Roadside chains with at least one foot in the grave

[briantroutman]

The Hardee's/Carl's thread mentioned Rax, and I didn't realize how tenuous the chain's grasp on life had become. Their website has gone defunct, and according to the most recent Internet Archive capture (January 2015), they were down to twelve locations at that time, ten of which were in Ohio.

The chain most intertwined with the history of the American highway landscape, Howard Johnson's, made headlines a few months ago when the Lake Placid location closed, leaving only two. But with no remaining commissaries, no central management, and no 28 flavors, the chain really winked out a decade ago.

Roy Rogers seems to be holding steady at just under 50 locations with a strong customer base in the Washington metro area. Almost a third (17 stores, nearly all locations outside Maryland and Virginia) are in toll road service areas, and a single serious falling-out with HMSHost could decimate the chain. And it's hard to overlook the fact that the chain is less than one-tenth the size it was in 1990.

What other chains (either on life support or clinically deceased) would you add to the list? Any that you think could be revitalized?

[corco]

Boston Market and Bruegger's Bagels come to mind as chains that pretty much died. Both are coming back a little bit, it seems like, but are shadows of their former selves.

Side note: there is a Max and Ermas in Aberdeen, SD for some reason that is completely affiliated with the Columbus OH chain.

[Big John]

Shakey's pizza - was all over the US but its remaining restaurants are mostly in California.

[roadman65]

The Hardee's/Carl's thread mentioned Rax, and I didn't realize how tenuous the chain's grasp on life had become. Their website has gone defunct, and according to the most recent Internet Archive capture (January 2015), they were down to twelve locations at that time, ten of which were in Ohio.

The chain most intertwined with the history of the American highway landscape, Howard Johnson's, made headlines a few months ago when the Lake Placid location closed, leaving only two. But with no remaining commissaries, no central management, and no 28 flavors, the chain really winked out a decade ago.

Roy Rogers seems to be holding steady at just under 50 locations with a strong customer base in the Washington metro area. Almost a third (17 stores, nearly all locations outside Maryland and Virginia) are in toll road service areas, and a single serious falling-out with HMSHost could decimate the chain. And it's hard to overlook the fact that the chain is less than one-tenth the size it was in 1990.

What other chains (either on life support or clinically deceased) would you add to the list? Any that you think could be revitalized?

Florida closed many.  Missed their fried chicken as it was better than KFC.

Pizza Hut went downhill from what it was back in the 70's and 80's.  Many dine in stores closed and just their carry out stores remain just barely.  Papa John's gave them better competition.

[SP Cook]

Personally, while not exactly "roadside" I see Domino's as dying.  When your ad campaign is "everything we used to do was crap, but now ..." you are circling the bowl.

Shoney's, which has been through bankruptcy multiple times, over-expanded and then retreated.  Now it is no longer a table service restaurant, but a hot bar based feeding trough, based in buildings it either owns or can rent for nothing. 

At least AFAI can see Hardee's.  Multiple locations in my region are closing, and the open ones are not being updated or repaired.

Really, the whole "diner" category is not what it was.  The restaurants with actual waitresses and plates, above fast food but below "fast casual".  Denny's, Shoney's, Howard Johnson, Eat N' Park, Perkins, IHOP, Big Boy, that sort.  Still going, but people are opting for fast food for less money and time, or stepping up to "fast casual".  Their clientele is aging out quickly.

[Molandfreak]

Personally, while not exactly "roadside" I see Domino's as dying.  When your ad campaign is "everything we used to do was crap, but now ..." you are circling the bowl.

Yeah, not to mention their original recipe of cheese pizza was insanely better.

[Brandon]

Boston Market and Bruegger's Bagels come to mind as chains that pretty much died. Both are coming back a little bit, it seems like, but are shadows of their former selves.

Side note: there is a Max and Ermas in Aberdeen, SD for some reason that is completely affiliated with the Columbus OH chain.

I haven't seen any decline in Boston Market at all.  Around NE Illinois, they're still going very strong.  Now, Max and Erma's, on the other hand...

And, we do have one of those twelve Rax locations in Joliet.  It's been here in the same location for decades and through updates.  It was here when I got here in 1980.

[briantroutman]

Mods, would it be possible to split roadman65's posts–plus corco's, jakeroot's, and my responses to them–to a separate thread?

Done --sso

Back to the original topic... Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips also came to mind. I had three within about an hour's drive growing up–all long gone. The trademark is now owned by the parent of Nathan's Famous, and if you go to their website, it seems more focused on attracting franchisees than promoting their actual product. The dozen or so locations that do exist seem to be largely in food courts–does anyone know if any freestanding locations are left?

[Brandon]

At least AFAI can see Hardee's.  Multiple locations in my region are closing, and the open ones are not being updated or repaired.

Really, the whole "diner" category is not what it was.  The restaurants with actual waitresses and plates, above fast food but below "fast casual".  Denny's, Shoney's, Howard Johnson, Eat N' Park, Perkins, IHOP, Big Boy, that sort.  Still going, but people are opting for fast food for less money and time, or stepping up to "fast casual".  Their clientele is aging out quickly.

Hardee's seems to be on the rebound here in Illinois, adding a lot of locations.

Denny's seems to have also cleaned up and updated, also adding some new locations, mainly in shopping centers instead of the older standalone buildings.

Nobody wants to tip anymore.

I've heard about that out west, and maybe it's a California/Florida thing not to tip.  Here in the Midwest, it's expected.

[briantroutman]

I haven't seen any decline in Boston Market at all.  Around NE Illinois, they're still going very strong.

Your perception of this would depend on where you are. They had over 1,200 locations at one point, and now they're standing at about a third of that. For example they used to have locations in the Harrisburg-Lancaster region, and as of 2014, there are none. It seems that they've evacuated a number of secondary or tertiary metros.

[SSOWorld]

The "Tipping" portion of the thread has been moved to https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=15832.msg2073500#msg2073500 per OP's request.

Please continue that conversation there.

[jeffandnicole]

Restaurants that were national may have decided to narrow their focus. The same is true in the gasoline industry, which we have another thread on referring to exactly this.

Both Boston Market and Hardee's are doing well, and neither are showing any signs of stress. When a restaurant closed a number of locations near each other, many times it's more of a franchisee issue rather than a corporate issue. Friendly's in Ohio suffered a mass closing due to a franchisee deciding he just wanted to shut them all down.

Personally, while not exactly "roadside" I see Domino's as dying.  When your ad campaign is "everything we used to do was crap, but now ..." you are circling the bowl.

Laughable.

Their stock is up nearly 1000% in 5 years, and their "we can do better" ads was viewed industry wide as wildly innovative and successful. Revenue in 2014 was nearly $400 million higher than it was just 5 years ago.

For a generic pizza chain, which never gets any love when there are mom and pop pizza chains nearby that usually make a better pizza, Dominos is kicking ass right now.

[briantroutman]

Let me re-paste a couple of relevant items that got moved into the tipping thread...

Personally, while not exactly "roadside" I see Domino's as dying.  When your ad campaign is "everything we used to do was crap, but now ..." you are circling the bowl.

I've never liked Domino's–the pizza, the advertising, or the company. But I think you'd be hard pressed to say that any chain with more than 10,000 locations has one foot in the grave. Clearly, their niche has always been being cheap and fast–even if their pizza is barely edible. When you're in a business where penny-pinching customers sift through ValPak coupons to decide whether to buy a sub-$10 pizza from you or Little Caesars, product quality is secondary. Domino's is probably safe bashing their past quality standards because most of their customers don't care about quality anyway. They might, however, pick up a few higher end customers who had written off Domino's as cheap junk pizza.

Shoney's, which has been through bankruptcy multiple times, over-expanded and then retreated.

I forgot about Shoney's–certainly they've gone through a major contraction. At one time, the company had a "Shoney's Inn"  brand for hotels, but I suspect they're all gone by now.

We don't have to limit the discussion to fast food–although I can't think of many lodging or other types of chains that you could say are on life support. Let's just keep in mind that "one foot in the grave"  is a more serious proposition than "they're not as good as they used to be"  or "they're smaller than they used to be" . I'm thinking of companies that might cease to exist in a decade or two.

[Rothman]

Friendly's in Ohio suffered a mass closing due to a franchisee deciding he just wanted to shut them all down.

Friendly's went bankrupt.  A whole bunch of them closed down around here in Upstate NY.

[Zeffy]

Friendly's in Ohio suffered a mass closing due to a franchisee deciding he just wanted to shut them all down.

Friendly's went bankrupt.  A whole bunch of them closed down around here in Upstate NY.

I used to love Friendly's as a little kid - especially their ice cream. Unfortunately, I never got to experience it as an adult thanks to my lactose intolerance developing in the 12th grade.

[Rothman]

I loved it as a kid as well, but it seemed to me that as I got older, the ice cream portions got smaller (the ice cream dishes themselves even seemed to become thicker, leaving as little room as possible for ice cream) and the rest of food just crappier.  They just got squeezed by Denny's-like places on one side and Applebee's-like places on the other.

[mgk920]

Friendly's in Ohio suffered a mass closing due to a franchisee deciding he just wanted to shut them all down.

Friendly's went bankrupt.  A whole bunch of them closed down around here in Upstate NY.

I remember from east-coast roadtripping in the late 1990s and early 2000s hearing commentary from locals about them on their slide with words like "they're just not friendly anymore".

My sense is that Wisconsin-based Culvers is about to be their successor in the northeast.

Mike

[Rothman]

I lived in Superior, WI for a time.  Anything that brings butterburgers closer to me is not anything I have a problem with!

That said, Sonic evidently smelled blood around here for some reason.  They're building their first franchise up here for miles around.  Seems there's a turf war going on with burger places now (Five Guys, Smashburger, now Sonic...).

[Alex4897]

Friendly's in Ohio suffered a mass closing due to a franchisee deciding he just wanted to shut them all down.

Friendly's went bankrupt.  A whole bunch of them closed down around here in Upstate NY.

The franchisee went bankrupt, not Friendly's the chain itself.  The chain is alive and well in Delaware.

[jp the roadgeek]

Papa Gino's comes to mind.  There used to be a bunch in CT and even upstate NY, but there's 2 left that I know of in CT.  Also, Pizzeria Uno just closed its last CT location in Milford.  Applebee's has also fallen on hard times in my area (only a couple left).  Friendly's and D'Angelos  have each thinned out, but there's still one of each in my town.  The nearest Roy Rogers is on the NY Thruway.  There were rumors that Hardee's was coming back to the area, but I haven't heard much lately. 

[Duke87]

Red Lobster has been struggling for a while, with the most commonly cited cause being that their traditional customer base (working class families looking for an occasional treat) can no longer afford to eat there.


As for restaurants shrinking in scope, this definitely is an oft repeated trend. I remember as a kid eating at A&W in Connecticut, but today there are none anywhere in the state and very few left in the northeast at all. It appears there are three in all of New England and nine in New York.

[briantroutman]

Friendly's in Ohio suffered a mass closing due to a franchisee deciding he just wanted to shut them all down.

Friendly's went bankrupt.  A whole bunch of them closed down around here in Upstate NY.

The franchisee went bankrupt, not Friendly's the chain itself.  The chain is alive and well in Delaware.

The chain's parent company, Friendy Ice Cream Corp., did file a chapter 11 bankruptcy itself in 2011. A lot of people automatically assume that "bankruptcy"  = the death of a company, but that's not always the case. A chapter 11 bankruptcy is specifically intended to allow a company to reorganize its debts so that it can avoid going out of business permanently. But coupled with the bankruptcy of two major franchisees, I think it's safe to say that Friendly's isn't exactly in clover these days.

I must say that the one time I visited a Friendly's in recent years, the food was mediocre and the service indifferent–as if everyone was numbly going through the motions. Actually, I've heard the same complaints leveled against Howard Johnson's just before they collapsed in the '80s. It's a shame, too, because Friendly's would seem to be the closest thing to a modern day Howard Johnson's–Massachusetts-born, neocolonial buildings with cupolas, diner-type menu with emphasis on ice cream...

But as with many other sit-down chains mentioned (Red Lobster, Shoney's, IHOP), it would appear the entire low end of the full-service dining business has at the very least been squeezed as less affluent consumers either dine at home or prefer counter service alternatives.

My sense is that Wisconsin-based Culvers is about to be their successor in the northeast.

I know that Culver's has some kind of table service (perhaps like Steak-n-Shake?), but I've always taken my Culver's orders to-go. And so I think of them more as a high-end fast food place–whereas I consider Friendly's to be a sit-down restaurant. Since Culver's has added veggie burgers nearly chain wide, and with their great frozen custard desserts, they can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned. I'd like to see Culver's nationwide...and yet part of me would regret losing the magic of making a cross country road trip and looking forward to entering "Culver's territory" .

[roadman65]

Big Boy seems to be in trouble as they closed all their locations except in Michigan.  Shoney's and Marriot used to have their franchises, but dropped them as well.

Shoney's was doing well in the stock market in the mid 90's, but took a nose dive.  We have only one left in Orlando as many closed.

Clock Restaurant, a chain here in Florida, cut back on many locations.  I thought they went out, but seen one on US 27 either in Sebring or Avon Park when I was roading a few weeks ago.  So they must of been in grave danger to still only have one around and closed many of them.

[Mapmikey]

Surprised Stuckey's hasn't hit this thread yet.  Not very many stand-alone Stuckey's left...when I was a kid in the 1970s they were everywhere.

The Fredericksburg Shoneys does really well.  Not sure how the Friendly's directly across the street is doing.  Shoneys was the only place we could regularly afford to go out to eat when I was small...I see tons of closed locations toodling around the southeast.

A Virginia chain that is all but gone is Aunt Sarah's...only 2 left, both in Richmond. 

Another southern chain that is down to 2 locations is Quincy's Steakhouse (Florence SC and Monroe NC).  They used to be all over the southern states.

I am also a huge fan of Culvers which is SLOWLY expanding its reach...

Mike

[texaskdog]

The Hardee’s/Carl’s thread mentioned Rax, and I didn’t realize how tenuous the chain’s grasp on life had become. Their website has gone defunct, and according to the most recent Internet Archive capture (January 2015), they were down to twelve locations at that time, ten of which were in Ohio.

When I lived in Minnesota in high school in the mid 80s we ate at Rax every day on the way home, and occasionally at another one near home. It was one of my favorite restaurants but I haven't thought about them in years.  thanks for the memories!

We have a culvers here in Austin not far from home.  It's not one of my favorites but if you want a burger and ice cream they do a decent job.