Jon Hein Weighs in on Burger King’s Closure of 400 U.S. Restaurants

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Looks like Jon Hein had it his way.

On Wednesday, the Stern Show staffer and fast-food expert, who for years has been critical of Burger King, spoke about the chain’s recent announcement that they’d be closing 400 locations. “It didn’t surprise me at all,” he told Howard matter-of-factly. “The quality control just isn’t there — I’ve always said that, and now they’re paying the price.”

When asked to elaborate, Hein blamed things on both the corporate and employee levels. “I think a lot of times there isn’t enough corporate saying, ‘This is what you need to do, this is how you do it,’ and I also think some of the menu items and other things they offer just don’t appeal to a lot of people out there,” the “Fast Food Maniac” author theorized. “Like, there’s no good reason to go to Burger King versus these other places, and then when you go in there, a lot of times people will have bad experiences and it carries over.”

Jon was also critical of some of the chain’s promotions, like the new “Spider-Man” Whopper. “Who the hell wants to eat a red burger? That sounds disgusting to me,” he complained. “It’s super gimmicky … if they just put a Whopper out there, people would respond to that. But they don’t. They try so damn hard, and it comes up empty.”

That’s not to say the staffer deems the burger slingers hopeless. “They have such a great brand name that they can turn it around,” he admitted. “They’ve got to do what Wendy’s did – you’ve got to improve your products. You’ve got to simplify the menu … just do a better job cleaning up in-house. And they could do this, but for years and years they’ve ignored it and now they’re paying the unfortunate price.”