I feel Auntie Anne’s pretzels has a strong enough brand and good enough food to be a restaurant outside of malls. I dont wanna go through a mall or an airport just to eat at Auntie Anne’s.
Why do you guys think this is going on?
Would you go to Auntie Anne’s if they made stand alone stores?
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There’s a bunch in Walmarts in the US too.
Would people really go to a stand-alone store to buy pretzels?
I assume they are succeeding just fine with their current business model and don’t see the risk of changing it to be worth it
My theory is that they just don’t get enough business to justify the expense of a standalone restaurant location where they have way more competition. What they sell is really handy for where they are primarily located.
they rely on lots of people around to impulse buy their product.
personally, rather than that, I’d rather have a full pretzel shop that also does bread and sandwiches (like my local pretzel shop).
Auntie Anne’s only offers a snack item, not full meals, which is why you don’t see stand alone stores. The link below discusses this point and discusses how locations outside the mall exist, but are paired with other brands like Jamba Juice, Cinnabon, and Carvel
https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/operations/auntie-annes-finally-gives-us-drive-thru-pretzels
You’re going to have to ask Auntie Anne, I guess.
For one, they’re franchised so they’re all individual businesses, probably with some exclusivity contracted.
That means that corporate isn’t going to run around closing locations; if the franchisee still makes money, bully for him.
For two, I think you’re overestimating the average American’s willingness to stop and buy a pretzel at a place that only sells pretzels, especially when he can’t smell them.
I would imagine they’d do reasonably well in any pedestrian-oriented area. The two examples you give qualify.
They do have some in “town center” areas and pedestrian oriented communities.
I love auntie Anne’s. Get it almost everytime I’m in the airport.
I’d be dead before i went into a standalone restaurant. They doing just fine
There’s an Auntie Annie’s attached to my grocery store
Auntie Anne’s thrives on impulse buys. People smell the pretzels and grab one because they’re already there. A standalone store would require people to actively seek it out, which is a much bigger hurdle. Unlike fast food chains, it’s a niche snack brand, not a meal destination.
For it to work, they’d need to expand the menu beyond just pretzels, similar to how Krispy Kreme had to adapt after overestimating demand for standalone stores. Unless that happens, they’re better off sticking to malls and airports where foot traffic does the work for them
When you only need 150 sq ft for operations, why would you pay for a whole building
No one goes to the mall for a pretzel but they’ll get a pretzel at the mall.
The cost per sq. foot of renting space for a low priced product (and a smaller product line in total) probably doesn’t math out well for it to happen.
Create a frozen pretzel kit you make at home and I will literally eat nothing else.
What they stand to lose is greater than what they stand to gain. Pretzels are more of a thing that you stumble across than they are something you venture out to get.
How many pretzel shops have you ever seen on their own? Probably not many, because they thrive on foot traffic
If I could go through a drive through to get them I would. I will not go to the mall for them. There’s one thing a year at the mall I want and my saint of a husband goes for me.
Does my local Walmart count?
I just wish there was a place where I could buy a giant soft gluten free pretzel. I wouldn’t trust a place like Auntie Anne’s though as cross contamination would be a nightmare. Give me giant soft pretzels – someone, please!
At my local mall, they are so busy, they have two shops within view of each other. I think they’re doing ok. There’s another mall nearby with one Auntie Anne’s and a Wetzel pretzels. You can guess which one is dead.
Low overhead, built in customer base, and it costs almost nothing to close out a location should they need to do so.
Physical spaces, either free standing or in a strip mall, are way more expensive.
Auntie Annes is also an impulse purchase. People aren’t going to go out of their way to get one. Its something you get when you’re already out and about.
I’ve seen their mobile trucks on college campuses to sell to students
They do. They just built a stand alone Aunt Annies/Cinnabon on my road in San Antonio.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/vDc1B1a5sdeQhm4X9?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy
Because it’s not a proper restaurant. You won’t find these places on their own unless they’re willing to expand their menu
They just need to go into quick trips!
They started out in a farmer’s market, Anne offered to pay for months in advance just for a chance to be in a mall the mall manager was not too willing to open a pretzel place, he later became a franchise owner. They also turned down the exhaust vents to get the smell out into the mall. Now that they are a well-established name yes, a stand alone would be great but they have a winning business model going. It might work but having thousands of people walking by one in a mall with that smell and impulse buyers out there why take the chance. They were recently featured on the history channels The food that built America.
A Lowes Home Improvement near me briefly has an Auntie Anne’s
Specialty foods that aren’t considered meals are a high risk venture as standalones. Pretzels are activity foods. You enjoy them while you’re doing something else like shopping or watching sports. At least in American culture.
They put a counter in at a gas station near me and I don’t think it lasted even 2 months.
Its a “snack” I wouldn’t really stop by to buy a snack. They would have to get burgers or something as the “meal” and the pretzels would be an additional.
Could see it as a combo place, like those tacobell KFC type places.
I’m still waiting for them to bring back their garlic Parmesan pretzel. Until they do that, they are not ready for standalone restaurants.
airports and malls have thousands of people passing by everyday. stand alone locations might only see a tenth or less
Beaver tails is doing this in Canada. Not sure how it’s doing. Though it’s been in a plaza for a year where I am, so that’s has to mean good,right?
Aunt Annie’s offers snack foods and takes up basically a kiosk of space. It’s very hard to find areas like that where landlords will rent out.
They essentially are profitable because they’re rent is nonexistent
Something I don’t see mentioned here already is that the smell of fresh baked pretzels can be contained and targeted from a mall booth but not from a standalone store. You don’t typically go to the mall to buy a pretzel, you smell pretzels and decide you want that smell in your mouth. The smell of the shop is a REALLY effective ad.
There’s a stand-alone Auntie-Anne’s in Little Elm, Texas (a suburb of Dallas).
there’s one in our meijer now, it’s nice.
I’d love to know how a question like this gets in someone’s head…
We have a standalone Auntie Ann’s/Jamba Juice nearby. I guess that’s technically not entirely standalone since it’s a combination business, but it’s not inside a food court. Seems to be pretty popular.
I’ve never once been sitting at home and thought, hmmmm, lemme go drive and grab a pretzel. Sitting at the mall or the airport, on the other hand…
It’s be different if they served meals. People drive for meals.
There’s an Auntie Anne’s Jamba Juice in the middle of a grass field across from Costco near my in-laws house.
Research I imagine