Shop Talk

Best deals for restaurant meals

When it comes to getting the most bang for a buck at sit-down restaurants, Olive Garden, Cracker Barrel, Golden Corral, Applebee’s and Chili’s get top marks, according to 5,000 diners recently polled online by BrandIndex.

Brands with the worst perceived value were Ground Round, Benihana, Bahama Breeze, Landry’s Seafood House and Hooter’s.

Sit-down restaurants have been discounting heavily as consumers cook more meals at home and “trade down” to lower-priced fast-food chains to save money amid a long recession that has sent U.S. unemployment to a 26-year high.

BrandIndex is owned by market research company YouGov.

Here is the full list of results:

(A score can range from 100 to -100 and is compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive. A zero score means equal positive and negative feedback.)

CASUAL DINING — VALUE SCORES (July 10, 2009)

Starbucks strikes back

Starbucks wants you to know that it is not the home of $4 coffee, and it’s launching a multimillion-dollar ad campaign to make sure you get the message that its brew is not an expensive luxury.

“Starbucks coffee does not cost $4,” Chief Executive Howard Schultz said this week when he announced the new ad blitz. The ad at left will run on Sunday in the New York Times.

In an email promoting its new campaign, Starbucks said: “Everybody is looking for value, but value doesn’t just mean what’s cheapest; it’s about what’s best for consumers, their families, their communities and the world around them.”

When the company was growing like gangbusters, it relied mostly on word of mouth advertising. ”But during that time … they became, kind of jokingly, the home of $4 beverages,” said William Blair & Co analyst Sharon Zackfia.

The reality is that most Starbucks rivals — with the exception of McDonald’s — have the same pricing, Zackfia said.

Starbucks drip coffee starts at around $1 and stays well below $4, while its specialty coffee drinks like mochas, lattes and Frappuccino blended drinks can top $4.

Starbucks eyes breakfast bargains, dumps the jet

Once upon a time, Starbucks had nowhere to go but up.

My, how times have changed.

Chief Executive Howard Schultz in July said the upscale coffee chain would not combine menu items and sell them at a discount, a move made popular by fast-food chains like McDonald’s.

“We’re not going to go down the fast-food lane,” Schultz told investors back then — when the company’s business was hitting the skids in a housing-led slowdown.

On the heels of news that McDonald’s will finish adding McCafes to U.S. stores by the middle of the year, Shultz is now touting a plan to offer several “breakfast pairings” at “attractive price points” beginning in March.

“The question of value often gets tied to the competition. How are we competing with (quick-service restaurants)? How can a premium brand be competitive when customers are trading down on everything from houses and travel to clothing and lunches out?” said Schultz. “We will combine our breakfast strengths with a value proposition that challenges misperceptions about our every day affordability.”

As it pays the price for its expansion exuberance, Starbucks is slashing another 300 namesake cafes around the world, bringing its closures to 1,000, cutting thousands of jobs and putting its brand new Gulfstream jet on the blocks.