This story appears in the
July 2000 issue of
Entrepreneur.
Subscribe »
With all the millennial buzz about the future, it's nice to
know one franchise is blasting to the past. For more than 80 years,
A&W restaurants have been serving their root beer, and now
franchisees are getting on the nostalgia bandwagon and watching
their profits soar.
One of A&W's newest owners is Sean Ryan, who operates
two units in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Ryan, 29, opened his first unit
in October 1999 out of a Shell convenience store. Sales were so
phenomenal, he decided to open his second store in April 2000.
"The A&W brand is representative in the consumer's
mind of those times they miss," says Ryan.
A&W's design department has gone so far as to coin the
phrase "contemporized nostalgia" when referring to their
unique dining experience. "The funny thing is some of the
colors, images, icons and the brand logo are all the same as they
were years ago. But in terms of design and cleanliness, it's a
modernized version," Ryan says.
With start-up costs of $200,000 to $250,000, Ryan says he's
generating sales of $2,000 to $3,000 a day, even during the slow
winter months. Jukeboxes and old-fashioned booths aside, what
A&W is capitalizing on is the memory of a much simpler time.
"The big thing that our customers have always enjoyed and
expected is the ice cold root beer in that famous frosted glass
mug," Ryan says. "That there is the essence of
A&W.
Contact Source
