Kmart Chef
Posted: 23 Dec 2008 00:00
I'd never heard of them, but a friend of mine brought up to me an attempt by Kmart to run a freestanding hamburger chain.
From somewhere on Wikipedia (he sent the comments, but not the link):
Kmart Chef restaurants were a small chain of free-standing fast-food restaurants owned by Kmart, started in 1967 with the first location on the parking lot of the Kmart in Pontiac, Michigan. These restaurants were paired up with many Kmart locations. The restaurants were somewhat of a hybrid of the cafeteria-style restaurant and the style later made famous by McDonald's. The "limited, high-turnover menu" (as Kmart founder S.S. Kresge put it) consisted of 18ยข hamburgers, cheeseburgers, French fries, fish sandwiches, hot dogs, apple turnovers, carbonated soft drinks, fruit drinks, coffee, and milk. The specialty hamburger was called the "Big K Burger." The Kmart Chef chain folded in 1974 after peaking at eleven locations.
I was able to find an image of an ad for this on Flickr, courtesy of our friends at Pleasant Family Shopping:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pleasantfa ... 499820550/
From somewhere on Wikipedia (he sent the comments, but not the link):
Kmart Chef restaurants were a small chain of free-standing fast-food restaurants owned by Kmart, started in 1967 with the first location on the parking lot of the Kmart in Pontiac, Michigan. These restaurants were paired up with many Kmart locations. The restaurants were somewhat of a hybrid of the cafeteria-style restaurant and the style later made famous by McDonald's. The "limited, high-turnover menu" (as Kmart founder S.S. Kresge put it) consisted of 18ยข hamburgers, cheeseburgers, French fries, fish sandwiches, hot dogs, apple turnovers, carbonated soft drinks, fruit drinks, coffee, and milk. The specialty hamburger was called the "Big K Burger." The Kmart Chef chain folded in 1974 after peaking at eleven locations.
I was able to find an image of an ad for this on Flickr, courtesy of our friends at Pleasant Family Shopping:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pleasantfa ... 499820550/