Fast Food Chains That Failed Outside the U.S. 

*Domino's has entered the chat*

My mother leaned how to make tacos from a Mexican lady in 1963 and those tacos aren't much different than taco bells. The only real difference were the corn tortillas weren't a hard crispy shell.

You can say that but on the opposite side Americanized Mexican restaurants are absolutely killing it right now and have been the last 15 years.

@@angelface925 Funny enough, Domino's sell pretty well in Mexico

@@angelface925 still hilarious to this day

Second

KFC in Japan, specially during Xmas

@@juandacharroninja i dont think you understud his suggestion. INTERNATIONAL fastfood chains (that were created OUTSIDE of the US) who found success IN the US

​@@juandacharroninja that's the opposite of what he said

My first thought is Jollibee, its a Filipino fast food chain. Not sure what you'd consider "success" but they have 68 locations in the US (31 being in California, rest spread around 12 other states). It's bit cheating since US does have a decent amount of Filipinos but was my first thought.

Starbucks also failed BIG TIME in Italy because people are used to actual coffee

It was like selling ice to Eskimos...

​@@juandacharroninja Starbucks has been successful in Italy though

italians don't know what actual pizza is. Their version is bread with tomato sauce on it. America grabbed that, and made it the Food of the Gods.

@@scottdoesntmatter4409 Italian pizza does have cheese on it, but it's minimal, compared to how it covers the sauce completely on the Americanized version...

& you have Japan's Branch renaming itself as Wendy's First Chicken.

Within the US, we have Hardee's AND Carl's Jr and they're THE SAME THING😅

@@lupester The difference between the two, is that Carl's Jr is located west of the Rocky Mountains, and Hardee's is located east of the Rocky Mountains. It's much like how certain food products in the United States go by two different names depending on which side of the Rockies you live on, like how Edy's ice cream goes by the name Dreyer's ice cream, or how Hellman's mayo goes by the name Best Foods mayo...

@@Justin-Hill-1987 well not really. I'm East of the Rockies and we have Carl's Jr here. But I get what you mean. I've seen a comparison map.

@@lupester There is some overlap in states like Colorado...

Taco Bell was on a roll with the Taco Bell dog promos back then, they thought they were popular enough to expand to mexico. That wasn't the case.

They tried twice.

Lees sandwiches is the closet thing for that

It already does. But you’re to scared to go to the hood to try it.

Alao making it more it more expensive too than normal street tacos 😂

Isn't it true that Taco Bell's founder ripped the idea off of a hard-shell authentic Mexican street food stand? Or...paid them to replicate it?

Can't wait for Panda Express or PF Changs to try going to China.

@@LythaWausW The way I heard it, they made the taco shells that way so that they could stack and be filled more easily for quick fast food serving.

Taco Bell is relatively popular with Mexican people in south Texas. As a white guy, I'd only eat it on occasion IF it were free. It's not worth paying for.

italians don't know what actual pizza is. Their version is bread with tomato sauce on it. America grabbed that, and made it the Food of the Gods.

@QN6969 he's right

Bad news, obesity will skyrocket

@@badxradxandy Nah, there is not much obesity problem in here like in US, but you have a point

@@supersprawy not yet! US wasn't always like this

Good goyim, eat your goyslop

@@supersprawy you only eat dough

close but austin has all those places. the only fast food chain i can think of that isn't there is white castle.

Chick-fil-A wouldn’t fit that category.

@@squirellmaster1 Look closely at the LAST part of that name. Specifically the “A”.

@@gamemasteranthony2756 yeah, I get it, it’s still doesn’t really fit though.

Well, come to the west coast, if you aren’t already out this way! We have all of those places

I grew up in Saudi Arabia in the sixties and seventies and we always had Pepsi, but no Coke. Coke has a plant in Israel and the Arab world boycotts the brand on those grounds.

So many people agree with you. My first time being "amped" to try Seattle espresso I got a double tall mint mocha on ice with whip cream. It was so amazing, obviously a coffee-flavored dessert, not a coffee. I'll never forget it. Now I drink Americanos. In both Germany and America.

I enjoyed Starbucks in India and Poland for the low prices, wonderful customer service, and selection of vegetarian food. But here in the US (and, I'm American, by the way), I avoid the place.

You're English fine. My only confusion is when you say it was too much, do you mean it was overpriced or sort of overdone?

@@adamantiiispencespence4012 i mean the portions were too large, like the cups were too large

Honestly i think the reason why people like Starbucks here is because we don't have much better to compare it to for what it is, and I also think people coming to the US are comparing it to the wrong thing. People from other countries, especially countries with a huge coffee culture, are probably comparing it to a sit down coffee shop or something we would consider a little higher end. But Starbucks is a fast food chain essentially, whether they like to call themselves that or not. Yeah you can sit down, and maybe they had this idea of being a "third place" at some point, but it's better compared to something like dunkin donuts or McDonald's - you walk in and get your thing and go off to work or school or whatever when you're on the go. And the coffee is generally better when you compare it to those, and for a long time you couldn't get espresso based drinks at those places either, whereas you could at a Starbucks. Obviously there are places you can get better coffee like at certain sit down restaurants, but not usually at a fast food chain. When people hype up Starbucks here I think that's why. Has to do with what most people are comparing it to - the alternatives for grab and go coffee drinks. I don't know about everyone else, but when we got our first one in the city I was in in the 90s, it really was either that or gas station/fast food coffee unless you went to some pricey sit down restaurant with espresso drinks.

KFC makes a strong point of making sure all the restaurants make the chicken the same way, in the U.S.A. anyway. If the chicken doesn't taste the same in all their restaurants there, than someone somewhere is not doing their job.

I caught the misspelling too. You'd think they would have caught that 😬

Well, to be fair, that's how most KFC franchises (and, really, most franchises) in the USA operate. Some are great and really take pride in their restaurants, and some don't. I long ago decided that KFC was off my personal menu.

I was born in that area - South Fulton Hospital - and most of my familly is in Hapeville and going to the Dwarf House is some of my earliest memories.

Domino's Pizza has gotten a lot better though. Their sauce and crust are one of the best. I don't know what they had to compete with, but my all time favorite is Streets of New York, and the much cheaper Pizza Mia, which is very similar.

At least California Pizza Kitchen didn't try to expand to Italy. It would cause relationships between Italy and the US to tank.

"Americans understand nothing" Damn dude, just because domino's is stupid doesn't mean all of us are... Just like 49% of us

​@Emerald Eyes Esoteric The average street pizza in Rome is better than Domino's. Even in Venice you can find better pizza.

I cannae even imagine a Baskin and Robbins in Italy. Gelato is so available and flavoursome, I have never eaten as much of it as I did in Italy.

Most foreign food franchises stick to the major cities or the coasts. Not many franchises outside the US are gonna go further into the US, generally speaking.

Charleston is a joke of a capital

So, Door Dash and such don't work where you live? I feel your pain. I live too far out in the country in Germany to get food from other countries beyond a few. Anyway this is the first time I feel a connection with West Virginia. I've only read about your Low Country Boil and wish to go there someday.

Yeah, not a lot of trying new things in a land named after Virgins.

@@LythaWausW "Low Country Boil" is good - although that's from the coast of South Carolina and North Carolina - not the "high country" hills of West Virginia. There are also different versions of seafood/shellfish boils from Louisiana and Massachusetts, with their own ingredients. The franchise "Tudor's Biscuit World' I suppose would be the most quintessential West Virginia fast food - but be aware that food is VERY different from what you might have in Germany! 😉

Yeah 😂 I think I get why

Taco Bell is not going to work in a country where thousands of Mamacita's have a taco stand. They are much better Cooks!

Wendy's should be renamed to Dave's for the Australian and European markets to avoid confusion.

Wendy's Hamburgers also opened 11 stores in around Melbourne in the early 1980s which were struggling by the middle of the decade. They were sold to local Burger King franchise Hungry Jacks in 1986 which they used to expand to the state for the first time.

Burger King has run into other Burger Kings twice. In Canada, and one in Illinois that has exclusive rights to operate within a 20-mile area

Didn’t Starbucks try to open in Australia years ago and didn’t do as well as they hoped because they wouldn’t adapt to the Australian coffee culture? I know Australia has Starbucks but according to my family that lives there, they could be doing better if they adapted more to what the Aussies like as far as coffee goes.

@@Aushra1969 correct. Starbucks closed most of their stores in Australia but the remaining ones are still going, mostly inner city locations.

Well there were not many places to choose from - with Rostick's and Russkoye Bistro being big exceptions. We also had small cafes but those were hard to find. Russian fasfood market changed drasticaly by late 00's.

@@runoflife87 yeah i've never had the chance to revisit. I was a little kid when we used to live there but i really love Moscow. I'd definetely want to visit after the war.

Wendy's makes their chili with hamburger patties that cooked too long on the grill. They store those overcooked patties in refrigeration, then chop them up, and put them into the chili.

@@markadams7046 Interesting, but how do you know? Did you work there?

@@ToyTiger666 Yes, I worked at Wendy's part-time for several months in 1987. I worked the grill, and had to dump the overcooked burgers into a container in the refrigerator that was below and next to the grill. My manager really liked the job that I did, because I didn't have a lot of overcooked burgers but always had enough ready for orders. In fact, she often had to overcook a bunch of burgers before the store opened in the morning so that there would be enough for the chili because I hadn't overcooked enough the day before when making burgers for the hamburger sandwiches.

@Mark Adams Wow, thx. Scary but true. I wonder how bad overcooked burger 🍔 meat is for one's health. Occasional consumption is OK, I guess, or else Wendy's would have gone out of business a long time ago. But if you consume a lot of that stuff over the years?

@@ToyTiger666 It's only overcooked for the hamburger sandwiches, it's cooked just right for the chili.

I commend countries that challenge the fast-food bullies.

AFAIK they'd need to change their name to be able to open here, because the original trademark is held by that one chip shop. For some reason they decided to attempt to sue the shit out of that shop, using tactics that aren't applicable to Dutch law, instead of just changing the damn name lmao

Food Insider Food Wars made a video about UK Denny's

It did?😅 no wonder I’ve never heard of this😂

@giraffestreet I've just watched that and it looks pretty obvious why the U.K Dennys closed.

i like 5 minutes from a Denny's and I don't even bother going there.

It seems like a waste of time for any American to show any kind of interest in sweden.

@@ChadwickTheChad Sweden unironically has more freedom, more sophisticated culture and better living standards than america.

@@Diwasho But it's full of europeans, so it's still a shit hole.

​@@DiwashoBut it's full of europeans, so there's no reason to go there.

@@Diwasho Yeah I already said that there's no reason to show any interest in sweden, or europe in general.

Yeah same with Popeyes and Taco bell there

Most of us were not surprised at all.

Mexicans who work in USA have a spoiled taste. Also mexican food in border cities is usually tex-mex crap.

No, but Chipotle probably did.

Was erwartest du auch vom Frankfurter Hbf.

*Chick

Carl’s Jr. Is the worst quality American fast food. I love White Castle but it’s not far behind!

Mtn dew is sold here in Holland but the ingredients are different because some of them are banned in the EU because of being dangerous

Dominoes only left SA sometime during the pandemic - I think early or mid 2020. On the other hand, I recall Pizza Hut had its heydays in the 90's, and only recently started to reemerge again in SA.

They only have 70 store in the whole US.

Even within Canada there are big restaurant companies that dominate in one province yet fail completely in another. Two obvious examples are the White Spot / Triple O chain which absolutely dominates in British Columbia yet has not a single location east of Calgary. Another example is the Swiss Chalet group which has 156 locations in Ontario while struggling in B.C. and closing their last location there in 2022. Canada is a tough, competitive and fractured food market.

@@canadagood Taco time, while being American has really been struggling to expand eastwards into Canada. They have a big presence out West, but as far as I'm aware they're barely a thing in Ontario apart from a location in Timmins of all places