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Del Taco, as I previously stated, has a franchise agreement signed by a Georgia development company to bring eight locations to the Upstate of South Carolina. I know that they are looking at some sites in Anderson and they are probably looking at other Upstate sites as well.
Del Taco opening some years ago in Boiling Springs and then closing sometime later kind of showed what you are saying about entering into a smaller market first to see if it is a possibility.
Meanwhile, a franchise called Taco John's (https://tacojohnsfranchise.com/available-territories/) did their "largest franchise agreement in their history" for 100 locations in SC, NC, and GA. That franchise agreement, which includes multiple stores throughout the Upstate, fell through some months later. https://www.greenvilleonline.com/sto...lle/963963001/
However, the Midwestern concept has been opening and expanding in TN for a while and said that they are back to really targeting the Carolinas.
If Del Taco does well and IF Taco John's can find a franchisee for the Market,that can mean we will finally get fast food taco competitors to Taco Bell in the Upstate (which is great to have competition).
Taco Bell just sucks. The 'competition' we have is mainly Taco Casa which.. Does blow the doors off TB. Even when they had the Red (or green, whatever) Burrito in Hardee's.. THOSE were better than Taco Bell.
I watched a decent video on local restaurants the other day.. Each state's biggest local restaurant chain
I went to Del Taco when they were in Boiling Springs and to be honest it wasn't all that special or that different from Taco Bell. Certainly not what I remembered when Del Taco was in the upstate back in the 80's.
Agree on Rush's. It's OK but you can get just as good if not better food at the Clock type places around the upstate.
I always enjoy Rush's when passing through Columbia. But they plan to stay local to the Midlands. In the Upstate, I enjoy local choices such as the Clock and Pete's.
As for Roy Rogers, they did have locations in NC in the 70's and 80's in Charlotte, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Greensboro. The last location in Greensboro closed in the early 90's after converting to a Hardee's hybrid featuring Roy Rogers fried chicken and roast beef. I don't believe there were ever in Roy's in SC, but Florida had travel locations under Marriott on their turnpike, and there were also locations in Texas back in the day.
I remember Del Taco being a bit better than Taco Bell back in the day, so we shall see on the next time around.
And Rock Hill remains the last SC location for Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken, after the Spartanburg store closed about 10 years ago. Would be nice to see them back in the Upstate.
I.. Am not really a fan of Rush's.But, you'd kinda think they'd try to expand out of Columbia just a bit.
Red Burrito goes with Hardee's and Green Burrito is the same but for Carl's Jr. All the ones here in the Anderson/Clemson area seemed to have stopped doing Red Burrito and Hardee's was not big in SW Forida, where I moved here from, so I have never had those.
Never been to Rush's either but they plan to keep to the Midlands.
Another regional chain that I've talked to, that I consider may be similar to Rush's, is a chain in the Tri Cities area of TN called Pal's Sudden Service.
(This chain was actually in the video that Labonte sent above.)
I'm keeping in contact with them but they were looking into potentially expanding down to Western NC and the Upstate back in early 2021. However, they changed their mind for now and have decided to stick closer to home in the Tri-Cities and Southwest Virginia. When they prepare for those possible growth plans again in the future, I can see them probably traveling down through Erwin, TN, Weaverville, Asheville, maybe making it to to the Upstate. https://www.palsweb.com
And, yes, I feel like the look of their buildings is so interesting that I just had to attach a photo of their building on here..
(These are all corporate owned and are not franchised.)
Last edited by tim.brayden.sherman; 03-15-2022 at 09:14 PM..
Petros has expanded a little bit into North Carolina, with 2 of the 3 locations opened within the last year, along with expanding out to Arkansas through a partnership with Love's Travel Centers.
Never have had it but heard good things from friends in Knoxville.
Also, Skyline Chili would be awesome but this area is completely out of their limits. They technically have locations in Florida which I do not get. They say that they have a certain mile radius to their corporate headquarters that they don't allow stores outside of but the Florida stores are outside of that radius. In theory, even if Florida had its own distribution network, then why wouldn't South Carolina be able to hitch off of that network.
Oh well..
Petros has expanded a little bit into North Carolina, with 2 of the 3 locations opened within the last year, along with expanding out to Arkansas through a partnership with Love's Travel Centers.
Never have had it but heard good things from friends in Knoxville.
Also, Skyline Chili would be awesome but this area is completely out of their limits. They technically have locations in Florida which I do not get. They say that they have a certain mile radius to their corporate headquarters that they don't allow stores outside of but the Florida stores are outside of that radius. In theory, even if Florida had its own distribution network, then why wouldn't South Carolina be able to hitch off of that network.
Oh well..
Skyline Chili is big in Cincinnati along with Frisch's Big Boy. I would like to see both of them come to the Carolinas. But Frisch's does not have Big Boy rights past Tennessee, so it would have to be the corporate Big Boy from Michigan which also licenses Bob's Big Boy in California. I wish we cold get a Big Boy back in place of the old Shoney's.
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