• #164: Howard Johnson’s – He Saw The Future

  • Jul 31 2024
  • Duración: 20 m
  • Podcast

#164: Howard Johnson’s – He Saw The Future

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  • Seeing that the world was getting faster and smaller, Howard Johnson started a hospitality empire. The first restaurant franchise. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So, here's one of those. [Out of This World Plumbing Ad] Dave Young: So, are you going to actually tell me the topic, because the countdown is done? Stephen Semple: Oh, right. Howard Johnson. Dave Young: Howard Johnson, HoJo's. Right on. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Right on. The aqua building with the orange roof. We stayed at some when I was a little kid. Stephen Semple: Oh, is that right? Dave Young: Howard Johnson's, all right. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Hey, let me do something real quick. Hey, welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, it's Dave Young here with Stephen Semple, and today we're going to talk about Howard Johnson's as seen in Mad Men. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: It was a monster. It sort of preceded the Holidome trend that Holiday Inn... I think Holiday Inn kind of kicked their ass with the Holidome concept. Stephen Semple: Oh, yeah. Dave Young: That's my guess. Stephen Semple: Here's the thing, in 1965 sales of Howard Johnson's exceeded that of McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC combined. Dave Young: Wow, that's many exceeds. Stephen Semple: Yes. When we talk about how it used to be a powerhouse, it was a monster that just seems to have disappeared. You see the odd one here and there. Dave Young: Yeah. If I had to guess the trend of, as I mentioned, Holiday Inn, Holidome sort of things, but my guess is that HoJo's, Howard Johnson's big rise was before the Interstate Highway system was built or right along with it- Stephen Semple: Right along with it. Dave Young: ... in some places. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: But in the East probably predates it. Stephen Semple: Yeah, because there's a couple of really interesting things. As we mentioned, it's not a big powerhouse today. There may even be people that we're talking to that might not even know what the heck Howard Johnson is. At its peak, it was massive, and basically it was a motor hotel along with a restaurant. They would have both. They had the restaurant, they had the motor hotel along with it. Dave Young: Right. Stephen Semple: Now, it started on the restaurant side. That's where it started. In fact, it was the first ever restaurant franchise. They were the first ones to do franchising for a restaurant. Dave Young: So it was the prototype for Denny's and all of those. Stephen Semple: All of those, yeah. Dave Young: Howard Johnson's was there. Stephen Semple: Yeah, and the type of restaurant it was was that fast casual dining. Yeah, really. It was kind of like a diner. It was the first ever franchise and the first location, this wasn't the franchise location, but the first location was Arlene Cape Cod, right at the intersection of Route 28 and Route 6A. Howard Dearing Johnson grew up outside of Boston in Quincy, and his first business was a drug store that he inherited from his father in 1925, along with a whole pile of debt. The business was a money-loser. It had a soda fountain, a newsstand, and sold ice cream. Again, very much like those 1920s drugstores. We think about a drugstore today, and it's not a place that you hung out. In the 1920s, it was a place that you hung out, and I said there was soda fountain, all that other stuff. They sold three flavors of ice cream,
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