casual dining, anyway, not quick-serve), but love the thoughtful gesture.

Enjoy your weekend. I'm about to get mine started correctly and directly.

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Spotted in the news this morning that VeriFone has released a new version of self-ordering stations. The iOrder Food Service Kiosk, pictured here, is a self-service station designed especially for quick-serve restaurant (QSR) and convenience store food service operations.

The kiosk trend has been around for more than ten years, but it's been slower-moving than many people anticipated—at least, than the kiosk developers anticipated, anyway. The idea is that customers feel more of a sense of control over the ordering experience, and that fewer mistakes might be made if you eliminate that communications gulf between customer and order-taker.

I once saw kiosks in action at a Sheetz convenience store in North Carolina. I thought the experience was okay, but I didn't have Baby A with me. Had I been trying to control her, it might have been harder to follow the directions. And one elderly woman who ordered after me was clearly uncomfortable with the kiosk experience.

What do you think—Would self-ordering be easier for you? What about when you've got kids in tow? Or would you prefer to have the help of a human being? Comment and let me know.

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Late yesterday morning a friend and I went to a weekly farmer's market in one of our city parks downtown. A couple of booths, including Whole Foods, sold amazing sandwiches and side dishes. The ingredients were high quality—artisan bread, organic peanut butter, natural cheeses, fresh sliced meats and veggies—and the prices were just $2 to $4.

It was fast food, on a tiny scale, and it was fresh, healthy, convenient, and cheap. Nirvana, right?

The challenge is taking that concept to the grand scale. Chain restaurant companies need to make money and be able to copy their concept over and over again. But chains like Chipotle are proving it can be done.

The other day I read about The Oinkster, a new restaurant that's being hyped as "the next Chipotle" because it's packaging high-quality ingredients and on-site preparation with speed, convenience, and affordability. Like Chipotle, The Oinkster was founded by a chef with fine-dining experience—in this case, Andre Guerrero, pictured—who says he hopes to establish a new quick-service category: slow fast food. The restaurant "aims to be Los Angeles’ antidote to both, expensive gourmet meals and their cheap fast food counterparts," according to its official site.

Mmmmm, the menu: premium sandwiches made with house-cured pastrami or slow-roasted pork, burgers made from freshly-ground steer beef, rotisserie-roasted chicken, and Belgian-style fries, real Gruyere and feta cheeses, home-made sauces, dressings, and spice rubs, and house-made condiments and crunchy veggies.

Here's a man-on-the-street review on the Colorado Chow blog.

The challenge for The Oinkster lies in taking a concept to the large scale. It's worth noting that Chipotle had the help of a huge infusion of cash from McDonald's, and access to McDonald's distribution network, behind its quick and successful national rollout. Who knows, maybe Guerrero plans to keep The Oinkster local to LA. But it sounds like his goals are larger.

Definitely something to watch.

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PapaScott linked to my post from earlier today on quick-serves and corporate responsibility.

PapaScott is actually Scott Hanson, an American who has lived in Germany since 1990. He and his wife—who will become a McDonald's franchisee this summer!—have a seven-year-old son.

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My Easter picture of Baby A (scroll down a little) was very sweetly linked at Strollerderby last week.

Not reading Strollerderby yet? You oughta be.

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A friend who's a vegetarian recently emailed me about Burger King's move to improve animal welfare. "This sort of move," she wrote, "would prompt me to choose BK over other fast food joints for road trip fare..."

Increasingly, parents and families are paying attention to corporate social responsibility and letting those impressions shape their spending decisions. Is your family among them? If so, you're certainly not alone.

Technomic, Inc., a respected restaurant consulting and research company, recently studied which restaurant companies consumers think are most socially responsible. And guess what? Four of the top five companies consumers named are quick-serves.

The chains consumers view as being most socially responsible are McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, Subway, Starbucks, and Applebee’s. (Well, okay, Starbucks might send me a nastygram for lumping them into quick service. But they are competing with quick-serves in many areas. So, Starbucks, no nastygrams, please. Oh, and I love your M&M snickerdoodles.)

Looking at U.S. consumer attitudes toward corporate social responsibility in foodservice, Technomic found that restaurant users rated health insurance coverage, living wages, and animal welfare as their top three concerns, when asked to select among fourteen different issues.

Technomic found that, in general, consumers believe restaurant chains could do more to address their high priority social issues.

“Corporate social responsibility is becoming increasingly important for consumers in general and restaurant users specifically,” said Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic, when the report was released. “The foodservice industry should identify and proactively address those social issues most important to their customer base. There is big payback for companies that are able to connect with consumers in this way and major downside risk for those fail to do so.” (Emphasis mine.)

Do you talk with your kids about how companies can give back to society? Does your family tend to shop or eat with companies you think are more socially responsible? Comment and tell us about it. The corporations are reading. :)

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Thanks to The Wonderful Husband's recent retail therapy, we have a fancy new digital cable system that lets us record programs automatically. So, like any decent parents would, we immediately filled the hard drive with children's programs—the gentle new "Curious George" on PBS, plenty of Sesame Street, and the one Disney show I like (really like): "Little Einsteins."

Trouble is, "Little Einsteins" comes on the Disney Channel, and there are commercials—or, as I'm sure Disney would prefer me to call them, "corporate mentions." This morning, I let her watch a new "Little Einsteins," and the introductory montage included a spot with the Chuck E Cheese mascot playing basketball with kids and encouraging exercise...because "it's not only fun, it's healthy, too!," or something to that effect.

That message, of course, is lost on a two-year-old. Her thinking went more like, "Chuck E Cheese! I went to a birthday party there a few months ago. There was pizza and candy and cake and games! I want to go again!" Which then became all she talked about for the next five minutes, until Leo and the rest of the Little Einsteins crew headed to Rocket and her mind moved on.

This annoyance isn't limited to Disney. Even PBS, sadly, has corporate mentions—again, Chuck E Cheese, for our local PBS channel. I hate that.

So what's to do?

Last month Elaine Kolish, pictured here, became director of the Council of Better Business Bureau's Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. She will monitor and enforce the pledges made last November by 11 major food advertisers to devote half their advertising aimed at kids to the promotion of healthy diet and fitness choices.

Those advertisers include quick-serve companies and suppliers like McDonald's, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Cadbury Schweppes, Campbell Soup, General Mills, Hershey, Kellogg, Kraft, Masterfoods, and Unilever.
All have pledged to reduce their use of licensed characters, product placement, and advertising in schools, and to follow the existing guidelines of the BBB's Children's Advertising Review Unit.

As this interview makes clear, though, the pledges are just that right now. Kolish will spend this spring and summer encouraging those advertisers to put some teeth in those promises. Here's an exceprt:

"[...] We're planning on announcing pledges between May and August this year. I'm not saying everything's going to be implemented between May and August—the pledges are supposed to explain how the company is going to meet the principles they signed onto last fall, to devote at least 50% of their advertising aimed directly at children 12-and-under to healthier diet choices and healthier lifestyles.

That all sounds good—really good, and best of luck to you, Elaine—but I keep thinking back to that Chuck E Cheese spot from this morning: just the mention of the name is annoying enough.

What's your take? Do you mind when your kids are exposed to advertising? Do you intentionally shield them from it? Or do you take it all in stride? Comment and let me know.

Posted by QSMama at 07:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You've seen a number of posts here about Chick-fil-A. We usually have good experiences there, and while fried chicken isn't something I want Baby A having every day, by any means, it's good to be able to get us some meat and fruit at a decent price. And mmmmmm it tastes good.

So I was glad to read this morning that the company is expanding its Kid's Meal menu, starting today. New choices will include items both new to the chain and those added from the regular menu. For one thing, Baby A prefers the chicken strips to the nuggets (me, too). The strips are dunked in a different marinade from the nuggets, according to our local Chick-fil-A opearator, and the shape is easier for little hands. Now I can order her two- or three-count Chick-n-Strips.

She also loves the lemonade (and gets mad at me when I ask the server to dilute it a little!), so the addition of lemonade to the kid's menu is nice.

Other new items include Milk Chugs (plain and chocolate) and Minute Maid® Apple Juice.

Other kids and family marketing initiatives launched recently by Chick-fil-A include offering a free Table Topper® stick-in-place plastic placemat for infants and installing special dispensers of individual PURELL® Sanitizing Hand Wipe packets at participating restaurants for parents to help their children clean their hands. I've posted about those before.

Chick-fil-A says its Kid's Meal menu will continue to offer Chick-fil-A Nuggets (four- or six-count) as an entree option, waffle fries, kid's size beverage, and a unique premium. Customers may opt for a 3 oz. fruit cup instead of the fries (for an additional 40 cents) and can choose a number of drink options as a Kid's Meal beverage.

Interesting note: Based on sales, Chick-fil-A is now the nation's second-largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain, with more than 1,300 restaurants in 37 states and Washington D.C. In 2006, Chick-fil-A produced record sales of $2.275 billion. Wow. Never thought my little home-town chain would get so big. And it's still private, and it's getting those sales even though it still closes on Sundays.

Posted by QSMama at 07:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Rules for taking little kids to restaurants: Wash their hands before they eat. Don't let them bug the people at the next table. And if my child is with you, try to keep her from eating the crumbly french-fry pieces the previous guests left on the bench seat.

Oh, and watch out for the wild coyotes. Yep, one visited a Chicago Quiznos location last week, spending about forty minutes there before animal control showed up. Restaurant employees named the hungry guy Adrian, and corporate officials put on a funny spin, saying that the coyote's arrival means the chain is succeeding at expanding its customer base.

"This has never happened before," said Steve Provost, Quiznos executive vice president and chief marketing officer. "We can only think that Adrian must have been attracted to our new Prime Rib on Garlic Bread [pictured above] and its above-average portions of meat. One thing is for sure, this coyote clearly has excellent taste."

If you're gonna get animal guests, better a coyote, I suppose, than rats run amok.

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Take a look at just one day's worth of quick-serve coupons. Our mailbox was literally overflowing. Note that the square Burger King in the lower-right corner one is not one page, but a whole booklet of money-off goodies.

A couple of observations:

* Note the number of quick-serve chains promoting breakfast. This is THE battleground right now among chains. Seems we Americans are creatures of habit when it comes to breakfast. All of the major chains want to make sure you build your morning routine around them.

The Burger Kings, McDonald's, and Wendy's of the world have watched Starbucks (and, to an extent, Dunkin Donuts) and developed major, major envy.

* Also note the number of pizza offers. This coupon-cornucopia arrived on the Thursday before Final Four Weekend, and we live in the heart of Tobacco Road basketball country. (Go, Duke! Go ACC!) That tells you something about targeted marketing.

So, does your mailbox fill up with ads and coupons like this? Have you ever redeemed one?

Posted by QSMama at 07:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)