WTF: John Chayka, Wendy's Franchisee

[Edenjung]

I like Wendy's, but never had the chili. Hard to eat with one hand while I drive.

Ha, i do that and i have manual shifting
Nothing better than a home-made sandwich on the road.

 

[MIGs Dog]

Ha, i do that and i have manual shifting
Nothing better than a home-made sandwich on the road.

Chili sandwich? Never heard of it.

 

[Jakey53]

I think most of us knew, but Chayka came across like he is more involved than some think he should.[/QU

Wendy's is definitely the best of the national drive through burger places. There are regional drive throughs that are better. There are places without drive throughs that are better. But of the big drive through fast food places, Wendy's is definitely the best. I can't think of anything that comes close.

No one mentioned "national" or "drive thru". Bux said "all fast food burger places. Anyway, in my opinion, I would put Sonic, Whataburger, Five Guys, Shake Shake, Smash Burger and there are probably more that I can't think of off the top of my head who would be called national chains that are better. I guess "fast" might eliminate Shake Shake and Smash Burger, but the other three I mentioned I think are better. Wendy's salads are very good though. Now if you compare Wendy's to the Burger Kings, McD's, Jack in the Box of the worlds, then I would agree, Wendy's has an edge.

 

[Jakey53]

Flipping Players and Flipping Burgers - The John Chayka Unauthorized Biography.

Now, that is funny.

 

[Edenjung]

Chili sandwich? Never heard of it.

You take left-over chili and put it in a sandwich.
Easy and tasty.

 

[Summer Rose]

You take left-over chili and put it in a sandwich.
Easy and tasty.

That sounds like my idea to help out baseball pitchers, but I keep getting rejected by MLB clubs.

Hot ice.

You take ice cubes... and you heat them up. Great idea, no?

 

[Edenjung]

That sounds like my idea to help out baseball pitchers, but I keep getting rejected by MLB clubs.

Hot ice.

You take ice cubes... and you heat them up. Great idea, no?

Chili is awesome for everything.
Most of the time i make it on fridays and have stuff still in the fridge on Sunday morning. So i put some on my scrambled eggs

But chili sandwiches are not so good to drive, what i meant where like some bread with cheese, salami or some other basic stuff.
I really like that, especially when my mother buys some of that german country-bread when i am home.
Just an awesome bread ;D

 

[cobra427]

What does that have to do with being qualified or not? Franchisor's of Wendy's size close and open stores all the time, most closing have nothing to do with the qualifications of a franchisee. If you are an astute business man you delicate your work load. I hope you don't think the Chayka's are in their stores flipping burgers everyday.

Owning and running 12 Wendy's and opening more stores is a lot for anyone to handle, anyone ever involved with the fast food business/franchising could tell you that. My experience tells me, I don't want my 28 year old inexperienced GM distracted. That is a big operation for a 25 year old to handle on her own, I know her mom has experience though, so thats good.

Bottom line for me, if I were the owner, I wouldn't be ok with this because it will be a distraction away from hockey.

 

[Dirty Old Man]

Looks fine - if only his hand were holding a hockey stick like Dave Thomas and his spatula.

Or, if his hand was holding a hockey stick like Dave Thomas, full stop.

 

[_Del_]

Right. We should fire everyone who has any sort of outside interests. Does Chayka ever sleep? Go to the movies with his wife? Jog? Fly kites? Golf? Do his own yard maintenance?

No wonder he isn't doing great. We should replace him with someone else who actually lives in the office. Can't have all these distractions. And we can charge him rent for the office space and make a little much needed money. The only thing he should be allowed to do off the clock is hang out at Smitty's house and ride motorcycles like our last GM.

 

[SniperHF]

It fits - Wendy's never cuts corners, and neither does Chayka.

Your avatar looks like one of those old timey campaign buttons

 

[BlazingBlueAnt]

Owning and running 12 Wendy's and opening more stores is a lot for anyone to handle, anyone ever involved with the fast food business/franchising could tell you that. My experience tells me, I don't want my 28 year old inexperienced GM distracted. That is a big operation for a 25 year old to handle on her own, I know her mom has experience though, so thats good.

Bottom line for me, if I were the owner, I wouldn't be ok with this because it will be a distraction away from hockey.

At 25 she could very well be approaching a decade in the workforce, just because it took you 40 years of work experience to learn to operate in the world doesn't mean it takes everyone that long

 

[Coyotes2000]

Wendys is great. This is all I have to say on the subject

 

[Bonsai Tree]

As long as we are on the topic, a couple of Wendy's stands in Gorilla Arena (I tend to garble "Gila River") would do very, very well.

 

[awfulwaffle]

The reaction by some people I assume is just jealousy of his success.

 

[BUX7PHX]

Your avatar looks like one of those old timey campaign buttons

Maybe replace Nixon's picture with Panik's on this gem from 1968:

 

[Grimes]

Spicy chicken sandwhich FTW!

 

[lanky]

The reaction by some people I assume is just jealousy of his success.

His success will be measured in playoff wins.

 

[rt]

Spicy chicken sandwhich FTW!

Yeah, man. The #6 is an icon.

Anyone here listen to the Dough Boys podcast? It's great. It's a couple of comedy writers in LA who have worked on projects you would know, but not huge stuff (The Simpsons, Comedy Central shows, Comedy Bang Bang, stuff like that). Anyway, they're LA guys who like a wide range of food, but aren't food snobs. The Dough Boys podcast is them earnestly reviewing chain restaurants each week. Not making fun of them but actually assessing them. Obviously it's funny because they're comedy writers. They bring their comedian friends on as guests each week, too. Good show.

 

[YOW]

maybe she has a life outside of her husbands job....it's not the 1950's people. Get a life.....people can be successful separately....it happens. I welcome all the incoming mansplaining....see above.

 

[Prarievarg]

Maybe replace Nixon's picture with Panik's on this gem from 1968:

Those would be great for a playoff series against the bruins

 

[Bondurant]

A 25 year old is not likely qualified to captain a 12 franchise business and a 28 year old unqualified hockey GM doesn't need distractions or other business interests. I want my GM 100% focused on hockey, this is a distraction. Experienced 50 year old business people can't multi task well, Chayka isn't a genius. I would bring in a new GM asap.

Don't assume all 25 year olds cannot be successful and responsible because you could not.

 

[awfulwaffle]

His success will be measured in playoff wins.

He's been GM for just barely over 3 years. A huge problem with sports teams is they dont give their appointees a chance to succeed. It's a win now mentality. I honestly don't think he's done a bad job. Last year sucked, but this year was better, and with Raanta coming back, and everyone else, if we can stay healthy I expect good things next year. He's not continually making terrible decisions that put us back, like another GM here in AZ, that it brings in an expected to lose mentality.

 

[BUX7PHX]

He's been GM for just barely over 3 years. A huge problem with sports teams is they dont give their appointees a chance to succeed. It's a win now mentality. I honestly don't think he's done a bad job. Last year sucked, but this year was better, and with Raanta coming back, and everyone else, if we can stay healthy I expect good things next year. He's not continually making terrible decisions that put us back, like another GM here in AZ, that it brings in an expected to lose mentality.

I didn't think the decision-making process by former GMs was necessarily all terrible decisions. But I think that there is a cap to how much success one can have on the free agency market.

When only being able to add the "cost-effective" options and one can only add 3 or 4 players in a year, it really shows why drafting and holding on to some young talent to see where they develop becomes that big piece of the puzzle that we were missing. When we hit on free agent signings (Ray Whitney, Mike Smith's first deal), you can see some success without having players in the pipeline. When those free agent signings don't hit and you don't have a lot of organizational depth, that is when it becomes magnified further.

I think Chayka's major concern was just how imbalanced we were when he first came aboard - 80-90% was dependent on the signings and 10-20% on the draft. We've seen that probably shape into 60-75% signings and 25-40% drafting, which is a much better place to be in and we are sticking our toes in the water for players that we would have immediately passed on in previous iterations (JVR, as an example).

 

[BigMac1212]

Does that mean Wendy's will be popping up at Gila River Arena?