Applebee's and Weight Watchers Announce Plans to Co-Develop New Menu

[bicker]

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 25, 2003--Applebee's International, Inc. (Nasdaq: APPB), operators of Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar restaurants, the world's largest casual dining concept, and Weight Watchers International, Inc. (NYSE: WTW), the leader in providing healthy and effective weight management services, have entered into an exclusive and comprehensive license agreement. The keystone of this agreement will be a Weight Watchers branded section of the Applebee's menu.

 

[nativetxn]

I can't really vote, since I don't follow WW. I think it's great news for WW WISHers, though

 

[mowsie dreamer]

Sounds like an interesting idea to me. And smart business on the part of both companies! If this is successful maybe more restaurants will have options for dieters!

 

[CamColt]

Since a new Applebees just opened right up the street from my house, and Im always watching my weight, I think its great news. Usually when I go out to eat, I let myself have whatever I want, however there are some days when Im trying to be good, the family wants to go out to eat, and Im limited as to where I will go. Im curious to see what they will have.

 

[anniet]

Gee, maybe once they put that plan into place I'll actually walk through the door of the one that opened a mile down the road from me last year!

 

[msteddom]

I really like knowing exact point totals of what I eat, and not having to guestimate. The idea is a good one, but I'll withold my final judgement until I actually taste the items on the menu. I don't care how many points it has if it doesn't taste good.

 

[tiggerlover]

I think it is a great idea if they come up with some goods food! I was at Applebee's a couple of weeks ago and even though they had "lighter fare" none of it really appealed to me so I ordered something else.

 

[Pooh93]

I think it's a great idea as long as it looks appetizing and tastes good! Gee, I don't want much, do I?

 

[WebmasterKathy]

I like this idea.

I'm not a particularly big fan of Applebee's. It's okay, but never a restaurant that comes to mind when we're going out.

But if they make it easy on WW by providing point counts and some appealing OP choices, Applebee's could easily become the "no-brainer" place we stop if we need to eat and there's one nearby.

(I live near Dallas. We have the most restaurants per-capita of anywhere in the country. Eating out is a minefield- too many choices, and too convenient!)

 

[cinmell]

I think it's a great idea. I'm not a fan of Applebee's but I may be more apt to go there with a WW menu. I'd like to see other restaurant's do this as well.

 

[MelanieC]

I think this is great news. Not just for Applebees, but I believe that other restaurant's will have to follow suit. They won't be able to post WW's points, but I think that more restaurants like TGI Friday's etc. will have to have lower fat options that they list the nutritional info for. I think this may change dining in the real near future.

I eat at applebees a lot now, because they already offer lower fat choices, and there are a lot of things on the menu that can be altered to fit WW's. For instance, I always loved loved their Oriental Chicken salad. At 22 points for a med. salad, that is a lot. I now order the grilled chicken, dressing, almonds and crunchy noodles on the side. I order the full salad. All greens are free. The chicken is usually about 4-5 oz, so let's say 5 points for chicken, 4 points for 22 almonds, 2 points for 1/2 cup crunchy noodles, and 1 point for fork dipping salad. I really use barely any dressing if any at all. 12 points now for the full size.

This will be even better, because hopefully they will create some fabulous choices with low fat sauces. Applebees already offers fat free cheese, and egg whites only for salads.

For those of you that are not going to restaurants because you aren't sure how to count something. Start going to the restaurants web sites, looking at the menu's and see if you can break some things apart. Do searches on the internet for types of sauces and see if you can find recipes or other things with similiar ingredients to figure out points. If anyone ever needs help figureing points on something, PM me and I can try to help. I now eat out all the time, and don't let points stop me.

Melanie

 

[MelanieC]

Here is a article from USA today about the Applebee's WW's deal.


MelanieApplebee's / WW's USA Today article

Melanie

 

[bicker]

I have to say I'm much more skeptical about this. Applebee's has always had a diet menu. See the Menu. The calorie counts are actually very impressive (the chicken salad is 424 for a large portion), and indeed, the nutritional break-down (you get 48 g of protein in that large chicken salad) is very good good, vis a vis the number of calories. So why are they messing with that?

Well, I'll tell you why I think. First, they get to go to the press and get a lot of free, erroneous publicity like the headline of the article that Melanie just posted a link to: "Applebee's plans to slim down menu." In reality, I don't think anyone really could believe that they're going to come up with menu items that are lower in calories and higher in protein that the ones they have now. At best we can hope they'll simply put Point values on the items they have on the menu now. So nothing has changed, despite the hoopla.

Second, their current menu items aren't selling. While the added publicity should help that a while, the real reasons they're not selling will eventually be an issue again: Primarily, they're relatively tasteless. I've had the blackened chicken salad and the roll-up, and neither really tasted as good as most people expect restaurant food, even low-calorie restaurant food, to taste. (Secondarily, most people don't typically want low-calorie food when they eat out at restaurants, and restaurants can't make enough profit on those of us, like the folks here on W.I.S.H, who do.)

So my guess is that (despite what they say in the press) they are either simply reintroducing their current, unimpressive diet menu, OR, they'll come up with new menu items which probably will have either MORE calories or LESS nutrition but taste a little better.

Like I said. I'm very skeptical about this one.