re: #271 Belafon

I find it interesting that both Whataburger, and Taco Bueno, which are well loved here in Texas, aren’t trying to grow super fast. They have places throughout the country (they’ve both spread across the south and up toward the north east) but they haven’t pushed to get everywhere as fast as they can.

Overexpansion is the kiss of death. We had a fish ‘n’ chips chain here in WA (mostly) that was just head and shoulders above all their competitors. (Never-frozen, Puget Sound fish, etc.) Then they decided to expand all over the U.S. west of the Mississippi. Of course, the quality went to hell, they immediately tanked, and they slowly went out of business even here. (A couple of owner-operated stores held on for a while.)

You can still get their tartar sauce and clam chowder in stores, and now I see on Yelp that they’re trying a comeback as takeout kiosks in a few AM/PM Mini-Marts, but I haven’t tried them for fear of being disappointed.