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FOOD FEUD

Papa John's and Applebee's Get Less Popular After Anti-Obamacare Comments

Chain restaurants see dramatic decline in public opinion

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

Image: BrandIndex.com

Papa John's, Applebee's, and Denny's have all taken a serious public-relations hit after CEOs launched high-profile campaigns to pass on Obamacare's costs to their employees or customers.

The restaurants' reputation with "casual diners" was polled by YouGov BrandIndex, who asked diners, "if you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?"

Papa John's peaked in the public's opinion on Nov 6th, and dropped sharply after November 10th, when CEO John Schnatter announced that he planned cut workers' hours to pay for Obamacare. Applebee's reputation similarly tanked after Zane Tankel, the CEO of Applebee's franchisee Apple-Metro, talked about cutting back on workers to cover Obamacare. Denny's didn't fare quite so badly, perhaps because CEO John Miller apologized a few days after franchisee John Metz announced his Obamacare-related attrition plans.

Of course, what we have here is just a correlation. We don't know that the restaurants are seeing this decline in because of the public anti-Obamacare statements made by their CEOs. But the timing is suggestive.

Via Matthew Yglesias at Slate and BrandIndex.com.
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Was your opinion of Papa John's or Applebee's affected by the CEO's anti-Obamacare stance?

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Comments (view in Forum)

  • PNWest
    !
    The right needs to back these guys up. Papa John's stock dropped by $140M after he spoke out against Obamacare. Those on the right need to support right wing companies. Eat more Papa Johns, go to Denny's and Chik-Fil-A. Stuff your face! The tobacco companies are under fire too - so smoke more cigarettes. The liberals want to raise taxes on alcohol and bullets. So drink a couple of six packs then get out your guns and practice around the house. And don't get me started on motorcycle helmets. Drink some more beer and go out without a helmet. That will fix them liberals!
  • martydotcom
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    @PNWest Give a whole new meaning to elections have consequences and stupid CEOs can be costly.@CanisCanemEdit
    You know little of marketing in the restaurant biz. Millions in advertising, coupons etc are spent to acquire a customer. Once a customer is lost it's very difficult to reacquire loyalty. Each advertising effort reminds the customer why they left the brand.
    Stupid self inflicted errors by ego driven CEO"s are a luxury no biz can afford
  • CanisCanemEdit
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    @martydotcom - Perhaps. But I know enough about people in general to know that only the bitter, hard core, pro-whatever agenda folks will still be talking about crap like this in a few months.

    Remember that Clinton enacted DADT and is still the darling of the democrats....and that Obama was in support of MW marriage up until he needed the democrats Gay vote.
  • martydotcom
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    @CanisCanemEdit Self inflicted lost revenue flow + additional $'s spent on advertising = lowered profits. Business # 101
  • View all 48 replies >
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
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    Their sales might go up. I wish they had of been more vocal before obama rammed that unholy legislation through the Senate and Congress.
  • MarkJM
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    I agree, but opinions can sway both ways, just look at Chick-Fil-A. Many thought that company would go belly up as a results of the anti-gay marriage comments, they actually got a huge boost in profits for it instead....As for Papa Johns and Applebee's, they'll bounce back. The public has a tendency to forget such comments over time. I also attribute these factors not due to the comments made, but due to our economy. People are spending less on food and eating out because they're either Christmas Shopping or preparing for the impending fiscal cliff that is bound to hit come January 1st (or both).
  • stepped_in_it
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    Opinions are like butt holes......everyone has one and they all stink! With that said, HONEST opinions are the exception. If anybody thinks that a company, any company will "eat" the costs of any "forced" government mandate needs to pull their head "out of the sand" before they suffocate! The only difference between these companies and the "silent" companies is that these were HONEST in their opinions/actions! So, with that all said, their "lack of popularity" is because of the new liberal disease.....called HEAD IN THE SAND syndrome! This syndrome is easy to spot. Just look for heads in the sand and butt holes up in the air....(came full circle, didn't I?) LOL
  • View all 7 replies >
  • MBernard
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    Haha, pay back, I guess they never heard of that saying about watching your tongues and think and calculate and ponder a thought before you speak it bc it could make or destroy the world. These guys took spoken words lightly and now they must shrivel under its wrath.
  • NormalFlora
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    Since the "added cost" of employee healthcare would be about 17 cents per pizza, and John Schnatter lives an a mansion nicknamed "the Castle," did he REALLY need to make a fool of himself by whining about this? Self inflicted wound, Papa John!!!
  • stepped_in_it
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    Sorry, don't really believe that .17 cent cost. Math doesn't support it. Their are 620 Papa John's OWNED pizza places (the rest are franchised and NOT owned by Papa John). If avg. employee per store is 10 people, that's 6200 employees. 6200 people X $350 monthly cost of health care is 2.17 million/month. At .17 cents per pizza, these 620 stores would have to sell 12.8 million pizzas per month! That is 686 pizza a day per store. The math doesn't support that "cost".
    Math formula: 620 X 10 X 350 /.17 / 620 / 30 (please correct me if I'm wrong)
    Link to Papa john's franchise website
    http://franchisewisdom.com/papa-johns-pizza-r...
  • NormalFlora
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    @stepped_in_it Where do you get the figure of $350 per month for an insurance plan for 18-25 year olds? Why do you conclude that the employer would foot the entire cost? The employer need only PROVIDE a health care plan, NOT completely fund it! This is more realistic:$75 per month from insurance exchange, cost share to Papa Johns of $38 per employee or $380 per franchise per month. Sell 1000 pies a month and it comes to a whopping 38 cents per pie. In busier franchises that sell 2000 pies per month that's around 17 cents per pie.
  • stepped_in_it
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    @NormalFlora Did NOT conclude employer would foot the entire bill.$350 came from a rough guess knowing that today's health insurance cost approx. 400-500 monthly. Also, since I was recently laid off from a closing mfg. plant that subsidized our insurance premium for 3 months, they told us the costs before and after the subsidized costs. Since I "pulled out" (of my butt) the $350, where did you "pull out" the $75 monthly (it's said a web link answers all questions). By the way, today MOST people pay more than $75 a month when their company offers/subsidizes an insurance plan (for single use only). Also, why only 18-25 years old? Did all the 26+ years old die and I'm the oldest man in the world?
    Will be waiting for your reply WITH that web link.....otherwise!
  • stepped_in_it
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    @NormalFlora well, I paid more than $75 a month for the last health coverage I had through a notable company. Seems most (that I know of) also pay more than that $75 monthly. I paid $24 weekly for single. That notable company claimed the actually premium was $340 monthly. Maybe they lied. But other companies I worked for charged about the same.
    I sure hope 'ole Obamacare isn't "providing" insurance that most could not use because the "ceiling" of coverage is too low for a splinter removal and the deductible is so high that you wouldn't want to use it unless it was an emergency (which I hear is already covered by an ER visit). Wouldn't know about that ER visit, as I have not been in an ER since childhood....about 45 years!
  • Petergriffin
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    Im still going to eat at all these places, you cant force something like this on companies and expect them to go in the negatives without trying something like passing the costs on first.
  • MarkJM
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    Couple of factors I believe are conveniently left out here. First, people aren't ordering out or eating out as much due to Christmas shopping expenses and whatnot. Second, some actually have the sense to prepare for that impending fiscal cliff. I'll bet later on this month or early next year, people will be more inclined to do business with these guys and those comments will be long forgotten by the public. Besides, I still prefer Papa Johns to say Pizza Hut or Dominos any day of the week.
  • stepped_in_it
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    As for your synopsis....wrong! Worked in retail grocery for 12 years. During Thanksgiving to Christmas the retail food business is down due to the fact that (with Christmas shopping) people don't have the time. They eat out MORE during that time period! As for "having sense to prepare".....yeah right! People would stand on a RR track and stare at the pretty light of a freight train heading toward them and NOT have the sense to get off the track!
  • MarkJM
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    @stepped_in_it You must have one lazy family then. My family cooked dinner, and eating out was considered to be a rare treat, especially during the once in a blue moon occasion that eating out would happen during the holidays.
  • stepped_in_it
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    @MarkJM Guess you can't comprehend my statement well. Nothing said about family there! Statement was made after EXPERIENCE in the retail food industry and why business was down during that time period! Management gets to figure out that kind of stuff 'cause we get to answer why business is down!
    As for my family and fast food, Mom and Dad treated us about once every 4-6 WEEKS to a hamburger/fries and it wasn't McDonald's! A place called Olympic burgers. Could smell the charbroiled burgers from 1/2 a mile and they were as big as a pie-plate. Fries were home made too! Cost was .99 cents for BOTH!(which was big money for us) But that was in the early '60's so maybe you don't remember those times!
  • MarkJM
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    @stepped_in_it Well then I guess we have two separate opinions but have somewhat the same background growing up. We also did the local joints growing up. No Micky D's or BK for us either...
  • View all 7 replies >
  • u
    FLBeaver
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    According to the article "Papa John’s Buzz score high point for the month came on Election Day – November 6th – with a score of 32. Eight days later, the score had dropped 10 points down to 22, when the spam text lawsuit was unveiled. A few days later, Papa John’s dropped below Pizza Hut’s score and is presently at 4."

    If Papa John's score is just below that of Pizza Hut, what did Pizza Hut say regarding ObamaCare? If they didn't say anything then the "Buzz score" has nothing to do with the firms comments about the health care act, it just represents their being talked about.
  • bsking
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    I must be missing something , this article does'nt say anything about them losing business or declining sales... this article claims that people who took a government poll ( presumably of people who frequent the government website mentioned in the poll) had these adverse reactions at the mention of these businesses.
  • puppybrownie
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    I have a higher opinion of them now, and applaud them for having the courage to speak out. And who care about the "public opinion" of people who never would spend a dime there anyway?
  • u
    AceLuby
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    Applebees has literally 2 things on the menu that are edible and Papa Johns is the worst out of the big pizzas, but I don't choose to support any of them. Millionaires crying about taxes.... call me when that's news, they've been doing that forever.
  • Kptpredsfan
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    I agree with what others have said that many will forget this in a month or two, but how shocked can they be that they lost sales. This is something that was established by a democratically elected government, therefore it took a MAJORITY for it to be passed. A MAJORITY that was elected by the same pizza eating customers of papa johns.
  • Mbjhug
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    The threats fell on deaf ears. Rather, the ears weren't deaf, but filled with such conviction that it back fired. No one is buying your sympathy.
  • Thegrif
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    Nope not at all, and it may have caused a few customers to go a stray, but I would think the economy falling like a rock, people losing jobs, had more to do with their slump than the response to Obamacare did.
    Even McDonalds showed their first year ever not making a profit, and they didnt say anything about Obamacare.
  • u
    KyleMFb
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    It's stupid theses CEOs give away billions in promotional items every year but all of a sudden OMG they have to provide health insurance but it's only going to cost 5 to 10 cents an employee but theyll just make it an even 50 to stick it to the man
  • o
    Big-R
    !
    It is their business, they can make the press releases they want to. If they feel they need to increase prices, or lower hours, that's their decision. And as the buying public, if you don't like it, don't buy it.
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