Posted on 05/12/2020 11:38:09 AM PDT by C19fan
Steak n' Shake is closing 51 restaurants permanently, according to a recent quarterly report from its parent company, Biglari Holdings.
The hamburger chain's net sales for the first quarter of 2020 were down $60.9 million compared to the first quarter of 2019 — a 36.8% year-over-year decrease.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
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.
I waited years for an Outback Steak House to come to my area (Rome/Utica NY). It closed last year without any notice. I had gone to it the week before to get take-out of Alice Springs Chicken, and the next week I went to stop to get a slice of cheesecake to go, and it was closed. Couldn't believe it.
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.
Brace yourselves....
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.
Biglari Holdings Inc Class A / Stock Price
320.00 +12.64
Biglari Holdings Inc Class B / Stock Price
57.64 -0.38
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.
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