The chain restaurant sector has battled an array of financial points during the last 5 years which have led to location closings and chapter filings.
Sure fast-food chains, akin to Lengthy John Silver’s, have downsized their companies relationship again to the Nice Recession in 2008.
Extra just lately, as inflation drove up the prices of labor and meals because the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, menu costs additionally rose considerably, discouraging diners from consuming out.
Rising prices result in closings
Labor and meals prices elevated by 35% from 2019 to 2025, in response to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and eating places usually handed the additional prices on to their clients with menu costs rising by a mean of 31% from February 2020 to April 2025, the Nationwide Restaurant Affiliation reported.
Rising restaurant prices contributed to slower gross sales, which reached their lowest progress charge because the Nice Recession of 2008, not counting the Covid pandemic, in response to the 2026 Technomic High 500 Chain Restaurant Report.
“It was a really, very weak yr for the High 500 total from a gross sales perspective,” Joe Pawlak, managing principal at Technomic stated, in response to Restaurant Enterprise.
Lengthy John Silver’s closes 100s of areas
The difficult restaurant surroundings has led 57-year-old fast-food eating chain Lengthy John Silver’s to shut about 706 restaurant areas nationwide because the Nice Recession in 2008.
The seafood fast-food restaurant chain, which launched in Lexington, Ky., in 1969, had 1,081 areas at its peak in 2007, however started its decline the next yr, closing 59 areas because the monetary disaster started to influence the restaurant sector.
Eating places filed for Chapter 7 chapter
A number of the restaurant chain victims within the first yr of the monetary disaster included Starbucks, which closed over 600 areas, in response to CBS Information, and the homeowners of the Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale chains, S&A Restaurant Corp., which filed for Chapter 7 chapter liquidation in 2008, Reuters reported on the time.
The Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale chains’ franchisees did not file for chapter on the time.
Lengthy John Silver’s continued closing extra eating places in subsequent years, shuttering 33 in 2009, 25 in 2010, 32 in 2011, 21 annually in 2012 and 2013, after which a a lot bigger closing of 75 areas in 2014, ending the yr with 815 items, in response to QSR Journal.
Chain has 375 areas after closings
Over the following 10 years, Lengthy John Silver’s closed 330 areas, ending 2024 with 485 eating places. The fast-food restaurant chain closed one other 110 items within the final yr and a half, and its web site locator lists 375 complete shops finally examine.