Talk:Wimpy (restaurant)/Archive 1

Archive 1

Licesed Brand?

"Lyons licensed the brand for use in the United Kingdom"

Licensed what brand? I thought it was a UK restaurant — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.86.180.254 (talk) 11:40, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

Comments

The 'Bar' was dropped from the name some time ago, I don't know which year. --Cfailde 10:28, 2004 Sep 5 (UTC)

I agree but am not clued up enough to change the links.

--Jirate 02:23, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Competition from McDonalds?

In 1977 the business was acquired by United Biscuits. Wimpy was beginning to lose ground to McDonalds, who had opened their first UK restaurant in 1974

Is this actually true? I knew McDonalds had a handful of UK restaurants (mostly in London) by 1977, but I didn't think they were a serious threat to Wimpy here until at least the mid-1980s. 220.157.82.27 10:25, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

I think you're right. I've been looking through copies of The Times from the period. When United Biscuits (UB) bought Wimpy, they had a very poor image. in 1975 one of the major franchise holders, "London Eating Houses" (LEH) who owned 27 Wimpy Board and 13 other restaurants, lost a court case over health and safety when a woman found two cockroaches in here coffee, 2 months later LEH went bust. When UB bought Wimpy (along with "Golden Egg" and "Bake n'Take" restaurants) for £7million, a spokesman said "Our job will be to remove the present slightly tarnished image of Wimpy bars in the south and the company will be spending money to raise standards generally". - The Times, Thursday, Dec 09, 1976; pg. 1.

According to The Times, Monday, May 16, 1977; pg. 21; KFC had 260 sotes which they say was less than half the number of Wimpy's, and no mention of McDonalds. Jooler 11:53, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

An article from The Times, Wednesday, Nov 29, 1978; pg. 27, describes the franchising schemes of KFC and Wimpy. It mentions McDonalds, Pizza Hut and BurgerKing stating that they have a foothold in the Uk, but it says that those are only company run restaurants and not franchised outlets. Jooler 11:56, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

What about something on Mr Wimpy?

My father owns a Wimpy restaurant and has done for the last 21 years. Mr Wimpy was a character that was developed in the '60s, similar to Ronauld McDonald, however since the takeover by Famous Brands (SA) he has been (sadly) dropped. In addition to this the Megabite bunch (children's meals) characters have also been replaced by the characters that they use in the South African restaurants.

What about the 'Brown Derby' a curious product with a dubious name? 195.75.180.132 13:19, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

I revisited Wimpey for the first time in years. A proper knife and fork with crockery plates and mugs gave it a far more adult experience. I have to say it also had a superior range of burgers to McDonalds and thicker chips (fuies), I especially liked the use of brown as well as sesame white buns. Just goes to show the power of marketing might convince us to eat left-overs if it was done well enough. Dainamo (talk) 13:47, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Zimbabwe & Rhodesia

Wimpey is in Zimbabwe and the stores operated in Rhodesia during the UDI period. Persumably they were/are run by Famous Brands?? Or was there another franchise? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 57.67.164.37 (talk) 10:39, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Scandal

Wasn't there some sort of scandal regarding hygiene at Wimpy restaurants at some point in the 1970s? I have vague memories of something like this, but can't recall details. I think I remember people boycotting the establishents. Drutt (talk) 07:31, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

The Bender

The Bender was not a hamburger, it was a curved "Frankfurt" style sausage. Their burger was (is) referred to as a "Beefburger". There was (is?) also a fish sandwich called a "Shanty" presumably named after the nautical sea shanty. --MichaelGG (talk) 02:44, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

"restaurant"?

It seems to me that in general British usage fast food outlets such as Wimpys are to be described as "cafes", since they lack the greater formality of the "restaurant". Macdonalds may pretentiously (and to a UK eye ridiculously) describe their outlets as "restaurants", and in the US that may well be an appropriate usage. But I feel that the references here should be to cafes. Diomedea Exulans (talk) 18:55, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

This kind of thing is maddeningly hard to research definitely, because the English language and English culture are irregular and imprecise, and furthermore McDonald's and Burger King etc were created and became popular because they smashed tradition and introduced a whole new way of doing things, with new words and styles. In my opinion, as an English-speaking English person, a cafe, a restaurant, and a takeaway are all subtly different things, and a Wimpy is a restaurant. A cafe tends to serve tea or coffee with food as an accompaniment, whereas a restaurant sells food as well as drinks, but it's mainly there for the food. In terms of class, cafes tend to be either [[|greasy spoon|greasy spoon cafe]] or much posher affairs (McDonald's itself has rebranded some of its restaurants as McCafes in order to target the posher end of the market), whereas restaurants range from McDonald's and Wimpys to high-end Gordon Ramsey affairs. This is complicated by the fact that Wimpy traditionally has a working class, old-fashioned, pre-Beatles, black and white, greasy spoon, squeezy tomato ketchup bottle reputation in the UK. The Times' style guide seems to be silent on this matter. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 17:42, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

If it's any help, this article in The Independent from 1996 talks about "the first American restaurants" in the context of the US fast food invasion, this article from Marketing Magazine in 1999 talks about Wimpy restaurants both in terms of sit-down and counter service, this article in The Independent from 2004, on the subject of the 30th anniversary of McDonald's in the UK, consistently refers to McDonald's as a restaurant chain throughout. Coverage of McDonald's opening in The Louvre and thus conquering Paris and destroying the concept of romance from late last year tended to refer to the company's restaurants, e.g. this article in the Telegraph, this one at the BBC, and even this article in The Guardian, where they call them "restranuts". -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 17:59, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

I agree with the above, that it comes down to regional language... on an anecdotal basis: in Canada "cafes" are generally considered sort of high class coffee shops, maybe with sandwiches, biscotti, cookies, or other such light fare to supplement the coffee beverages. Restaurants are more food based. In fact, here, McDonald's rebranding sections of their restaurants as "McCafe's" was considered the pretentious move, not vice versa. 99.254.190.128 (talk) 23:31, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Believe me, there are many Americans, including myself, who fail to see McDonald's as a "restaurant", or the smaller outlets as "cafes". Within the fast-food trade the "units"

are referred to as "stores", as in "annual sales per store" (recently USD 2.4 million in the U.S.!) which is really more like it since it is so hard to see them as either "restaurants" or "cafes". 75.216.218.225 (talk) 00:46, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

Canada

Does Wimpy have any relation to "Wimpy's Diner" in Canada? I'm almost certain they're based on the same cartoon character but I'm woefully uninformed about the history of Wimpy's Diner vs. "Wimpy". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.254.190.128 (talk) 23:26, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

USA

There were Wimpy's in the USA, why isn't this mentioned at all?

98.212.229.107 (talk) 07:44, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I remember when I was a kid back in the early 60's eating at the Wimpy's at Randolph and Wabash in Chicago, IL.--Marjaliisa (talk) 08:53, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

I say, if you are sure, add it to the other countries. I have just added Sweden, they had an outlet in central Stockholm for a short while (A few years). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Seniorsag (talk • contribs) 13:56, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

Beefeaters

The article says that the Mr Wimpy character is based on the Beefeater's red dress uniform, but it isn't, as far as I am aware beefeaters have never had a red dress uniform, they wear black with a red trim. The character is most likely based on the Yeoman of the Guard, which are often incorrectly referred to as beefeaters. (BigTurnip (talk) 09:51, 5 December 2011 (UTC))

France

Pretty sure that I remember eating at a Wimpy's near the Gare du Nord in Paris in April, 1973, and being underwhelmed. Weren't they in France for a while? 75.216.218.225 (talk) 00:49, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

Added - Wimpy was in France between 1961 and 1969. 1973 is surprising, maybe your memory is wrong, or maybe there was a survivor in Gare du Nord. I remember the Wimpy restaurant in Lille - quite a shock for a young French boy like I was then. Note that Jacques Borel has never been considered a reference for food, even as an industry, not even thinking of cuisine. He is the model for Tricatel in the film L'aile ou la cuisse.194.119.85.99 (talk) 16:27, 7 August 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.119.85.99 (talk) 16:21, 7 August 2013 (UTC)