Zombie restaurants

[Sherman A1]

You see them all across the country, in shopping malls and street corners, suburban towns and city centers: zombie restaurants.

Many of the undead are part of familiar chains that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this year: Friendly’s, Chevys, Sbarro, Perkins. The zombie restaurants, barely bringing in enough cash to cover basic expenses, always seem to be one sizzling fajita or glazed chicken skewer away from a merciful end, but somehow keep hanging on — leaving too many restaurants chasing after scarce dining dollars.

“There’s a lot of walking dead,” said Bob Goldin, executive vice president for Technomic, a consulting firm that works with restaurant companies. “A lot of chains, they hang in there and they’re hard to kill off.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/business/bankrupt-restaurants-are-still-holding-on.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25

A sign of the times?

[Cooley Hurd]

1. I READ SUBJECT LINES ONLY. That said, Zombies need to eat too.

[jberryhill]

2. I only eat at the ones zombies go to

If you are looking for an authentic zombie restaurant, always look to see if the zombies eat there.

[BlueJazz]

3. Excuse me, Miss...could you bring us another serving of fresh Brains?

[SpiralHawk]

9. "Eat? Youbetcha." - Zombie Liberation Front (ZLF)

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

4. To truly appreciate zombie restaurants one must go to the Persian Gulf

Where franchises of long defunct American fast food chains persist independently. Riyadh and Dubai both for instance have Showbiz Pizza locations that are more or less unchanged from the 1980's.

[Fawke Em]

14. I LOVED Showbiz Pizza as a kid.

Chuck E. Cheese pales in comparison.

[blueamy66]

44. How about Shakey's??

nt

[JHB]

5. For the love of God, won't someone think of the profits!?

So the complaint is that thousands of corporate-owned chain restaurants are "underperforming" in a depressed economy, meaning that they're at least covering their operating costs but aren't sending as much in profits back to the headquarters as they "should". No, the best thing for them is for at least 20,000 to close to boost business for the rest.

Profits are down due to people cutting back, so let's put another one or two hundred thousand out of work! We need to boost profits so we can keep up our shareholder value. Just don't tax them on it. How can we create jobs if we don't destroy jobs?

Say guys, how much are your chain places cutting into the business of locally-owned places? The places where the profits go to the people who are running the place? And spend those profits in their community? Where their customers are?

[Sherman A1]

7. Agreed

however, in all cases these are jobs for the workers, be they locally owned, chain restaurants or these "zombies" and ultimately I believe it is the workers who get screwed.

[JHB]

8. No argument

Last edited Wed Dec 28, 2011, 01:14 PM - Edit history (1)

Owners of local places can be petty tyrants, and chain managers can be decent because it's just a job to them. It usually doesn't make much difference to the low people on the totem pole where the boss is located.

My main beef is with the extreme top-down view of the industry-association people, for whom it's all a numbers game. The chain-restaurant aspect piles on top of that, since over the last three decades many industries have been gutted not because they were not profitable but because they got bought up in mergermania and were required to send bigger profits to the new home office (in many cases despite being saddled with debt from their own takeover, thanks to creative accounting and deregulation).

[Motown_Johnny]

13. You are right, we should try and boycott these places

to help "finish them off" so that local establishments can pick up some of the business.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. Its because the workers didn't wear enough flair

Most restaurants fail because of that

[fishwax]

36. :)

[Odin2005]

10. Perkins???

[Aerows]

16. It's a diner type restaurant

More upscale than Denny's, sort of like a Shoney's. I used to eat there all the time in Florida. They have these biscuits and sausage gravy that are wonderful, and they serve it with hashbrowns and bacon. It's altogether an invitation to clogged arteries, but when you've been out at night, and 2am rolls around, it's really, really tasty.

[MineralMan]

17. Perkins is good for breakfast. Other meals, not so much.

It's the default here in Minnesota if you're hungry and want breakfast. There's one everywhere. Sort of the upper Midwest's Waffle House, but without those messy grits spoiling your plate. "Morning!"

[Aerows]

19. I've never eaten anything but breakfast there

Either in the wee hours of the morning or at the traditional breakfast eating times. I also like Waffle House, but that's not for breakfast that's for patty melts at lunch .

Now I must take offense to the slander toward the perfectly delicious, humble dish known as grits. Add some butter, some cheese and some Tabasco sauce, and it is a fine addition to breakfast, or just by itself! Of course, I'm a life-long Southerner so naturally I've eaten plenty of grits.

[ParkieDem]

22. Perkins is common in the South, I think.

Isn't that where Tiger Woods met one of his lady-friends? Wasn't she a waitress?

[RebelOne]

42. Not in the deep South. I live in North Georgia and have never heard of a Perkins restaurant. n't

[Odin2005]

24. I know that, I was suprised that it is in trouble.

[Aerows]

40. I love their breakfast

Their biscuits are wonderful and so is their gravy

[Odin2005]

41. Yup!

[HopeHoops]

11. Hell, that would be a hell of a chain concept - BRAINS!

We got your french fried brains, grilled brains, breaded brains, brains sub, brains alfredo, brains on a stick, etc.

[JHB]

12. maybe, but...

...at this point I think by the time you could put it into effect zombies would be one or two stages out of fashion.

[HopeHoops]

21. I never thought of zombies as fashion conscious.

[oneshooter]

35. I never thought of zombies as conscious at all! n/t

[Retrograde]

30. With the right marketing and the right buzz

It could work - not as a chain, but as an exclusive, edgy, trendy place. Back in my youth brains were regularly sold in mainstream supermarkets - they're not bad, but very perishable and very, very high in cholesterol. They're still popular in some places - a couple of the local taquerias serve tacos de sesos.

Brains alfredo - my arteries are hardening just at the thought.

[HopeHoops]

39. People eat animal testicles too. Some things just wouldn't appeal to me even if I still...

... ate meat. Take tripe for example. Just the name sounds wrong.

[ashling]

15. There's got to be a reality show in here somewhere

Gordon Ramsey's Zombie Restraunts

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or perhaps ...


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Robert Irvine's In for the Long Haul

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Or ...
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Bob & Paula Lickin' up those profit yall ....

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. I loved Chevys

Sorry to see them gone.

[liberalhistorian]

20. What was Chevy's?

I've never heard of it.

[lunatica]

23. pseudo mexican restaurant pretending to be the real thing.

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. With great food

[lunatica]

43. At best it's passable

Not nearly as bad as Taco Bell, but not the real thing. If you want great Mexican food go to your local Mexican family owned (by Mexican/Americans) restaurants. A chain restaurant is a chain restaurant no matter what ethnic food it claims to be serving. Just like going to a real Chinese restaurant or a real Italian restaurant if you want the real food.

[proud2BlibKansan]

45. Not everyone wants the real thing

I can't stand real Mexican food. Way too spicy for me. I love adding sour cream and lots of cheese. So Chevys was perfect for me.

I like real Chinese and real Italian but have never liked real Mexican. And I know a lot of people who feel the same way.

[lunatica]

46. It's still only passable since I wasn't referring to spicy chile dishes

They don't feed their toddlers and children any hot chile for example. Many Mexicans can't eat chiles any more than other people around the world can and the elderly are just as susceptible to food that's too spicy as they are here. Most restaurants will not use chile, though they'll use everything else, while always giving the customers a choice of chile as an added sauce during meals.

[neverforget]

29. They're still around. My family and I eat there every once in awhile.

http://www.chevys.com/

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. 250 miles away from me.

There was one a few blocks away and it went under and the closest was 100 miles from here. But it closed a few months ago.

[fishwax]

37. Ours closed a few weeks ago as well

By sheer happenstance we ate there the day before they announced they were closing the day after. I was glad we did. It was a good meal, but we were the only ones there.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

25. I remember reading an article here on DU about some restaurants "re-calibrating" to ....

.... get the more affluent clientele because, well, everybody else had no money to spend at restaraunts.

These, I suppose, are the places that haven't changeed.

Another "sign of the times"

[just1voice]

26. Check out the ROC Diners' Guide

It rates U.S. restaurants based on pay, paid sick leave, advancement opportunities and equal rights. It's interesting because it points out that 2/3rds of restaurant workers admit to working sick and handling food while sick, which makes paid sick leave a pretty important public health concern.

http://rocunited.org/dinersguide/

[Sherman A1]

28. It is a good source of information

Thanks for posting.

[Liberal_in_LA]

27. interesting story. saving to read later

[Retrograde]

31. Not Friendlys!

OK, I haven't been there in over a decade, and ASAIK it was strictly a northeast chain, but I have fond memories of their ice cream dishes.

[Sherman A1]

38. Yes, Friendlys

is in bankruptcy and I believe they did or were going to close some stores. Visited on this Autumn in PA while on vacation and it simply was much more lackluster than what I had remembered from previous visits.

[Proud Public Servant]

32. Slightly off-topic film recommendation: anybody ever seen the documentary "Family Business"?

It concerns a businessman struggling to keep his Shakey's Pizza franchise afloat, which is why this thread made me think of it (is Shakey's still around?). It's one of the best documentaries ever made; every progressive should see this film if s/he can (it originally aired on PBS in the 70s). Here's a synopsis:

***
A prototypical American entrepreneur struggles to make his pizza business go.

Howie Snyder is an archetype: a retired Marine colonel in his mid 40s, he is a prototypical American entrepreneur struggling to make his business go.

Howie's Shakey's Pizza franchise in Muncie, Indiana employs his whole family: wife, nine children, and Howie himself. He's the representative of the American Dream: the chance to invest long hours and hard work in exchange for financial security for oneself and family. To watch Howie Snyder as he dickers for better treatment by the Shakey's chain, as he seeks additional financing to stave off looming bankruptcy, and as he sits morosely counting an evening's disappointing receipts is to watch America at work. And to see Howie's family rally around him in the hour of his greatest need is a heartwarming experience.