Wendy’s & Pizza Hut Could Be Closing In Kalamazoo Soon
Remember when news like this made us think "what the hell happened?" Now we're not really surprised. It might get to the point when the news is what's going to survive and stay open.
As many are saying we may be at the most critical point in the process to salvage our economy. We bit the bullet and shut down and now we're seeing the results of a less-than successful re-opening. The loss of several local businesses from the shutdown has already become apparent but what if we have to shut down again?
What may be surprising is the businesses that were kind of built to withstand a crisis like this still seem to be struggling to the point of extinction. The fast-food industry would certainly fall into that category and yet here we are talking about to major players in that field.
Yesterday, NPC International which operates 1136 Pizza Hut restaurants and 386 Wendy's locations filled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This doesn't necessarily mean they are going out of business but is a means by which it can protect itself and be allowed to restructure, pair down, sell or possibly, in fact, go out of business.
Much like the common reason couples give for divorcing, "irreconcilable differences", "NPC International said that labor costs, increased expenses for supplies and the uncertainty due to the COVID-19 outbreak contributed to the company’s downturn."
We can certainly understand the circumstances but I for one thought their business model would allow them to stay somewhat solvent given they are drive through and delivery driven. And now the obligatory "we'll just have to wait and see."