Roadside chains with at least one foot in the grave

[cl94]

We had a Checker's, it closed, then the chain said it's coming back.

Checkers is expanding back east. They've opened 2 new locations in Buffalo. I don't know how old the Syracuse one is.

[US71]

One LJS here (the other got shut down by the health dept)

2 BK's

2 Wendy's

2 Firehouse Subs

2 Western Sizzlin

3 Genos (pizza by the slice)

9 McDonald's

9 Subway


Quizno's left town 3-4 years ago

[Pete from Boston]

Newport Creamery.

This was a common chain concept in New England–sit-down family dining at a restaurant whose claim to fame was its ice cream.  Friendly's, Farm Shop, and Howard Johnson all followed the same formula.

Wikipedia says there were 33 before their 2000 bankruptcy, with 12 left.

[jeffandnicole]

There was a Burger King in West Deptford NJ that closed down years ago.  The building became a pizza place.  It didn't last.  Then it became a '25 Burgers' (small chain only in NJ).  It lasted a while, but finally shut down.  It just reopened again...as a Burger King! 

Not sure if the same person owned the building the entire time, and went back into the BK Franchise, or if it's had multiple owners thru the years of being different things.

[1995hoo]

....

Arthur Treacher's has locations in Metro New York and Cleveland, plus one location each in Stroudsburg and Fairfax.

I believe the Arthur Treacher's in Fairfax has closed. I just drove past there Tuesday morning but I wasn't paying attention to the roadside businesses to be able to confirm for sure. More than one person on another forum I sometimes visit has said it's no longer open.


(Edited to fix mangled quotes. I should know better than to try to edit down long posts using the touchscreen keyboard.)

[MikeTheActuary]

We're down to 2 Long John Silver's and 2 Quizno's in CT, and the only Krispy Kreme left is at Mohegan Sun casino.  We had a Checker's, it closed, then the chain said it's coming back.  Blimpie has also dwindled down to a few locations, Nathan's is totally gone, and even D'Angelo's has closed quite a few locations.  Meanwhile, my town has scaled back the number of Dunkin locations from 9 to 8, and Subway from 7 to 6 by closing inside Stop & Shop and Walmart, respectively.

Krispy Kreme was doomed in CT partly due to increased health-consciousness, partly due to piss-poor coffee, partly due to the town of Newington throwing a hissy-fit over the model of making doughnuts at a store and shipping them out to other locations for resale, and partly because New Englanders have absolutely no appreciation for ambrosia.

[Pete from Boston]

We're down to 2 Long John Silver's and 2 Quizno's in CT, and the only Krispy Kreme left is at Mohegan Sun casino.  We had a Checker's, it closed, then the chain said it's coming back.  Blimpie has also dwindled down to a few locations, Nathan's is totally gone, and even D'Angelo's has closed quite a few locations.  Meanwhile, my town has scaled back the number of Dunkin locations from 9 to 8, and Subway from 7 to 6 by closing inside Stop & Shop and Walmart, respectively.

Krispy Kreme was doomed in CT partly due to increased health-consciousness, partly due to piss-poor coffee, partly due to the town of Newington throwing a hissy-fit over the model of making doughnuts at a store and shipping them out to other locations for resale, and partly because New Englanders have absolutely no appreciation for ambrosia.

You're telling me Newington isn't bothered that Dunkin' Donuts uses the same system?  Health consciousness and lousy coffee sure haven't hurt them.

Krispy Kreme overimagined the room for them in the Northeast.  They also went too big too fast.  If the product was that good, opening a couple at a time would build a cult of scarcity.  Look how much less people appreciated Yuengling once you could get it anywhere up here.

[1995hoo]

....

Krispy Kreme overimagined the room for them in the Northeast.  They also went too big too fast.  If the product was that good, opening a couple at a time would build a cult of scarcity.  Look how much less people appreciated Yuengling once you could get it anywhere up here.

Same could be said of Coors 40 years ago. My father tells a story about how when I was a baby in Texas he had people over for a barbecue and he went to a lot of trouble to get Coors, which he stored in the garage until the big day and he then wondered why nobody would drink it: "This was a Big Deal! This was COORS BEER!" Of course it had skunked in the heat of a central Texas garage. My brother and I couldn't fathom why anyone would care about Coors and he said it was not widely available at the time and he'd had to drive to Dallas to find it.

I guess in my frame of reference it'd be like Fat Tire was prior to when distribution began in Virginia a few years ago. I think I first had that on a football trip to Boise, again at the brewery in Fort Collins on a football trip to Laramie a few years later, loved it both times, and now I hardly ever buy it. Funny how that works.

[MikeTheActuary]

Krispy Kreme was doomed in CT partly due to increased health-consciousness, partly due to piss-poor coffee, partly due to the town of Newington throwing a hissy-fit over the model of making doughnuts at a store and shipping them out to other locations for resale, and partly because New Englanders have absolutely no appreciation for ambrosia.

You're telling me Newington isn't bothered that Dunkin' Donuts uses the same system?  Health consciousness and lousy coffee sure haven't hurt them.

Krispy Kreme overimagined the room for them in the Northeast.  They also went too big too fast.  If the product was that good, opening a couple at a time would build a cult of scarcity.  Look how much less people appreciated Yuengling once you could get it anywhere up here.

Overexpansion probably didn't help matters either. 

Re Newington's hissy fit, I think the difference is that DD isn't making their doughnuts and shipping them out from a site that's not terribly far away from a residential neighborhood.

The fact that so many New Englanders seem to be addicted to DD coffee only further supports my belief that New Englanders really have no sense of taste. 

[Pete from Boston]

It might also overestimate the quality of any one doughnut over the rest in the public's opinion.  Krispy Kreme surely benefits in its home region from the same thing Dunkin' Donuts has here–it's everywhere, it's what everyone knows, and people assume it's the best.  Not as easy to reproduce in another market where people have that same (possibly misguided) idea about another chain.  One's doughnuts would probably have to be a lot more superior than a doughnut is capable of being.

[vdeane]

I don't understand how one could prefer Dunkin Donuts to Krispy Kreme (sure, Krispy Kreme doesn't do heart shaped donuts with cookie dough filling, but then neither does Dunkin 11 1/2 months of the year), but then, Krispy Kreme was in its heyday when I was growing up and was considered a special treat by pretty much all of my peers in elementary and middle school.

[Pete from Boston]

Cult of scarcity.  Anything you can't have gets a boost compared to what you can get all the time.

I don't think people are as motivated to go out of their way to purchase one doughnut over another as these companies would like.

[Brandon]

I don't understand how one could prefer Dunkin Donuts to Krispy Kreme (sure, Krispy Kreme doesn't do heart shaped donuts with cookie dough filling, but then neither does Dunkin 11 1/2 months of the year), but then, Krispy Kreme was in its heyday when I was growing up and was considered a special treat by pretty much all of my peers in elementary and middle school.

I never understood the attraction to either.  I've found Tim Hortons and a lot of local chains/one-offs to be far better than either Dunkin or Krispy Kreme.  My favorites are Homecut (local to Joliet) and Sweetwater's Donut Mill (Kalamazoo/Battle Creek, MI).

[cl94]

I don't get the hype behind Tim Hortons. Donuts aren't all that good and their drinks are crap.

Some of Krispy Kreme's retreat was due to franchisees. The Buffalo location closed because of something the franchisee did. It was often quite busy. At this point, it would probably be stupid for them to move back to the area because Dunkin moved in and Tim Hortons oversaturated the market by opening 3 locations along a single mile of road. Yes, that last part is true in more than one location.

[Pete from Boston]

I don't get the hype behind Tim Hortons. Donuts aren't all that good and their drinks are crap.

Some of Krispy Kreme's retreat was due to franchisees. The Buffalo location closed because of something the franchisee did. It was often quite busy. At this point, it would probably be stupid for them to move back to the area because Dunkin moved in and Tim Hortons oversaturated the market by opening 3 locations along a single mile of road. Yes, that last part is true in more than one location.

It's true of Dunkin' Donuts in many locations here.  Three per mile is not uncommon here.

[1995hoo]

I don't get the hype behind Tim Hortons. Donuts aren't all that good and their drinks are crap.

Some of Krispy Kreme's retreat was due to franchisees. The Buffalo location closed because of something the franchisee did. It was often quite busy. At this point, it would probably be stupid for them to move back to the area because Dunkin moved in and Tim Hortons oversaturated the market by opening 3 locations along a single mile of road. Yes, that last part is true in more than one location.

It's true of Dunkin' Donuts in many locations here.  Three per mile is not uncommon here.

No different from McDonald's in that respect. In a few places, it almost seems as though they opened franchises close to each other so that people wouldn't have to turn across traffic to the other side of the road.

Regarding donuts, few things can beat the legendary Old Bay Seasoned Fried Chicken BLT from Astro Doughnuts and Fried Chicken in downtown DC (the shop is owned by a group including former Capitals player Jeff Halpern). I've had this two times when it was on the Uber Eats menu and it is truly delicious, but I've sworn never to eat it again because eating too many of these will mean bypass surgery isn't enough and you'll need a full beltway with express lanes. (You can't see the lettuce and tomato in this picture because they came on the side and I opted not to eat them. If I'd wanted a salad, I'd have gotten a salad!)

[MikeTheActuary]

It's true of Dunkin' Donuts in many locations here.  Three per mile is not uncommon here.

Reminds me of a news report on the Revere tornado

[Takumi]

Regarding donuts, few things can beat the legendary Old Bay Seasoned Fried Chicken BLT from Astro Doughnuts and Fried Chicken in downtown DC (the shop is owned by a group including former Capitals player Jeff Halpern). I've had this two times when it was on the Uber Eats menu and it is truly delicious, but I've sworn never to eat it again because eating too many of these will mean bypass surgery isn't enough and you'll need a full beltway with express lanes. (You can't see the lettuce and tomato in this picture because they came on the side and I opted not to eat them. If I'd wanted a salad, I'd have gotten a salad!)

(snip)

Just looking at that gives me phantom chest pains.

[1995hoo]

....

Arthur Treacher's has locations in Metro New York and Cleveland, plus one location each in Stroudsburg and Fairfax.

I believe the Arthur Treacher's in Fairfax has closed. I just drove past there Tuesday morning but I wasn't paying attention to the roadside businesses to be able to confirm for sure. More than one person on another forum I sometimes visit has said it's no longer open.


(Edited to fix mangled quotes. I should know better than to try to edit down long posts using the touchscreen keyboard.)

I was just downloading dashcam videos, so I scanned through the one in which I passed the Arthur Treacher's location in Fairfax. Not only is the franchise closed, the building has been demolished and replaced by something else.

[US71]

I don't get the hype behind Tim Hortons. Donuts aren't all that good and their drinks are crap.

Limited locations/availability plus lots of hype. Not unlike before Horse Piss Coors was availabe everywhere

[thenetwork]

I don't get the hype behind Tim Hortons. Donuts aren't all that good and their drinks are crap.

Limited locations/availability plus lots of hype. Not unlike before Horse Piss Coors was availabe everywhere

I remember back in my college years, when I would travel over the border to Windsor, ON (as the magic age for drinking was 19). Tim Hortons seemed to be everywhere and most locations were jammed with people on Friday or Saturday nights.

I only like a few kinds/flavors of donuts, but TH donuts were pretty good.  Glazed Timbits (donut holes) were highly addicting.

[oscar]

I don't get the hype behind Tim Hortons. Donuts aren't all that good and their drinks are crap.

I go to Tim Hortons only for breakfast, without coffee since I like my caffeine cold. In Canada, I prefer Tim Hortons over McD's. In the U.S., McDs have better breakfast options in the areas where Tim Hortons are, so I usually don't go to Tim Hortons south of the border.

[noelbotevera]

Macy's and JCPenney are also dying, though they've been dying for decades....now we just play the waiting game.

[Pete from Boston]

Macy's and JCPenney are also dying, though they've been dying for decades....now we just play the waiting game.

JCPenney, sure, but Macy's?  When they've shut stores down it's seemed to be mostly to eliminate duplication where they bought a competitor.  Not that I'm endorsing the viability of large department stores in 2016, but this is not Sears we're talking about.

[cl94]

Macy's and JCPenney are also dying, though they've been dying for decades....now we just play the waiting game.

JCPenney, sure, but Macy's?  When they've shut stores down it's seemed to be mostly to eliminate duplication where they bought a competitor.  Not that I'm endorsing the viability of large department stores in 2016, but this is not Sears we're talking about.

Macy's is closing 36 stores within the next few months. The original Kaufmann's location in Pittsburgh closed at the end of last year. Sales have been way down.

Don't forget Sears. They've had a bunch of store closings as well and now that they're with Kmart, the issues are just doubled.