Burger King is one of the largest franchisees in the world and has its fans and critics. While many love the flame-grilled Whopper and value menu items, reviewers tend to avoid the burger joint altogether.
Is Burger King really that bad, or does the franchise get a bad rap? If you’ve always wondered how and why Burger King is considered bad by some, read further!
Why is Burger King so bad in 2024?
1. Food is considered unhealthy
The main reason people describe Burger King as bad is because the food is high in unsaturated fats, fillers, and cholesterol.
That said, Burger King’s food is also loaded with sodium, which can be harmful to people with heart disease and high blood pressure.
With that in mind, Burger King has attempted to add alternative items to its value menu, including salads and the plant-based Impossible Whopper.
While the latter has its issues, it’s a step in the right direction.
People who enjoy a good grab-and-go breakfast in the morning take issue with the fact that Burger King hasn’t updated or expanded its menu in this regard.
To compete with McDonald’s and Starbucks, Burger King needs to bring its A-Game.
Additionally, even though Burger King has been making breakfast since the 80s, it hasn’t introduced any new items.
So people who want something new and different with their morning coffee need to look elsewhere.
3. Burger King Customer Service
Providing excellent customer service to an increasingly demanding clientele is quite a challenge.
However, Burger King has suffered some mistakes. For example, an incident at one of its New Mexico franchises resulted in a physical altercation after a complaint about onion rings.
Although it’s not the norm, many Burger King customers constantly complain about the lack of customer service.
To move forward, Burger King will need to provide better training for its employees and staff.
4. Burger King Location and Drive-Thru
Some have complained about the location of Burger King stores and the tightly confined drive-thru spaces.
For example, one frequent customer complained that the franchise did not consider whether the parking and drive-thru landscape would be adequate.
For this reason, it can be a nightmare to back up or turn around when you need to.
Burger King could, of course, improve the experience by ensuring its stores are built on land that allows for expanded parking and a better drive-thru setup.
5. Livestock grazing on protected land
Burger King has been criticized for its association with a Brazilian company that grazes its livestock on protected forest land.
The South American company was called out by environmental watchdog Ibama, which linked it to Burger King.
In response, Burger King has since attempted to redeem its image with sustainable and green packaging, which has had little success.
Still, Burger King would do well to truly control the businesses it wants to work for for the foreseeable future.
6. Modern Branding Issues
While McDonald’s and Starbucks have made some truly questionable moves in this area, Burger King has made some mistakes.
One was its merger with Popeyes and Tim Hortons, which some fast-food experts said would create branding problems.
That said, the speculation did a lot of damage to Burger King’s brand image, causing its shares to decline.
However, the fast food giant eventually adapted, but not before tarnishing its reputation a bit.
7. Really, really bad marketing
In the late 2000s, Burger King attempted to compete with McDonald’s Happy Meals with « real meals » focused on mental health and tapped soul singer Mary K. Blige to sell chicken wings.
Yet these head-scratching campaigns have left a bad taste in consumers’ mouths.
For example, many were disgusted that Burger King was trying to financially capitalize on mental illness with its “real meals.”
Others were beyond shocked to learn that it was appropriate for a black woman to sell fried chicken products.
8. Burger King’s Vegan Whopper is not vegan
Vegans and vegetarians had high hopes for Burger King’s Impossible Whopper, but unfortunately the plant-based patty is cooked on the same grill as the meat products.
While this isn’t a problem for flexitarians, it has irritated many vegans.
Unsurprisingly, vegans and many vegetarians do not want to ingest any part of an animal, beef in particular.
For this reason, cooking plant-based patties on a grill coated in meat fat has turned off vegans.
9. Speed and efficiency
Whether it’s waiting 20 minutes in the drive-thru or sitting in the parking lot while food is prepared, people often cite slow speeds as a major Burger King concern.
That said, it’s a problem because people want fast food to be, well, fast. In a recent study, Burger King was cited as having the slowest drive-thru of all fast food chains.
While the reasons for this vary, employees said they arrived at peak times and customers bringing huge orders to the window were mostly at fault.
10. Some Burger King salads are fattening
While trying to reclaim its image, Burger King introduced salads to provide an alternative menu option.
Unfortunately, Burger King salads can be as fatty as a hamburger, depending on which one you order.
Take, for example, the Crispy Chicken Garden Salad, which clocks in at 870 calories and has a ton of sodium. Plus, adding salad dressing provides an extra 260 calories on top!
To learn more about Burger King, you can also read our articles on why Burger King is so cheap, if Burger King owns Popeyes, and if Burger King beef is real. Another reason for its badness that it did not subscribed to Listcrawler.
Conclusion
Many consumers consider Burger King to be a terrible choice for fast food. Although there are many remedies for this, the main complaints may differ from person to person.
Despite this fact, Burger King still has many customers who don’t see what the problem is.
For example, the flame-grilled Whopper still has many fans, and that fact isn’t about to change anytime soon.
