xtr... as far as low fat alternative... I love me some sorbet. It has zero fat, and the whole fruit brand at the store, while pricey, is REALLY great quality. the lemon, Mango, and black cherry flavors are my favorite.

Five Guys gets a lot of hype as the best burger, the burger that will change your life, and the burger that will make you die happy, but it isn't quite as good as the hype. Maybe it is the fries that turn me off. They do not drain the oil off the fries properly, so they hand you a paper bag of fries and eventually the drip stains start soaking through the bag.

Fuddruckers I found disturbing the one time I ate in one. The burgers are too big. I just don't know what the upside to a 2 lb burger is.

Roy Rogers is better than Arbys but still turns me cold. I just found the fried chicken not as good as Popeyes, their burgers not as tasty as Wendys and their roast beef just eh. Arbys is gross though.

My biggest peeve is salespeople who attack you the moment you walk into a store with "Can I help you" and you tell them no and 20 seconds later another one comes, and then soon the original is back asking. Just leave me alone!

Apparently this is not unpopular, but I have never been a fan of JCPenney's dramatic overhaul. I thought the executives were trying to push too many changes all at once. In addition, Penney's new logo absolutely sucks.

Although it is way too early to render a verdict, so far the marketing campaign has been a disaster:

From Yahoo Finance:

“J.C. Penney (JCP) shares tumbled Wednesday after the retailer reported a much wider-than-expected first-quarter loss, suspended its dividend and saw weakness across all core metrics.

In an apparent rebuke to new CEO Ron Johnson’s strategy to change the company’s focus from discounts to everyday low prices, total sales fell 20% while same-store sales declined 19% and gross margins fell to 37.6% from 40.5% as foot traffic in the stores dropped 10%.

“Our marketing isn’t doing the work,” Johnson said in a conference call. “We’ve got to get our pricing across. Coupons were a drug, they really drove traffic. [Customers] need to understand the value we’re offering.”

But it’s Johnson, not J.C. Penney’s customers, who has a problem understanding what the retailer needs, says Howard Davidowitz, a veteran retail banker and CEO of Davidowitz & Associates.

“He’s caused incalculable damage,” Davidowitz says of Johnson, who joined J.C. Penney last year after running Apple’s (AAPL) retail operations. “The customers are everything. They don’t know what the hell he’s doing.”

In a nutshell, Johnson wanted to wean customers off one-time discounts — notably coupons — and get them to look at J.C. Penney as a place for everyday low prices. (See: J.C. Penney CEO: We Can Become America’s Favorite Store)

But that’s “a very tricky thing to get customers to believe,” Davidowitz says. “What is a ‘fair’ price? Who’s to determine it?”

Using Target’s (TGT) multi-year rollout of groceries as an example, Davidowitz says “experiments” are good in retail but need to be done on a test basis and introduced slowly to get customers comfortable with a new concept.

“J.C. Penney didn’t need a revolution, it needed an evolution,” he says. “You can’t take an old line company that’s been operating the same way a very long time and throw everything out the window and say ‘now we’ve reinvented the company.’”

Davidowitz does have a flair for the dramatic, as you can see in the accompanying video. But he was also one of the few who didn’t buy into the hype last year when Johnson was named J.C. Penney’s CEO, as you can see here.

After calling J.C. Penney shares a short last June, Davidowitz remains glum about the company’s prospects following its dismal quarter, predicting the company will now slash inventories — limiting customer choice — cut staff and eliminate all promotions.

In other words, Davidowitz says J.C. Penney is going down the same path as Sears Holdings (SHLD), another retailer that has fallen on hard times. As with Eddie Lampert at Sears, J.C. Penney has come under the influence of financial heavyweights, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and Vornado Realty Trust’s Steven Roth.

Lampert, Ackman and Roth are all incredibly accomplished investors and brilliant by all accounts. But the early returns at J.C. Penney suggest once again that being a great investor does not necessarily make for a great retailer.

I am not an Ellen fan, but the sad thing is that I have seen some blame her for Penney's failures. (The factors I mentioned above, and not homophobia, are why the retailer is struggling.) If only one of these 2 stores could make a comeback, I'd rather see Sears do it (over Penney's), since they sell a much broader array of merchandise.

While both Sears and Penney's are in dire straights, 2 other department stores have made a comeback. Boscov's was at death's door in 2008 as a result of opening ten new locations (which was too great a number for the small chain to handle at a single time). The beloved chain closed most of these stores, and fell into bankruptcy. It was saved only because the founder's son, Albert Boscov, came out of retirement and invested his own money into the company. Now, Boscov's has reopened one of those closed stores (the location at Monmouth (NJ) Mall), and will be opening two additional locations as well (a store at Woodbridge (NJ) Center and a re-opening of the White Marsh (MD) Mall store).

Lord & Taylor was the other traditional department store to make a comeback. The chain was once known for being very trendy and upscale, but had lost much of its glory during the 90s. After Federated Department Stores (now known as Macy's, Inc.) sold the chain in 2006, almost everybody left it for dead. Yet, new management has been able to restore much of its former cachet and Lord & Taylor is in expansion mode.

Edited May 19, 201213 yr by Max

I disagree with you about Sears. They are dying for a reason. I swore off Sears after I bought a washer machine and they canceled delivering it twice only to then finanlly admit that they didn't actually have it in stock and had to order it.

I have one -- I hate eating at chains. I would much rather sample the local cuisine. I was in Harlem last week on business and my co-workers said they wanted to eat lunch at Subway. I was like, seriously? We're in Harlem -- we could have Hispanic food, Indian, soul food, pizza, or sandwiches that are better than Subway. You coulda had Subway at home... I rarely eat out, and if I'm going to eat out I want to try something new, not something familiar.

Boscovs paid for the Imax theater in Reading so that their was finally a theater downtown. He needs to refund the Fairground mall next because I believe the Boscovs at that mall is the headquarters. And with the lack of stores left their and the JCPenny outlet store slowly closing down that mall will be barren soon.

Krystal burgers are a thousand times better than White Castle.

Krispy Creme will always be the best doughnut, hands down.

I don't like to eat the food at Sonic, but I love love love their diet cherry limeade.

Firehouse Subs > Subway or Blimpies

When I was pregnant with my kids (over 20 years ago) Target had an excellent selection of clothes for me to buy...but it's been YEARS since I found anything there I like. I have bought electronics there (they had a great buy on my Kodak camera when I purchased it). But for clothing, shoes, etc. they suck.

I'd give anythihng if we had a Boscov's near where I live. But I survive by shopping at Kohls.

Edited May 21, 201213 yr by Becki

I've never heard of Krystal Burgers.

I think Krispy Creme is the best national chain for donuts, but I've had local chain donuts that were even better.

Target used to be the place to shop for clothes. My mother would buy all our clothes there when we were little. I can never find any nice clothes there now.

I think Krystal is just in the south. In fact, I live in NC and the closest one to me is 5 hours away!!

I have heard great things about a place in Portland called Voodoo Donuts. They actually ate them in an episode of Leverage last season (the show tapes in Portland). They have all kinds of strange ones....including some with Froot Loops and Captain Crunch on them on the top of them

Edited May 22, 201213 yr by Becki