Drive-in killed by Culvers

[Badluck Brody]

There's a sharp little drive in on my way to work, that has probably been in business since before I was born...

They just opened a Culvers less than fifty yards away from it and the doors to the drive in closed...

That just ain't right... That ma & pa shop fought McD's and cousins for years. But that Culvers was just the end.


Brody

 

[Dismuke]

They just opened a Culvers less than fifty yards away from it and the doors to the drive in closed...

Brody

What is Culvers? Is it some sort of store or restaurant? If so, they don't have any here in Fort Worth/Dallas.

 

[Kaela]

That's horrible! I've been looking for a drive-in around here for years, I haven't found any local ones, I think I heard rumors of one in Barstow, California, but haven't found it. I think there should be some sort of foundation that protects things like that from happening, everybody wants the easy MacDonalds, Wal-Marts, Malls... what's so bad about taking one's time about things??

 

[Badluck Brody]

I totally agree!!

Culvers is a chain that's a step up from McD's. In addition to classic styles butterburgers, it they include full diary treats, fishfrys and the like. The're all over the place to where McD's is having to go to 24hr service to compete.

I just hate to see the old world disappear for a cookie cutter world.

Just let me describe the area...

It's a small truck stop looking area, just off of the expressway. There's also a river nearby. Where they have a bar/ roadhouse on the river. Across the street there is a little tex/mex greasy-spoon cafe kinda like the one in Loveless or Road to Perdition. Then there was the drive-in....

The cousin's subs and blackcow (icecream)shop had to join forces, as did the Taco Johns and a gas station. But the drive-in was great for roadsters and bikers alike

I'm going to take the camera there for some pics before its gone....

It's too bad since it would be perfect for film work and living the life like it was.

I'll post em soon as I get a chance to shoot.

Brody

 

[Biltmore Bob]

We have a chain of drive ins here in Texas called Sonic. I think Sonic is worth moving to Texas for. Some of the car hops wear skates even.

 

[jitterbugdoll]

The Sonics out here blast modern music (if you can call it that) over the loud speakers--they used to play 50s tunes to help complete the retro dining experience.

Anyway, the soda fountain I work at (built in 1928) is also in danger of being torn down. The city doesn't want to count it as historic because the facade was altered during the 40s. Makes me sad that we don't value the past more...but, I once spoke with a person who restored old buildings in Phoenix; he moved away from Arizona because he couldn't stand the 'progress is always better mentality' that is so rampant here. As he put it "people would come to this soda fountain if you tore it down and built a retro diner--because then it would be retro cool!" I don't understand people...

You know what I'd like to see again? The Automat! I think that would be a fun place to eat at--they were quite novel at one time!

 

[Badluck Brody]

I hear you Doll!

I loved Sonic when I was stationed in Washington! But around here it's just another fast food chain.

But as far as the push toward modernization goes... Even good "Old Milwaukee" dropped the ball and allowed a huge, ugly, blue federal building to be built right in the middle of down town. They also tore down a lot of the good old theaters and hotels. Then again, it's gotten so bad back home that it's not worth mentioning. But there always was some of the old school hidden in some areas.

You almost have to go to the small towns, that havn't been touched/ ruined yet.

Brody

 

[swinggal]

If you are looking US Drive-in info, Roadside Peek is one of my fav sites for vintage architecture. The guy that hosts this site is an amazing photographer too. This is his promo for the site:

Roadside Peek will take you on a roadside journey in time. Travel the roadside along the old routes across America. See the old motels, bowling alleys, drive-in theatres, neon signs, petrol pumps, googie sites, tiki villages, and other roadside treasures, even Route 66. Content is updated regularly so don't forget to stop in often!

http://roadsidepeek.com/driveins/index.htm

He features Drive Ins from all over the US, whether they are working or not. As a designer, the look of their billboards facinates me. The design, the fonts etc. Amazing stuff.

I love this site, and I live in Australia! I also love Drive-Ins. Sadly, we only have one left in Perth. There used to be 76 in my state alone and 17 in Perth. Sad....such a big part of my childhood.

 

[Badluck Brody]

Thanks Gal!

Nice site!!!

I have a few that I'll have to shoot and add before they're gone or turned into parkinglots or something.

Brody

 

[Dismuke]

The very first drive-in restaurant was in Dallas back in the 1920s and was the first in a chain called Pig Stand which eventually had locations in a number of states. I remember one in Dallas still being open when I was a small child - though in my memory of it the place had a dining room. When I was a kid I had no knowledge of its history and did not hold the place in very high regard as the one time we ate there I became sick. I just read online that there are still a few locations open in Houston, San Antonio and Beaumont. Perhaps I will give them a second chance next time I am in one of those cities.

I just located a website that has a listing of drive-ins in various parts of the country that are still open: http://www.agilitynut.com/eateries/4.html The first page has some interesting history on Pig Stands. There are other parts of the site as well, including a section on lost drive ins and other roadside attractions.

In Dallas, there is still a drive-in dating back to the 1950s called Keller's Hamburgers. On Saturday nights, the place is a popular gathering spot for owners of vintage cars. There is an article about it at: http://www.lifeadventures.com/drive-in.htm I don't know how old that article is - but I am pretty sure that the location mentioned at I-30 and Samuals has since closed due to a rather publicized dispute between the restauarant and the owner of the building.

 

[swinggal]

I've just realised what an idiot I am. 'Drive-in' in Australia means Drive-In theatre. I totally forgot about the drive-in cafes in the US. Sorry guys, got it wrong, but hey, I still love drive-in theatres, and that's what i was prattling on about.

Roadside peek has lots of drive-in cafe info too.

Heres a bit of trivia. Did you know that Australia had the most Drive-in theatres in the Southern Hemisphere? That was amazing considering the country probably only had around 11 million people at the peak of drive-in theature use. First one opened here in Sydney, 1954. 308 in total across Australia. They were so popular here because of our outdoor lifestyle and weather.

This is one of the best retro looking site design anywhere and it has info on Aussie drives and OS ones. Have a squizz...oh the memories.

http://www.drive-insdownunder.com.au/

 

[Dismuke]

I've just realised what an idiot I am. 'Drive-in' in Australia means Drive-In theatre. I totally forgot about the drive-in cafes in the US. Sorry guys, got it wrong, but hey, I still love drive-in theatres, and that's what i was prattling on about.

You are not an idiot. I thought the same thing when I read the first posting. It wasn't until someone else posted about restaurants that I realized that it was about a restaurant and not an outdoor movie theatre. Here in the USA "drive in" can mean both as well.

 

[Wild Root]

I’m with you Dismuke! I thought the same thing! I have always thought that a “Drive In� was a place where one would go and watch flicks under the stars.

For the restaurants that don’t have a “Drive Through� that you pull up and park and have a nice young lady on skates take your order, those are called Car Hops. That’s what I was told they are. So, they wouldn’t be confused with the movie theaters.

For those in CA, try going to Bob’s Big Boy on the weekend in Burbank! It was built in 1949 and still has car service on Fridays and Saturdays!

Root.

 

[Badluck Brody]

No harm no foul!!

I can definately see the confusion. So no harm/ no foul!

Actually we call also a drinking fountain a bubbler also and who knows what else....

I personally wasn't going to correct you

 

[Rumpled Fedora]

What a shame!
Culver's is overrated and not even that good!
Those kind of places are always giving the :kick: to the real businesses...

 

[Wild Root]

Don't forget Starbucks!

They are the real threat to small Mom and Pop's all over America!

Root.

 

[Biltmore Bob]

Wally World is the biggest threat to Mom and Pop Americana.

 

[Wild Root]

YEAH!!! WAl*FART I like to call them is not to be over looked!

Root.

 

[Dismuke]

What a shame!
Culver's is overrated and not even that good!
Those kind of places are always giving the :kick: to the real businesses...

One of the things that can be said for chain restauarants is that you at least usually know what you are getting when you walk into one. Sure, there are mom and pop restaurants that are far better and a lot more interesting than chains. But there are also some absolutely horrible mom and pop restaurants out there. And there are a great many utterly mediocre ones as well.

I am sure most people have had the experience of traveling and stopping at some unknown restaurant and, the very minute one sits down and takes a look at the menu, regrets having stopped there either due to the lack of interesting items on the menu or the prices or both. I know I sure have. If I stop at an Olive Garden, for instance, I know that it is most likely not going to be the best Italian place in town. But I also know it is not going to be the worst, either - and if I have had a long hard day away from home and am very tired and hungry, the last thing I want to deal with is a crappy restaurant. I would rather go to a place that is ordinary and mediocre but acceptable than risk a bad experience.

For that reason, whenever I am out of town and traveling by car, unless I am up for an adventure and am willing to take a risk, I usually make it a point to seek out chain restaurants that I am familiar with and find acceptable. I say "by car" because I recently took a vacation to New York City and ate at lots of mom and pop places. But there, one walks everywhere and the restaurants post their menus on their front windows. As a result, you have a pretty decent idea of what you are getting into before you even walk in the door.

Also, there are some types of food that I really enjoy - Indian, for instance - that are available only at mom and pop type places. Here too, however, when you go into an unfamiliar restaurant, you have no idea what your experience is going to be like ahead of time - and I have ended up in plenty of Indian restaurants that were less than what I had hoped for. I actually wish that there was a decent national chain of Indian restaurants with a standardized menu and level of quality that I could count on no matter where I happened to be.

 

[Dismuke]

YEAH!!! WAl*FART I like to call them is not to be over looked!

Root.

The complaints that people have against Wal-mart are nothing new and, in fact, predate Wal-mart by many decades. Such complaints were leveled at companies such as F.W.Woolworth since the 1880s. In fact, today's discount store chains are nothing more than the logical evolution of the old fashioned dime store chains. Wal-mart traces its origin back to a small town Ben Franklin five and dime franchise. K-mart used to be the old S.S.Kresge dime store chain.

The same complaints were also leveled against the big Chicago mail order giants such as Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward. 100 years ago, small town merchants who considered themselves somehow entitled to their customers' business complained how "unfair" it was that rural residents could order by mail goods at prices sometimes lower than what the merchants could get it for themselves. And when James Cash Penney began opening stores in small towns offering quality items at very low prices - well, again, local merchants claimed that it was "unfair."

As for the situation today - it is hard to make the claim that Wal-mart is any longer a threat to traditional small town mom and pop retail because that battle ended a long time ago and the mom and pops lost. And if they had not lost out to Wal-mart, some other company would ultimately have gone in and done the same thing. There is certainly something nostalgic and sentimental about small mom and pop retailers. On the other hand, there was a reason that shoppers chose to go elsewhere: those stores tended to offer less selection at considerably higher prices.

Today, the loudest complaints against Wal-mart are no longer generated by mom and pops but rather other giant chains that are not as efficient at serving their customers and, like the very worst sort of small town merchants of days gone by, feel that they are somehow entitled to their customers' business and have some sort of divine right to keep on doing things the way that they have always been done. The best example of this is the grocery chains now that Wal-mart has expanded into that line of merchandise.

Here in Fort Worth/Dallas, Wal-mart, in less than a decade, has become the number one grocery chain in terms of market share by a VERY comfortable margin - and that margin is growing larger every year. The market share is not coming at the expense of mom and pop grocery stores - there haven't been many to speak of here for years. It is coming at the expense of other giant chains such as Albertsons, Kroger and Safeway which operates in Texas as either Tom Thumb or Randalls.

I will pick on Albertsons for my example because, at least here in Fort Worth/Dallas, they are the absolute worst and most pathetic grocery chain. Compared with Wal-mart, Albertsons is outrageously priced - and the only way you can get prices even close to Wal-mart's on a handful of items is to carry a stupid membership card that electronically tracks your purchases for future marketing purposes. Their stores are usually filthy and their checkout lines can be a time-drain nightmare. Nor do they offer much of anything in terms of merchandise or selection that cannot be obtained at Wal-mart. The ONLY reason I ever go in one is if I need to make an immediate purchase and it happens to be the closest store to where I am at.

And, here in Fort Worth, the 20th largest city in the country in the middle of one of the nation's largest metro areas, all of the major chain stores close at midnight. Most Wal-marts, by contrast, are open 24 hours. I can hardly wait for a proposed Wal-mart Supercenter that will be semi-closer to me to be built because I tend to be a night owl and shopping after midnight is sometimes quite convenient for me. I get kind of tired at having to drive across town to the nearest Supercenter - and I feel it is kind of pathetic that I live in the middle of a big city and have less nearby 24 hour shopping options than do residents of small towns that few here will have ever heard of such as Cleburne, Texas or Lake Worth, Texas. Oh, yes, and as I drive across town to a Wal-mart Supercenter at 1:00 AM, I drive past at least a half dozen closed Albertsons, Krogers and Tom Thumbs that I would otherwise have been happy to stop at for the sake of time had they been open. One would think that for all the significantly extra money those chains charge for their merchandise that they would at least offer their customers the convenience of 24 hour shopping. But no - it is the low-brow discounter Wal-mart that offers that. And the answer the chains give for not staying open 24 hours? It costs too much to stay open. Well, as far as I am concerned, they cost too much.

Some people look down upon Wal-mart. I have had debates with people on a local discussion board who look down upon it because they cater to a lot of low income and blue collar people - which, in my eyes, makes such people snobs. But for blue collar families, a Wal-mart is a god-send because they are able to get more for their money than they were before - which means that they have more money left in their pocket for other things. If Wal-mart is able to save people 50 cents on a box of laundry detergent - well multiply that 50 cents by the millions of boxes of laundry detergent people buy from Wal-mart every year and then do that with the savings such people realize on all the other things that they buy, that is a LOT of money that people across the country have in their pockets to spend on other things. That is a HUGE contribution to the economy and to the producers of those goods and services that people spend that extra money on.

And even those who refuse to shop at Wal-mart benefit from its influence. Here in Fort Worth/Dallas, the Tom Thumb stores have lowered their prices and the Kroger stores have started carrying more specialty merchandise so that they are in a more competitive position. Who benefits from this most? Their customers.

One of the reasons why Wal-mart has been so successful in recent years is they have been extremely innovative in using technology to streamline their distribution network. Some may view Wal-mart execs. as being a bunch of hicks from Arkansas - but those "hicks" are very sophisticated and are on the cutting edge of putting information technology to productive use. Eventually, other retail companies will end up trying to do the same thing with their own distribution channels - and as a consequence, they will end up being better companies as a result of it. In the end, the ultimate winner is every one of us every time we go out shopping - even those who refuse to shop at Wal-mart.

Is their room for smaller companies in a Wal-mart world? Sure. I can think of 3 grocery chains off the top of my head that Wal-mart is not a threat to at all - Whole Foods which sells organic and natural stuff, Central Market which is a Texas chain of large gourmet only stores and Fiesta Mart which caters to Hispanic and other ethnic markets. When I buy music CDs, there is not a chance in the world that I will find the kind of music that I like at a Wal-mart store. I end up buying most of my CDs online from independent retailers who serve a very specialized market.

There are a great many things that I buy that cannot be obtained at Wal-mart - which makes the popular notion that they will somehow become a "monopoly" rather absurd. There is plenty of room for mom and pop retailers out there - but not for those who refuse to change with the times and who have an entitlement mentality and think that customers should patronize them for no other reason than the fact that the merchant wishes to stay in business.