My local Steak and Shake closed up last Fall.
They’ve been financially struggling for awhile.
My tab there was always so low I guess that should have been expected.
I was getting drive through from one in Tennessee, until COVID.
But now that I’m permanently work from home, it’s too far away.
My youngest son lives in Indiana, and I went to my first Steak n’ Shake there. Once this unnecessary lockdown is over, I’d like to be able to visit my son again, and wonder if any of those restaurants will still be there.
I love Steak n Shake and I’ve eaten there several times via the drive-in during the lockdown. The one here is always full and the prices are great. Maybe a 20% price increase would help because my wife and I always marvel at how cheap it is.
I have never been a fan of that chain, couldn’t think of only two or three times have been into one in the last 10 years. Not inspiring, no great loss.
They shut down all the businesses but allowed the banks to keep collecting checks. Inevitable that businesses would and will be ruined by this.
Never been to one.
Saw that another chain I’ve never patronized has closed down for good, too: SoupPlantation
A couple IHOPs near where I live closed down permanently.
The new CEO has effectively destroyed the company through cost cutting measures to go after McDonald’s instead of continuing on as a “fast food plus” place like in n out or shake shack.
They got rid of their real shakes (made with real ice cream) and went with powdered mixes. The CEO lamented that if he could just stop putting the cherries on those milkshakes he could save millions a year.
Last year he converted some of the restaurants to “steak n shake 2 go” centers where they walled off the dining areas and became pure drive through/food delivery places - sacking the wait staff in the process and sales continued to fall.
That concept should’ve gotten him through shut down but it didn’t help as he’s let the food quality lapse.
Sad to see another great restaurant go.
There are two Steak ‘n Shake places near me. Both were doing quite well, and had good reputations. Then one day last fall they both closed. A sign was put out front of both: “Restaurant for sale.” No takers so far.
Used to live near one but moved out of that neighborhood in 2006. Wonder if it was on the chopping block. As of 2019 was still around.
http://www.biglariholdings.com/letters/2018/2018.pdf
[Dear Shareholders of Biglari Holdings Inc.:
Biglari Holdings is a collection of businesses. It resembles a museum —not of art but of businesses. Rather than collecting Monets, we collect money from productive assets.Cash is cash regardless of its source, whether it originates from a restaurant chain or from an insurance company.This cash-generating philosophy, measured on the basis of intrinsic value, renders all businesses as economic equivalents.1
As a modern corporation Biglari Holdings is unorthodox, for it is both highly unified and highly decentralized. Its group of operationally independent companies—Steak n Shake,Western Sizzlin, First Guard, and Maxim —is held together by Biglari Holdings’ ownership. The management of business units is decentralized, with financial authority fully concentrated under my control. As the sole capital allocator, I employ neither analysts nor advisors. Because of our corporate architecture, we are able to administer our enterprise of approximately 19,000 employees with a staff of 5 at corporate headquarters.]
We need a national list of all businesses that had to close due to stupid closure rules.
I think only restaurant chains that have a huge national presence or historically have a good takeout presence will be the survivors. We may be return to a “back to basics” movement in terms of restaurants in general in the next few years.
The first question anyone asks when reading this type of article is: ‘Where is the Steak N Shake nearest me and is it closing?’ even if you’ve never been to Steak N Shake.
And so this type of non-reporting/non-linking drives me nuts. A business article that doesn’t include raw data, source material, etc. is more or less an anecdote with a few quotes thrown in. Phone-it-in J-school laziness.
In other words, telling us there’s a list of stores to close without actually obtaining and providing the list is pointless.
We used to love going to Steak and Shake when we lived in Georgia. My wife would always order cheesy fries with the vinegar/pepper sauce. They were open all night and we never went there before 1am.
Steak N Shake opened up a restaurant in Daly City (the adjacent suburb of San Francisco) in late 2016. The location they selected was so off the beaten path it was almost laughable, on a minor back road that most area residents wouldn’t have been able to find on a map. I assume SnS (or its franchisee?) got the location on the cheap. ~13 months after opening it was closed. Kaput. This is in town that is essentially fast food central where not one but two In-n-outs do gangbuster business. 2 McDonald’s, 2 BKs, Wendy’s, Carl’s Jr,, KFC, The Habit. Can’t remember a single one of them ever failing. Hell, even Jollibee the fast food joint from the Philippines thrives. Yet Steak n Shake picks a near-hidden location and fails. Poor management.
Never heard of it..............
Love Steak ‘n Shake. A Sad day. Our full service family restaurants seem to be hardest hit. We have devolved to fast casual standards and few know how to “dine” anymore.