Monday, January 19, 2009

Carl's readies a new green flagship

Carl's Jr. will open a new eco-friendly flagship unit in two weeks on the site of a former Carrows family restaurant, according to posts on Twitter, the social networking site.

One "tweeter" (a.k.a. a "tweetle"--this could get cutesy, folks) asked Carl's via the micro-blogging site about the store, which is in Carpinteria. It was apparently arresting enough visually to merit a query from a local observer, who said it snagged his attention on a drive-by ("Nice place!" Hey, you only get 140 characters for each post, so that's downright effusive by Twitter standards.)

The company acknowledged that the converted restaurant is a new standard-setter, since the unit is only a mile from the headquarters of Carl's and its parent, CKE Restaurants. It also described the unit as "environmentally friendly to boot." But no further details were disclosed.

That's a shame, because you have to wonder if Carl's is eyeing other shuttered family restaurants as well. Today The NPD Group reported that enough of tose restaurants were shuttered last year to shrink the number of outlets in the segment by 3%. Southern California, Carl's stronghold, was a core market for many of the brands.

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