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Comment by darepublic | Hacker News Reader

I sometimes go to A&W in Toronto Canada, and here I would say its the opposite - A&W is generally pretty reliable and consistent in quality across its locations whereas Mcdonalds can vary quite a bit based on time and location.

Poeple's attachment to certain restaurants is deeper than seeking out the best deal or best taste. Generally I consider an A&W burger superior to Mcdonalds, just as I would consider many boutique burger places superior to mickey ds. Yet the latter has a place in my heart that is really pretty irrational

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A&W Canada has been unrelated to A&W in the US since the 70s, and seems to be the more successful of the two by far.

Yes, as an American when I was driving across Alberta I was absolutely astounded by how many A&Ws there were and how nice they seemed. At least in my corner of the US, A&W has a thorough reputation as a cheap, lame has-been that's usually tandemed with other failed fast food brands. The only one I know of in the state regularly garners comments that "wow, that still exists?" when driving by.

In Canada, on the other hand, it seems to be a major and well-liked brand... As much as I found the slogan "American food" very funny given their reputation here.

A n W is the most popular well liked fast food in my friend group, and imho the best quality chain in Canada.

Its worth noting that the reason this happened is because management bought out the company from Unilever. They were able to switch to a long term vision, then transformed and succeeded.

Just goes to show that the boardroom can absolutely hobble a good management team.

There used to be a A&W in my home town that finally closed in 2017. For awhile durning some kind of ownership tranfer the franchisees were mostly left high and dry and that place became the best 'fast food' burger in town. I think I remember that the franchise owner basically started buying everything from other suppliers and was only buying a few things from upstream A&W (notably root beer). He pivoted his burgers to compete on quality with the other fast food in town, i think that all went to shit a couple of years later presumably when he either sold or got smacked down the the franchise. Either way it's kind of one of those 'zombie brands' now .. slowly succumbing to economics.

Piling up on the Canadians who like A&W thread. It’s our go-to fast food chain, burgers are of decent quality, their vegetarian option is reasonably good, and the root beer is delicious.

I totally agree. The A&W burger in Canada is superior to other fast-food chains hands down. It seems to be A&W in name only.

I am no longer customer of fast food chain (mostly BBQ at home) but many years ago when I used to I very much preferred Harvey's to anything else.

A&W Canada has been downright impressive in being consistently good. Around the level of south-asian owned popeyes franchises. Whatever culture they have behind the scenes, I hope franchises restaurants follow.

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