Defunct restaurant chains and retailers

[Scott5114]

Beef in the U.S. has really gone up in price. So much so that smaller farms that didn't have beef cattle for years or even decades have begun raising them again.

My wife and I went to Arby's tonight for some reason. $32.

[SectorZ]

Beef in the U.S. has really gone up in price. So much so that smaller farms that didn't have beef cattle for years or even decades have begun raising them again.

My wife and I went to Arby's tonight for some reason. $32.

Did you buy the restaurant itself or is Vegas that expensive?

I didn't realize how many around me had closed. Massachusetts has two, New Hampshire has one (Nashua NH itself used to have two). So many better roast beef places that I think no one bothers with them.

[thenetwork]

Beef in the U.S. has really gone up in price. So much so that smaller farms that didn't have beef cattle for years or even decades have begun raising them again.

My wife and I went to Arby's tonight for some reason. $32.

Did you buy the restaurant itself or is Vegas that expensive?

I didn't realize how many around me had closed. Massachusetts has two, New Hampshire has one (Nashua NH itself used to have two). So many better roast beef places that I think no one bothers with them.

I still love Long John Silvers, though they have declined in number of locations and are non existent in others.

Case in point, There is a Long John Silvers/A&W combo in Montrose, Colorado and it's the only LJS ("In Name Only") in a 200+ mile radius.  Not only do they not take national LJS coupons, but they do not honor their gift cards, their online app ordering nor online app offers, and their prices are nearly DOUBLE the next closest Long John Silvers location in Farmington, NM.

And to be fair, the A&W is also a rarity in Western Colorado as it is now the only A&W store in a 175-mile radius (Aztec NM is the closest).  I don't normally frequent A&W's so I don't know if the Montrose store gives the same no-discount, price-gouging treatment to that side of the store as well.

[TheCatalyst31]

Beef in the U.S. has really gone up in price. So much so that smaller farms that didn't have beef cattle for years or even decades have begun raising them again.

My wife and I went to Arby's tonight for some reason. $32.

Ouch. I'm not even sure Arby's beef was worth it pre-inflation.

Fast food prices in general have gone way up in the post-pandemic years, though. Some of that is the cost of food and/or labor increasing, but there are also places (notably McDonald's) that want to force you to use their app to get better prices.

[hotdogPi]

Chinese restaurants typically have a whole bunch of dishes that are similar but differ by having one of chicken, pork, beef, or sometimes shrimp. Pretty consistently, beef is $1 or $2 above chicken or pork. I don't remember the gap increasing much during the beef shortage.

[Scott5114]

Chinese restaurants typically have a whole bunch of dishes that are similar but differ by having one of chicken, pork, beef, or sometimes shrimp. Pretty consistently, beef is $1 or $2 above chicken or pork. I don't remember the gap increasing much during the beef shortage.

Fascinating observation, since when I worked at BK the chicken items were generally more expensive than the beef.

[ErmineNotyours]

Wouldn't set foot in a Hoblob if you paid me. Even beyond their politics, the Greens are notorious in OKC for being assholes who treat their employees like garbage. (Main warehouse in OKC has no A/C...enough said.) Then there was that whole thing where they were stealing archaeological artifacts from the Middle East. Total shitshow of a company.

Maybe I've had it good in the mild Seattle area, but it is common in the Sunbelt to air condition warehouses?  I'm lucky if they put up insulation just under the roof.  Warehouses are big and largely unoccupied, and air conditioning wouldn't make sense in most cases.

It was particularly bad when I worked at a warehouse operating a manup lift, where I take the pallet up with me 30 feet to the ceiling to reach high shelves.  One day they updated the lifts with brighter lights, but they took away the fan. I coped by bringing in an ice cube tray and making a supply of ice cubes, then fill a water bottle with that and drink away.  Soon the bosses had their latest safety meeting where they told us to dress light for the heat.  Okay, if you're so concerned about heat safety, why did you take away the lift fans?  They said they had no idea this happened and they never did anything about it.  I tried buying a 24 volt computer fan and plugging it into one of the modular connections for the lights, but I could never find a compatible connector for a quick, non-permanent connection.

[Scott5114]

Maybe I've had it good in the mild Seattle area, but it is common in the Sunbelt to air condition warehouses?  I'm lucky if they put up insulation just under the roof.  Warehouses are big and largely unoccupied, and air conditioning wouldn't make sense in most cases.

I've never worked in a warehouse, so I couldn't tell you. I can't imagine it would be terribly safe to not do so, though, considering daily temperatures in OKC during the summer are frequently above 100°F and the relative humidity is consistently above 60%. Your choices are basically either to provide A/C or have people take cool-down breaks so frequently they don't have time to actually get anything done. Fans don't really do anything, since your sweat has nowhere to go, so it just kind of hangs out on your skin and heats up without evaporating.

In Nevada, warehouse cooling is often provided by evaporative cooling (swamp coolers), which is cheap, but controversial because of the water usage. This obviously isn't viable in Oklahoma because of the high humidity.

[kernals12]

Where I grew up, there was a single building that had both a Radio Shack and a Blockbuster at one time.

[kphoger]

Where I grew up, there was a single building that had both a Radio Shack and a Blockbuster at one time.

Where I grew up, Radio Shack itself rented movies.  (And half of the store was a workshop where Bob Dunker did electronics repair.)  Other than the grocery store, Radio Shack was the only place in town to rent movies.

[Rothman]

Where I grew up, there was a single building that had both a Radio Shack and a Blockbuster at one time.

Where I grew up, Radio Shack itself rented movies.  (And half of the store was a workshop where Bob Dunker did electronics repair.)  Other than the grocery store, Radio Shack was the only place in town to rent movies.

O.o

Wuuuuuuut.

[LM117]

Forever 21 is on it's way out.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/forever-21-set-shut-us-operations-files-bankruptcy-rcna196678

[kphoger]

O.o

Wuuuuuuut.

And the drugstore across the street had tables in the back with Yahtzee games on them.  My friend and I would go there every so often to play a round.  That's where I learned to play the game.

[Rothman]

O.o

Wuuuuuuut.

And the drugstore across the street had tables in the back with Yahtzee games on them.  My friend and I would go there every so often to play a round.  That's where I learned to play the game.

That's much less surprising.

[Big John]

Forever 21 is on it's way out.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/forever-21-set-shut-us-operations-files-bankruptcy-rcna196678

Nothing lasts forever.

[kphoger]

That's much less surprising.

What was more surprising about the original?  That Radio Shack actually did repairs, or that the manager also rented movies?

[Rothman]

That's much less surprising.

What was more surprising about the original?  That Radio Shack actually did repairs, or that the manager also rented movies?

Movie rentals at Radio Shack.

[kphoger]

Movie rentals at Radio Shack.

Back when Radio Shack still operated franchises.

[SEWIGuy]

Movie rentals at Radio Shack.

Back when Radio Shack still operated franchises.

Did anyone actually buy one of those fireman hats with the light on top?

[thenetwork]

Movie rentals at Radio Shack.

Back when Radio Shack still operated franchises.

Did anyone actually buy one of those fireman hats with the light on top?

Not me, but I worked at one of the (evil) Key Bank processing centers in an old department store building in Downtown Cleveland where there was a weirdo lady om charge.of building safety who loved to do "frequent" fire drills where we would have to evacuate the building.  So much so, she would wear one of those Fire Hats during the drills...

If that wasn't crazy enough, if you weren't out of the building within a certain amount of time, you would have to wear a sticker on your shirt the rest of the day saying "deceased". 

I always wondered if you could go home for the rest of the day if you were "deceased"???

[SEWIGuy]

Movie rentals at Radio Shack.

Back when Radio Shack still operated franchises.

Did anyone actually buy one of those fireman hats with the light on top?

Not me, but I worked at one of the (evil) Key Bank processing centers in an old department store building in Downtown Cleveland where there was a weirdo lady om charge.of building safety who loved to do "frequent" fire drills where we would have to evacuate the building.  So much so, she would wear one of those Fire Hats during the drills...

If that wasn't crazy enough, if you weren't out of the building within a certain amount of time, you would have to wear a sticker on your shirt the rest of the day saying "deceased". 

I always wondered if you could go home for the rest of the day if you were "deceased"???

I would intentionally aim to be "deceased."

[jeffandnicole]

Movie rentals at Radio Shack.

Back when Radio Shack still operated franchises.

Did anyone actually buy one of those fireman hats with the light on top?

Not me, but I worked at one of the (evil) Key Bank processing centers in an old department store building in Downtown Cleveland where there was a weirdo lady om charge.of building safety who loved to do "frequent" fire drills where we would have to evacuate the building.  So much so, she would wear one of those Fire Hats during the drills...

If that wasn't crazy enough, if you weren't out of the building within a certain amount of time, you would have to wear a sticker on your shirt the rest of the day saying "deceased". 

I always wondered if you could go home for the rest of the day if you were "deceased"???

I would hope person running the fire drills would also have to be labeled deceased, or did she jump ship before she ensured everyone was out?

I'm on the fire team at work (I have no clue what I'm supposed to call myself).  We are supposed to make sure everyone has left the floor before we go down.  It's irritating when people decide to use the restroom instead and there's nothing you can really do about it.

[ErmineNotyours]

Where I grew up, there was a single building that had both a Radio Shack and a Blockbuster at one time.

The recent Bright Sun Films video about Party City mentioned a Party City opening between a Ruby Tuesday and BlockBuster Video at the three minute mark.

[english si]

Chinese restaurants typically have a whole bunch of dishes that are similar but differ by having one of chicken, pork, beef, or sometimes shrimp. Pretty consistently, beef is $1 or $2 above chicken or pork. I don't remember the gap increasing much during the beef shortage.

Fascinating observation, since when I worked at BK the chicken items were generally more expensive than the beef.

Different cuts, presumably.

At a Chinese you want juicy and flavourful cuts that cook quickly - and so chicken you go cheaper with thigh meat (because people are crazy and demand breast) and with beef you go more expensive with a more choice cut.

With fast food chicken items tend to be not minced, but whole pieces of breast (I know the US is less adverse to the pink goo than the UK, but looking, US BK's chicken always leaned premium and preferring whole cuts). While the beef options are minced trimmings and cheap cuts.

Thus the burger joint gets expensive chicken and cheap beef, and the Chinese goes vice versa.

[roadman65]

Macy's in Center City Philadelphia closes tomorrow and today is the last time their organ will be played as they're hosting an all day concert to honor the worlds largest pipe organ.

Once the store closes nobody knows yet what will become of the store and the iconic organ.