"These Restaurant Chains Are on the Brink of Disappearing" Topic

…Entirely

"According to the National Restaurant Association, some restaurants are not going to be able to recover from these losses and will have to close many, if not all of their locations. These are the major chains that are in serious danger of disappearing altogether…."

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Are you going to miss any of them…?

Amicalement
Armand

I haven't even heard of most of them.

Of course, I'm spoiled by living the San Francisco area and eating at excellent locally-owned restaurants, serving cuisine from everywhere in the world, whenever I want (except for the last year, of course).

Boston Market, Subway, and a couple of Pizza Hut franchises are closed, as is one of the Long John Silver's, locally.

Of course, there were three Subway's within the space of just a couple of miles, so that is not hard to understand. Perhaps the one that closed just relocated to the third spot – can't say for sure because I'm not a Subway customer, since they put too little meat on their sandwiches to really be called a sandwich. It's more like a "bread-wrapped salad" than a sandwich with meat on it.

I imagine there are many, many more I'm not aware of, since I don't get out and about, or dine out much.

I'm sure there are many others, both chain franchises, as well as independents.

If you don't have a drive-thru window at your business, you're screwed.

This year will see a lot more close, and many were already struggling with onerous regulations (many of which are needed but probably hard for little independents to comply with), not to mention overly burdensome taxes, and rising wages. The much lauded $15 USD/Hr. "living wage" and "Obamacare" have resulted in cuts to jobs and working hours for those still employed.

Many employers in my state keep workers under 32 hours a week, so they don't have to pay for healthcare, so that's a 20%+ cut in hours, and no health plan, or other benefits either. That $15 USD/Hr. "living wage" isn't working out too well for all the part-timers government bureaucrats created with their meddling in the "free market".

Fast food robots and robot manufacturers for them are the big winners.

Restaurants compensate their front-of-the-house staff almost like sales people: a low base plus commission, and the customer pays the commission. That is actually the model for real estate salespeople, except that the commission is detailed in an enforceable written agreement, and the tip is just whatever the customer feels is right.

It was pretty much a broken model for restaurants before the pandemic, and the pandemic has made it worse. A lot of restaurants of all kinds have failed and will fail over the next year or so. When it's all over, we may find ourselves moving to a European model of no tips and more expensive restaurant meals.

And robots. What could possibly go wrong with robots making and serving food?

Oberlindes for the score. Fast food chains simply can't hold steady personnel. Nobody is a twenty year plus employee at any of these 'franchises'. The 'onerous regulations' come from the corporations, not the government.

A lot of those have already closed here, before the pandemic.

Golden Corral would be the exception – we have one of those in our area, it's shut due to the pandemic, but pre-pandemic that place was always packed.

Chipotle – too inconsistent

Papa Johns – gone long before the 'scandal'

Ruby Tuesday – quality went downhill, then gone

Outback Steakhouse – bad service, but place is still busy

Taco Bell – extremely busy, lines back down the street

Burger King – also seems busy

Applebees – haven't been there in years, thought the food was fine, still have one in our area

Carrabbas – terribly run, bad service, I think they closed here

Have not heard of many but must say not a surprise for the ones I know about

Like many of you, there are a lot on the list I've never heard of, and several I drove by once when I made a business trip halfway across the country. There are a few whose closing I'd chalk up under the "Well, that's sad" category, a couple I might actually go spend some money at in hopes of delaying their closing. Papa Murphy's is just three blocks away, too close, too convenient for me not to hope that it keeps going. Especially now that my wife has them trained to make pizzas she isn't allergic to!

Grelber

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand

Never mind – you will be able to get your Basic Nutrition Supplement from a local community spigot in due course.

Haven't heard of about a third, thought another thirds was already dead and buried and the last 3rd, no great loss (IMHO.)

They aren't the only ones, there is a war against restaurants in the US, and its the government against them.

" Nobody is a twenty year plus employee at any of these 'franchises'."

I lasted 4 days at Hardee's (though paychecks were issued for me weeks after I quit…)

Around here we have so many places to eat just about anything you want. If one goes there is always more opening up. Of course now, with COVID we'd rarely go out to eat. I may pick something up, everybody does carry out now !

Been to or have at least seen a vast majority of these restaurants.

Many of those listed are regional. And some, like Roy Rogers, have been on life support for decades. The problem with Tim Horton's is that the parent company got greedy and effectively put US franchises out of business, COVID has nothing to o with it.