There's something undeniably delicious about
Buffalo wings. And barbecue wings. And lemon pepper wings. Carribean jerk wings, too. Just wings in general. And that's the craving Buffalo Wild Wings
was built on. Here are some things you might not know about
this massively popular chain. It seems like it might be a given that this
chain started in Buffalo, but it didn't - in fact, Buffalo Wild Wings' actual connections
to Buffalo are somewhat tenuous. The first location was opened in Columbus,
Ohio, not far from The Ohio State University, in 1982 by Jim Disbrow and Scott Lowery. Disbrow moved to Buffalo in 1974, and was
back in Ohio a few years later. He was lamenting the fact he couldn't find
a good chicken wing anywhere, so he and Lowery decided to open their own chicken wing joint
in the spirit of the wings Disbrow had discovered in Buffalo. Other locations opened slowly, and they didn't
hit the point of franchising until 1991. Buffalo Wild Wings is often known colloquially
as "BW3," because the chain's name originally featured a third W. It was first called Buffalo
Wild Wings & Weck, and it's not entirely surprising that last word was dropped. If you're not from Buffalo, you probably haven't
got the foggiest idea what weck is. Weck is short for kummelweck, a type of bread
roll. No one's really sure where the super-regional
delicacy started, but it likely has roots in the German immigrants that settled in the
Western New York area. The caraway-and-salt-topped rolls are chewy
inside and hard on the outside, and since they hold up to liquid, they're perfect for
soaking up meat juices for things like beef on weck sandwiches. So, why did Buffalo Wild Wings drop the weck? Bizarrely, attempts to make a true, Buffalo-style
weck roll outside of Western New York have failed, and they're not easy to export. They get rock hard overnight, so it's probably
best to just stick to the wings. In 2013, Buffalo Wild Wings menus got a major
overhaul, and it all had to do with how they did business. At the time, customers would order based on
the number of wings they wanted. The chain was buying their chickens by weight,
though, and as chicken wings were getting larger and larger, they were paying more to
their suppliers. That meant the customer was getting more chicken,
each portion was costing the chain more, and without raising prices, Buffalo Wild Wings's
profits were taking a major hit. It's a tricky way to do business that doesn't
really have much consistency, and it also means that when chicken prices are high, profits
suffer. So, Buffalo Wild Wings decided to start selling
wings by weight, rather than by number. The goal was to serve an amount similar to
what customers were getting before wing sizes were getting noticeably bigger. It may have been tricky at first to explain
to customers, but people love giant chicken wings. Half-Price Wings Tuesday at Buffalo Wild Wings
was the highlight of the week for coworkers and drinking buddies everywhere, but that
came to an abrupt end in 2017. It was replaced with a buy-one, get-one offer
on boneless wings. It makes you wonder why they would have gotten
rid of such a massively popular deal in favor of a new one that, at a glance, is essentially
the same thing. It's all about profit margins. Half-Price Wings got a ton of people in the
door, but the rising costs of chicken wings meant that they weren't making as much as
they could have been off all that foot traffic. Enter the boneless wing. Even as they increased in popularity, boneless
wings weren't being hit by the same price hikes as traditional wings, so BW3 could make
more with them. Did it work? Absolutely. Business Insider says BW3 profits, and stocks,
soared after they made the switch. That's a huge deal that allowed Buffalo Wild
Wings to stay profitable and keep the doors open. Chicken wings are a big deal in the United
States. The National Chicken Council says Americans
ate an estimated 1.35 billion wings during the 2018 Super Bowl alone. For some perspective, that means that if you
were able to take all 32 NFL stadiums and fill the seats with that many wings, every
chair would have to hold 625 wings. That number was up a shocking 20 million wings
from just the year before, so you'd think chicken wings would be BW3's biggest seller. They're not. "I mean, they actually pretty good, but they
don't have no bones in 'em." "They boneless, baby!" As of 2016, boneless wings stepped up to take
over the majority of chicken wing sales at Buffalo Wild Wings. They're the fastest-growing section of the
market, and ironically, they're not even chicken wings at all. When you order "boneless wings," you're actually
getting chicken breast sliced into wing-sized pieces and fried. Why the change? Well, it's a simple math problem. Chicken wings are becoming more and more popular
every year, and while you can breed more chickens, wings are not like eggs. Every chicken can only give you two wings,
and if you're selling mostly wings, you're left with a surplus of other parts of the
chicken. The oversupply of all those other cuts meant
that people started using the breasts for other things, thus inventing the "boneless
wing." It's no secret that BW3 takes their beer almost
as seriously as they take their chicken wings, and there's a good reason for that. What goes better with wings, after all? According to The Motley Fool, about 20 percent
of Buffalo Wild Wings's profits come from the sale of beer, and even more impressive? Thanks to their 1,200 locations, they're the
largest pourer of draft beer in the country. Part of that success is thanks to limited-run
craft brews like Fandom Ale and Game Changer Ale, and part of it is thanks to a tiered
system put in place to ensure customers have the best possible beer selection. The bigger the restaurant, the more taps they
might have. Some Buffalo Wild Wings locations have up
to 30 beers on tap, but they're all monitored to make sure they're popular enough that the
kegs run out before they compromise quality. And every restaurant subscribes to a three-tier
system. At the top, there are beers that are in every
Buffalo Wild Wings across the country, common brands like Budweiser. The second tier is made up of state, regional,
or major-market favorites. The last tier leaves it up to the individual
restaurant to find something super-local, seasonal, or whatever customers request the
most. You might assume that anyone going to Buffalo
Wild Wings isn't going to be looking for a vegetarian option. With more and more people opting to go meat-free,
though, there's bound to be one in every group of friends heading out to watch the game. In 2016, one vegetarian customer sued after
finding out menu items she thought were vegetarian - mozzarella sticks and french fries - were
actually fried in beef tallow. There was a catch, though, and it was a pretty
big one that led to the suit being thrown out. Buffalo Wild Wings never advertised or labeled
any items as being vegetarian. The customer just assumed they were. BW3 has a ton of sauces: 16, to be exact,
and 5 seasonings. You can order things like bourbon honey mustard,
Parmesan garlic, lemon pepper, mango habanero, and Thai curry, and those are all great. But if you're a purist, you know those aren't
exactly Buffalo wings. It's actually super easy to make your own,
authentic Buffalo wings, and it all comes down to the sauce. Even though BW3 offers a ton of options when
it comes to wing sauce, there's only one true Buffalo sauce. You can make it at home, and you should definitely
try, because it's not just brilliant on wings. It's great for fries, for chips, for burgers,
for tacos, you get the idea. The recipe? Only half a cup of classic Frank's Red Hot
Sauce and a third of a cup of melted butter. That's it! You're welcome. Back in 2017, Buffalo Wild Wings admitted
that it was struggling. They were starting to sell corporate-owned
locations off to franchisees, and that's always something of a questionable sign. Then, more news went public: Buffalo Wild
Wings' owners sealed a deal with Arby's parent company, Roark Capital Group, to sell the
company in its entirety for $2.9 billion. This was actually good news for fans of the
chain. Arby's had been struggling as well, and in
2013, a new CEO took over and made a series of changes. The result was impressive, and by 2016, Arby's
was seeing record sales numbers. Those are the same hands that Buffalo Wild
Wings passed into, so the hope was that Buffalo Wild Wings would turn around, as well. Customers were also immediately hopeful that
they'd see some crossover, particularly between Arby's famous sauces and the signature sauces
of Buffalo Wild Wings. Sure enough, by early 2018 there was a crossover
sauce. Sadly, though, it was a very limited edition,
only available in a few locations for a handful of days. Confusing ordering system One of the basic rules of business is that
when customers order, they should know exactly what they're ordering and what they can expect
to get. Buffalo Wild Wings has had a chronic problem
with that, and in 2020, they announced things were going to change. Originally, customers could place their order
for six, 10, 15, 20, or 30 wings. That's pretty straightforward. Then, the company changed that ordering system
to small, medium, and large, as we mentioned, based on weight. That's...less than straightforward. "Can I get a large order of spicy garlic wings?" The reason for the change was that the wings
they were getting varied in size, to the point where some patrons were feeling cheated by
small wings. Orders started going out based on weight and
sizes of wings, which sounds fine. But when one person at the table gets six
wings and another gets eight - even though they ordered the same size - that's not going
to sit well, either. Customers were understandably unhappy, and
Buffalo Wild Wings announced they were going back to the old way of ordering. In a statement, the company said that they'd
heard the results of customer research loud and clear. Buffalo Wild Wings guests prefer wing count
over wing weight. In early 2019, a Buffalo Wild Wings location
in Kansas found itself in the middle of some terrible headlines. According to The Kansas City Star, a former
employee was suing after he was fired, which he said happened after he reported discrimination
and an unsafe, hostile work environment. Former employee Gary Lovelace said that the
work environment was "racially hostile," and that employees were regularly told to refuse
some customers based on race, age, and disability. Lovelace reported the conditions, which allegedly
began with the hiring of a new general manager. He was fired for making the report, after
working there for 12 years. Just a few months later, Buffalo Wild Wings
was making headlines again. This time, Eater reported that the company
had fired two managers at a location in Naperville, Illinois. The managers were reportedly fired after they
asked about the race of a group of customers, and repeatedly tried to move them away from
a customer who did not want to sit near them because of their race. "And so the host said 'Well, we have a regular
customer here who doesn't want to sit around black people.'" If you haven't been at a Buffalo Wild Wings
lately, you'll find that when you go back, it looks a little different. That's because they're giving the whole place
an overhaul. According to Business Insider, they're doing
it in hopes of attracting a new, millennial crowd. Inspire Brands CEO Paul Brown - the same person
who turned Arby's around just a few years before - said Buffalo Wild Wings is targeting
millennial sports fans who liked to hang out with friends...but found life getting in the
way of that. March Madness has always been a big deal for
the chain, and they used the 2019 event to kick off their new advertising campaign, updated
menus, new employee uniforms, and a new image. They're aiming to be a favorite place to hang
out with friends, have some beers and wings, and watch whatever sport happens to be in
season. One of the first changes is definitely geared
toward courting millennials concerned about the environment. Gone are the plastic sauce containers and
paper boats, and in their place are things like metal trays. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Mashed videos about your favorite
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