SoCal Fast-Food Restaurants Spruce Up Their Look to Attract Customers

Splashy and new in Glendale

Forget making the food better for you and all the social media antics, apparently the way to attract new business in the world of fast food is to put fancy food photos on the walls, add TVs, glossy red walls and matte-black furniture. That's what a Glendale Burger King recently did, according to the LA Times. It's a growing trend across the fast-food spectrum - ditching the drab, corporate-looking stainless steel and Formica tables of yore and sprucing up with modern furniture, new colors and designs. In a sea of fast-casual competition, they had to do something.

McDonald's started it a few years ago with the Danish-style furniture, flat-screen TVs and WiFi (the first to be "feng-shui-ed" was in Hacienda Heights), and now we have a Redwood City Taco Bell that glows purple at night to attract people leaving the bars, an Irvine Del Taco replacing confetti-painted walls and vinyl floors for wood booths, lime-green chairs and floor-to-ceiling windows. But does it work? In a word: yes. All of these stores trying out new looks and "experiences," like Dominino's Pizza's new open kitchens and ordering kiosks, have actually increased sales. And to think, they just thought they needed "hand-made" dough and real cheese. Nope. Just make it pretty and they will come.