You’d think at least one could have survived whatever changes in America happened.
Howard Johnson’s saga is the reverse of Marriott. Hpward Johnson had two sons who he denigrated, humiliated and treated pretty much like crap all their lives. I am sure you know at least one father who through paranoia and stupidity believed treating his sons like garbage was ‘character building’ and ‘toughening’. Johnson seemed to distrust everyone to a degree that would equal Josep Stalin, bur distrusted his sons to the point of near hatred. Predictably, when he died, his successors were clueless and constitutionally unable to take any initiative. This notice is an appropriate obituary. It is an altogether to common story in business, especially for some reason among food service businesses. The Barg Beverage family is another classic of this genre.
RIP Howard Johnson’s
Mrs. jimfree and I, on first date in June of 1978, saw an outdoor community production of Twelfth Night and then adjourned to the Columbia MO Howard Johnson’s for coffee and hot fudge sundaes with peppermint ice cream. We were definitely falling for each other, but the sundaes might have helped that cause.
We stopped being into mediocre food just cause it was fast and cheap. Since that was the entire chain, kinda hard to survive.