TGI Fridays closed more than a dozen locations over the past month, including six this week alone.
The popular casual restaurant chain is the latest to struggle as Americans, frustrated by higher menu costs, opt to eat more at home. Other chains, including Red Lobster, Applebee’s and Hooters, have also closed locations.
Signs posted at closed TGI locations, focused on the East Coast, Southeast and Midwest, described the decision as “difficult” and directed customers to nearby restaurants.
The latest closures follow 36 “underperforming” TGI locations closed in January, and several more in the summer. Now there are barely more than 200 left in the United States.
The six most recent closures were in Leesburg, Virginia; Allentown, Pennsylvania; Middletown, Poughkeepsie and Clifton Park, New York; and Enfield, Connecticut.
TGI Fridays continues to close restaurants; another in Brick, New Jersey, is serving customers for the last time on Sunday. This is what TGI Fridays are like in Manhattan
Other closures over the past month include restaurants in Charlotte, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Great Chute, Wisconsin; Saginaw Township, Michigan; Schererville, Indiana; and two locations in Minnesota: St. Louis Park and Edina.
The chain also closed two restaurants in May, including one in New Jersey and another in downtown Buffalo, New York state.
TGI Friday’s has not commented on the latest closures.
But in May, US President Ray Risley said: “We have identified opportunities to optimize and streamline our operations to ensure we are best positioned to deliver on (and exceed) that brand promise.”
TGI Fridays, which first opened in New York City in 1965, was down to about 215 restaurants in the United States before these latest closures. Globally, it operates more than 650 restaurants in 51 countries.
In the January announcement, TGI Fridays said 36 would close immediately. At that time he did not name them, but he didEven some of them were also in New Jersey, the state most affected by the closures.
The US subsidiary, known as TGI Fridays Inc, was due to merge this year with Hostmore, which operates 89 TGI sites in the UK.
But the deal fell through, as did the plan to create a larger company listed in London.
Casual restaurants like TGI’s and fast-food giants like McDonald’s have seen their sales decline as a result of Americans voting with their wallets in response to two years of menu price increases.
The most affected have been the oldest and most traditional chains that have not been modernized.
Red Lobster closed nearly 100 in May and filed for bankruptcy, while Applebee’s will close 35.
BurgerFi was the latest to file for bankruptcy in September, raising fears of mass closures of its 162 locations.
Hooters has closed about 40 restaurants this year
Meanwhile, it emerged in September that Hooters – known for its scantily clad waitresses – is the latest to face financial problems as it deals with 300 million dollars of debts. Also Closed about 40 “underperforming” restaurants earlier this year.
Chains have been hardest hit in California, where the minimum wage for fast-food restaurants jumped to $20 an hour since April 1.
In early June, the Mexican chain Rubio’s closed 48 locations in the state and also filed for bankruptcy.
TGI did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
