Friday, April 13, 2012

Colonel's A-Comin'

A reader writes:  "Sorry for the bad quality of the photo attached, but I was coming home tonight and went past the strip mall at Lawrence and Sheridan where JJ Pepper's is.  I wasn't too surprised to see that the coin laundry there had gone out of business.  I was very surprised to see the posters in the window announcing what is going to replace it."

Our first thought:  Wonder why they didn't take over the empty KFC building at Buena and Broadway, which is already fitted out as a restaurant, rather than retrofitting a laundromat? 

Actually, this could be very good news for the area if it's a KFC franchise, because franchisees have to meet and maintain certain standards set by the KFC office.  There's a hefty franchise fee ($45,000) and start-up costs ranging from $1.3million to $2.4million.  In short, the franchise owner has a very big interest in making sure the store makes a profit and is professionally run.

(By contrast, the former Popeye's at Wilson and Broadway wasn't a franchise, but was independently owned.) 

Time will tell how this all plays out.

31 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I agree with Uptown Dino... will be nothing but more trash and bones to pick up for those in the area....

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  3. I think you mean "independently owned franchise" vs. "corporately owned franchise" or "corporately owned" re: the former Popeye's.

    Chain restaurants with franchise locations can manifest in various ways:

    - Owned by the original chain "corporately owned"

    - Owned by a franchisee corporation "corporately owned franchise"

    - Owned by an single franchisee operation "independently owned franchise"

    etc. etc. etc.

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  4. Well, QRB, this is what we know about the darling of the Health Department, the previous Popeye's: it never changed names to Louisiana Kitchen when the other restaurants did, it wasn't listed on the Popeye's website as an outlet, and it certainly didn't care about meeting corporate franchise standards. It just "went rogue." Hopefully this KFC will not fall into the same circumstances.

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  5. I agree that it would have been nice for it to open at the El Pollo Loco spot, but something is better than nothing. I personally don't care for the place, but we need all the places we can get at this point in the area. So welcome!

    I also like the idea of some more eyes on that corner.

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  6. I love me some KFC! And this is a great location. I'm going to be frequenting it often!

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  7. Oh my. Hopefully, it will close at a decent hour.

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  8. ... as opposed to frequenting it infreguently.

    Sorry, couldn't resist.

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  9. KFC is disgusting, sorry to hear about this.

    http://www.theonion.com/articles/kfc-no-longer-permitted-to-use-word-eat-in-adverti,2733/

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  10. Uptown SuperHero! said...
    I agree with Uptown Dino... will be nothing but more trash and bones to pick up for those in the area....

    ...though I'm sure our rat population is ecstatic...

    ...sigh...

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  11. I'm looking for an honest and intelligent debate so beginning with that, please explain why KFC is appealing to anyone?

    Here is where I'll start. As humans we have a higher intellect than animals(although not the case with some of us). In the case of KFC that means that we have more intelligence than to say that "well I support KFC moving into our area because I like their food and we need to fill empty store fronts". This mindset is arguing from the most basic sense of logic and lack of education that one could use and as a person of education and intelligence as I expect you all are, this is not a valid reason by ANY means.

    Follow the links I provided and don't fool yourself into a justification for not believing what you see because you think its propaganda put out by the animal rights front. If you believe what KFC is doing is ethical and healthy for you, your connection to the world of reality is non-existent. Going beyond the fact that fried foods are the worst thing you could put into your body, these "foods" are havens for growth hormones and other drugs that mysteriously find their way into your body and ask your kidneys, liver and urinary system how fun it is to deal with these toxic foreign substances. It isn't, ever wonder why 2 out 3 Americans develop Cancer at some point in their lives? Because our food supply in this country is poisoned.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wfsymF1FvI

    http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/

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  12. Additionally why is Uptown a magnet for fast food establishments? Well, its no secret that real estate is the business that McDonald's is in, and who can argue that the rest of the chains don't follow this model. But beyond that the industry knows who their target audience is, low-income uneducated people. Why? Because the food is cheap, tastes good and that demographic doesn't ask questions such as is what I'm eating harmful to me? Hence, fast food can ALWAYS be found in areas of low income, uneducated people. So a question that I have is this, as a community that is suppose to care about one another, why would we let a business such as this come in and offer up a product that is horribly unhealthy for us? Because people around where I live may either not care or not know, does not mean that I want them subjected to eating cheap, shitty food. The ignorant are the victims in this case and as a community we should not tolerate it. On a final note coming from the environmental angle, it is NO secret that factory farming is extremely damaging to the environment and the immediate communities around these farms. Waste run-off, ground water contamination, clean air issues and methane output are just some of the issues that we can get into. So my plea, lets begin to think about our choices. Do not consume mindlessly, we are better than that.

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  13. I totally agree UptownAction, Kfc is just revolting, the last time I tried to it I just felt ill and what was I doing to myself? I was supporting misery.

    The laughing face of the colonel is just as disturbing if not more than ronald's evil grin.

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  14. You sure all do like to complain about anything and everything.

    How can you say Uptown is a magnet for fast food places? Really!?! Welcome to America! The whole country is a magnet for fast food, not just Uptown. Hence are extreme obesity weight problem nationwide. Look at any other neighborhood in the city or country, jammed pack with fast food. Only going to get worse and worse.

    As for getting on KFC for mistreating animals, that is true. But if you buy pretty much any meat from the grocery store, ever eat meat out, wear leather, etc. It all pretty much comes from the same place where animals are jammed into small areas and force fed until they are fat enough to be killed. So singling out KFC is a tad ridiculous unless you are a vegan who doesn't wear leather, don't have any down blankets or coats, etc.

    So I don't think what KFC is doing is ethical and healthy for me, but I also don't think anyone thinks that. So quit your bitchin and just don't go there if you don't like it.

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  15. jtizzle...


    You're admitting the obesity epidemic, widespread cruelty to animals within the meat industry, unethical business practices and that their product is unhealthy for you and everyone else who eats it.

    Then you go on to say quit our bitching and just don't go there, essentially turn a blind eye right? How serious are you because I can't take what you're saying seriously. Think about what you just said, "just don't go there".

    When we as a society acknowledge something that is blatantly wrong and harmful should we "just not go there"? Should I not bitch about something because its socially not excepted? What are you saying? Fall in line, don't cause ripples, live like the Chinese, North Koreans, Iranians and every other oppressed society because bitching annoys people like you? If you enjoy living blindly to how f*#cked our economy, society, environment, political system, and planet is, enjoy your chicken my friend. Ignorance sounds like bliss.

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  16. "why would we let a business such as this come in and offer up a product that is horribly unhealthy for us?"

    Well, let's start with, this is a capitalistic society (despite what Helen Shiller and Mark Kaplan would have you believe about their fantasy Peoples Republic of Uptown) and no one "lets" businesses open. The businesses that can afford to open, do. The ones that make a profit get to stay in business.

    You don't like KFC here? Well, don't go there then! Because you sound very much like Big Brother -- "I disagree with it, so no one should be able to have it." In fact, you sound just a tad like those people who are doing everything they can to prevent gay marriage! YOU don't like KFC, so it should be run out of town on a rail.

    You know what they say: "If you don't like gay marriage, then don't get one!" Same thing: "If you don't like KFC, don't eat there."

    When you start sounding like Helen Shiller about who should be "allowed" to open businesses in Uptown, that's a little scary. Again, this is a capitalistic society. The market calls the shots. Not some socialist overlord.

    The owner is spending over a million dollars for the right to open a new business in our community. He or she will pump money (via licenses and sales tax) into our local economy by doing so. Money that the city desperately needs, in case you haven't noticed (just try going to a public library on a Monday morning, or staying calm when the overworked 911 operator doesn't answer until the tenth ring, or when the beat car for our suddenly supersized police beats doesn't show up the minute you call).

    So I have no problem with welcoming a new business into our community. There are areas in this city that would fall all over one another for the privilege of losing yet another empty storefront, having new taxes roll in, and employing local workers. But I guess that's not just good enough for some people in Uptown....

    (Jeffo, you don't count until you close all the fast food places in Rogers Park. THEN you can come in and tell Uptown what we are "allowed" to have in our community. Boy, buncha wannabe dictators here!)

    For the record, I haven't eaten meat in over 20 years, I don't wear leather, I don't buy down or fur, and I work very closely with a no-kill shelter. And I have no problem with KFC coming here. I welcome them and wish them luck.

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  17. TSN,

    Good argument however, we live in a democratic capitalistic society. That democracy gives us the
    freedom to protest what ever we do or do not like. I don't like businesses that so blatantly offer such poor quality products and by their existence harm the environment, animals and anything else that stands in their way of making profits. It's capitalism but unchecked and ethically disgusting. Would there not be an uproar if Boeing made products with such low quality standards as KFC? Or any car company? Point is, why are some industries held to extremely high standards yet the fast food industry sees NO penalties for feeding nutritionally deficient, high fat products to its customers? This stuff can't even be classified as food because of the extreme lack of live enzymes in it. Case in point, the fast food "mold test"...

    Meanwhile what our "health care" system charges for insurance and basic services is basically highway robbery and aiding in a society of have's and have not's. Throw a rock and you'll hit a doctor that will tell you that a patients health is greatly effected by their diet and lifestyle. Yet people want their ignorance is bliss lifestyle at the expense of our premiums and inflated ER bills.

    So you call me a socialist overlord :-) I call me someone who is awake. "Well, don't go there then! Because you sound very much like Big Brother" like in my response to jtizzle, avoid what I don't like huh? I don't like gang violence, I don't like oil spills, I don't like genocides, I don't like the erosion of our middle class, I don't like jobs being outsourced to line the pockets of a few, I don't like the obesity epidemic, I don't like religious bigots, I don't like racism,..guess what, I don't like a LOT of things that negatively impact millions of people everywhere. You would call me Big Brother for doing away with these things?

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  18. And the way I see it is short term gains of some tax revenue and a few jobs pails in comparison to the larger detriment that is caused by allowing business's like this to exist. I would suggest a larger perspective and an analysis into the interconnectedness of life. Life thrives based on systems that work and eliminates systems that don't. The KFC that you love so much creates much more harm than good and by allowing it into our neighborhood, it detracts from our strength in ways such as aiding in the continued decline of our populations health, the pollution of the communities in which its chickens are raised, and the unethical practices of hormone injections/de-beaking/cage crowding/and animal neglect. How in anyone's right mind could they approve of something like this moving in near them? What kind of a world do you want to live in in 30 years? A world where everyone is fat, sick and apathetic to what goes on around them?

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  19. oh and..."So I have no problem with welcoming a new business into our community. There are areas in this city that would fall all over one another for the privilege of losing yet another empty storefront, having new taxes roll in, and employing local workers. But I guess that's not just good enough for some people in Uptown...." - TSN

    So why don't you and I open an abortion clinic and a KKK office in Uptown if we can justify it away with filling a storefront, creating tax revenue and employing local workers? Extreme examples I know but I'm praying you see the point.

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  20. UptownAction, thanks for reminding me why this vegetarian has never gotten involved with PETA. High horses and fanaticism aren't my cup of tea.

    I am just amazed that you believe in banning businesses that you personally find abhorrent. It's at the same time very Shilleresque and very Santorumesque, which amuses me.

    Again, this country works based on what the free market can bear. Businesses are free to open at will. If the market supports them, they will succeed. If the market finds them out of line with community standards, they will fail. The market is a great equalizer.

    I find it extremely paternalistic that you believe in banning fast food because the people who YOU deem to be at risk apparently, in your opinion, can't be trusted to make decisions about where and what they eat. Somehow you've decided it's up to you to save them from themselves by banning KFC? Because they're just not savvy enough to be trusted with those kinds of decisions? Man, that scares me more than I can say.

    You asked what kind of society I want to live in in 30 years. Well, not one where someone else decides that I'm just not able to be trusted to make decisions about where I shop and where I eat. I've already been ten, thank you. Didn't much care for it, actually.

    Here's what a free and open capitalistic society does: it provides alternatives - finds new market niches, if you'd prefer - rather than ban businesses. Don't like the emphasis on fast food? Open a farmer's market or something like Stanley's Fruits and Vegetables. Arrange to have some of the produce trucks that line up all over the NW Side come to Uptown and park. Or get together a group of investors and bring a fast-serve vegetarian place, or ten or twelve, to Uptown and make the prices competitive with the fast food joints. (BTW, Urban Vegan is great.)

    You don't like the way KFC or McDonald's treats animals? Then educate people about it and let them make their own decisions about whether or not to eat there. That's how a free society works.

    As for your equating abortion providers and the KKK - well, that says a lot about you right there. I am personally opposed to abortion, so guess what, I probably won't ever have one. But here we are again - I will defend to the death someone's right to decide to have one, even if it's not my thing. We're right back to it. Just because I don't believe in something, does it mean that no one else gets to do it? Um, no.

    Here's my question for you, O Judgmental One: there are restaurants all over Uptown that serve chicken, lamb, goats, and beef. I'm pretty sure there are ducks, chickens and geese on Argyle Street who aren't treated too well. There are all sorts of shops that specialize in the sale of items made from leather, and I have my doubts that everything in their inventories comes from aged cows who suddenly keeled over in the open pasture. Why aren't you going after them? What is it about a not-even-open chicken joint that inflames your passions, while these other restaurants and shops don't?

    In short - well, bugger, this is way too long to say "in short" - In conclusion:

    - if I don't like a business, I don't support it financially.
    - I don't believe I have the moral authority to decide for others what they should and shouldn't be allowed to buy or eat.
    - I believe "live and let live" is a far better credo than "ban it!"

    That's it, I'm done. Feel free to rail against KFC and me as long as you'd like, but I'm outta here.

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  21. TSN -

    The only thing personal that I'll say against you is you're probably the only vegetarian I'll ever meet that openly supports KFC. Its almost like you're missing the point of being vegetarian. I don't know, maybe your logic can explain it to me, I don't get it.

    But I'm already getting bored so just a couple final thoughts.

    "I am just amazed that you believe in banning businesses that you personally find abhorrent. It's at the same time very Shilleresque and very Santorumesque, which amuses me." LOTS of people find KFC abhorrent, hence a nationwide movement against them. Secondly, businesses get banned all the time hence "dry" counties and towns or why porn shops, strip clubs and liquor stores aren't anywhere near schools or in some cities all together or why casinos aren't legal everywhere you go.

    "I find it extremely paternalistic that you believe in banning fast food because the people who YOU deem to be at risk apparently, in your opinion, can't be trusted to make decisions about where and what they eat. Somehow you've decided it's up to you to save them from themselves by banning KFC? Because they're just not savvy enough to be trusted with those kinds of decisions? Man, that scares me more than I can say." lol So why is it illegal to not wear a seatbelt? How come I can't drive under the influence? Why does the law say I have to have auto insurance? (this list could be VERY long btw) Do you not understand that this is what the Government does already and you're afraid of me!? I don't make laws to govern people that "I" deem are unable to make decisions by themselves. Come on, turn the light on :-)

    Finally, "I believe "live and let live" is a far better credo than "ban it!" ::shakes head in utter disbelief:: than why do we as a society have ANY regulations against industry? Why not just let anything go and work itself out on its own? Chicago bans handguns outside of the home, under your reasoning, why not let all of us just openly carry?

    You asked what kind of society I want to live in in 30 years. Well, not one where someone else decides that I'm just not able to be trusted to make decisions about where I shop and where I eat. I've already been ten, thank you. Didn't much care for it, actually.

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  22. Uptown Action / TSN ..... two words... brevity please...LOL

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  23. Truman Square Neighbor said "(Jeffo, you don't count until you close all the fast food places in Rogers Park. THEN you can come in and tell Uptown what we are "allowed" to have in our community. Boy, buncha wannabe dictators here!)"

    TSN I wish I was a dictator, I just have an opinion. :) I will say Im happier that its at the minimall instead of blighting the wilson and sheridan corner. KFC is a place that no one can escape (well its hard), just recently I went to china/phillipines, and ofcourse KFC's idiot grin greets me there (and I didnt go to a big city in the phillipines either).

    Yes TSN its a capitalistic society. As the owner of the minimall you can make aesthetic and ethical decisions however, you dont have to sell space out to the highest bidder.

    I spent some time in Uptown picking up trash on Winthrop from Lawrence to Leland for almost a year (I forget) and that made a big difference, this is despite the fact that I dont live in Uptown but I do know people who live there and my wife used to live there. Its a big city and I thought it wasnt provincial, but some small minded uptownians believe that opinions should be kept to only those residing withing its borders.

    TSN Im flattered that you think I have the power to close all fastfood places in RP. I would do it if I could. Most recently I was happy to see the Mcdonalds express close at the LOYOLA EL STOP.

    http://chicago.everyblock.com/announcements/mar01-loyola-cta-station-mcdonalds-express-closes-4781287/

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  24. TSN said "In short - well, bugger, this is way too long to say "in short" - In conclusion:
    - if I don't like a business, I don't support it financially.
    - I don't believe I have the moral authority to decide for others what they should and shouldn't be allowed to buy or eat.
    - I believe "live and let live" is a far better credo than "ban it!"

    That's it, I'm done. Feel free to rail against KFC and me as long as you'd like, but I'm outta here."

    Okay I live and let live anyways, but I am free to express my disgust with KFC and thats all I was doing. I hardly think a global force like KFC needs defending. I wish I had that kindof power to cause KFC fear. :)
    How have any of use decided anything for anybody? I dont physically try to stop people from eating KFC, Im not chaining myself to the their door, Im not trying to sabatoge them.

    Imagine that last line of yours at a political debate or any sort of townhall meeting debate. It just sounds like a kid saying, and now Im taking all the toys away and you cant play with them anymore. I like debates, and shoving down someone's throat your opinion and then slamming down your fist and leaving is childish.

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  25. What the hell. You only live once. I am going to eat whatever I feel like eating good or bad. Uptown has a pretty good choice of places to eat. I have no business and it not anyone elses to tell me what to shove down my throat. Whatever you eat or don`t eat we all go to the funeral home sooner or later. Double up on the lipitor and enjoy your food. Life is too short.

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  26. It never failed that I had something stolen whenever I did laundry there, no matter how attentive I was, always my best shirt, too.

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  27. I think KFC has corn on the cob and other items for folks on the rabbit diet.

    No it is not health food. Neither is a Jumbo Slice from Papa Rays or a burritto from Rokitos so what...its good stuff and in moderation won't kill ya. If you eat too much and get a fat ass just tell everyone your genetically inclined to gain weight, blame it on the dead Colonol orthe government, why not blame it on the media?

    Corporate chains are just easier targets and they couldn't care less.

    A quote from Julia Child and i'll leave it alone:

    ".....enjoy your meals"

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  28. I actually think Rokito's is relatively healthy....

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  29. Julia Child had a secret jones for Big Macs and abhorred the unappetizing stuff that passed for "health food" during her lifetime. She loved good eating wherever it could be found, in moderation.

    Funny how the big fast-food franchises have acquired a "low income/minority" image in recent years when nearly all of them got their reputations originally as a supplement to the diets of "middle class/white suburbanites" in the 50s and 60s and in fact even refused to locate in "urban" areas until fairly recently.

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