No Pie For You!
 

It's no one's fault. Just not enough customers.

We're going through a recession nationwide and it's an inevitable result of the down economy

The article you linked to says nothing about patrons being asked to leave a restaurant mid-meal. Perhaps the article has been updated?

BTW, I agree with analyst quoted in the article that Marie Callender's has lost business over the past several years because they've failed to invest in their stores and haven't kept their menu fresh. They've certainly lost my business for those exact reasons.

This was in our local online newsletter:

"A friend of mine was just at Marie Callender’s and mid-lunch the restaurant shut down. Didn’t even let them finish eating or pay. Apparently they got a fax from HQ that said they had to close immediately."

Looks like customers got kicked out in Seattle as well.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/123743974.html

Not surprising that they're having problems. Ate there a while back (sister needed to get a quick lunch) and both the food and service were fairly bad. No reason to go back. I would guess that their main clientele were local workers who weren't in the mood for "ethnic" food and couldn't decide on anything else. And their pies were, generally, pretty bad too.

The few that there were here in Colorado closed several years ago. I went there a couple of times back in the day. Agree that they didn't seem to be keeping up with the times, as the article stated. Heavy, down-home style cooking. Which is not my favorite type of food.

Legend has it that when the local MC's closed down after lunch one day, the staff were offered the opportunity to carry home the pies on hand as a severance bonus....

I've been to a couple Marie Calenders in the Phoenix area and I was never overly impressed. To me it was the same as Coco's and a place I didn't mind if someone else was paying but for my own dime, I was never thrilled. Still, it seems to have some history behind it so I hope they work things out.

I've never seen it happen during the day like this, I have seen trucks waiting at restaurants for them to close, and then clean the place out and chain it up.

It is a well thought-out but a very difficult decision.

I'm stumped at how throwing out patrons mid-meal is "well thought out"? Strikes me more as deranged.

Wow..

I guess the restaurant was corporately owned..

Wouldn't happen like that if franchisees owned the store.. Not finishing meal and paying that is..

Agreed. There's nothing "well thought out" about chucking someone out mid-meal - unless you are intent on generating horrible PR, which this little stunt seems to have done a good job of doing.

More likely a scared low-level supervisory sort obeying
the letter rather than the spirit, and Corporate being
too dumb to have worded the missive right.

Anyhow, Marie Callender's is/will be no enormous loss.

No great loss. I've seen coupons for MC but have never been tempted enough to go in there.

Someone posted a few years earlier that these low-end restaurants popped up to cater to people who would normally hardly ever eat out because it wasn't really in their budget. Their clientele was marginal (as in ability to afford eating out) at best and with this recession, the clientele ave traded down (or arguably up, for some) to home cooking.

In more than one location? I mean even if they wrote "cease operations immediately - NO EXCEPTIONS!" you still don't throw folks out in mid-dine? At worst, lock the door (or don't let anyone in), send home anyone waiting for a table, as well as anyone with an order that hasn't started yet perhaps, but mid-dine? That's insane!

The thing is that these places are no longer low-end, price-wise. The average family of 4 is going to get out of there for under $100, but often, not a lot less. If they bring in a coupon and don't order beverages, or skip the pie, there is no profit.

It costs a fortune to keep one of those restaurants open. The ones that closed immediately were probably the ones that had the worst leases, not the worst sales.

In any case, this is only one of the "mid range places that serves you frozen food off a SYSCO truck" that is going to fall. I don't even know what their pies are like anymore. But I enjoyed them 30+ years ago!

I know someone who used to work in the outdoor equipment industry, who said that when a retailer goes bust they always do this sort of thing - because the creditors (manufacturers) get tipped off and are waiting outside to take unsold, un-paid-for goods back the second it is announced, and this is to be prevented. So the second the decision is announced, the stores are always evacuated and the shutters brought straight down.

Neil

Um, when a company files bankruptcy (I take it that this is your "going bust"), if a creditor did that knowing of the filing, the creditor is going to lose more than payment. I would love to be in court when a debtor objects to such a creditor´s 503(b)(9) claim when it had already removed goods in violation of the automatic stay. A fun time will be had by almost everyone in the courtroom. One party will probably leave poorer and crying.

In the case of the Pie, the bankruptcy papers (including some of the "first day" orders) probably required what was done to be done, although one wonders why this didn´t happen either before or after hours. It isn´t like the attorneys actually file anything in paper at the clerk´s office.

If the debtor files a Chapter 7 (liquidation), the debtor cannot operate the business at all, so it must shut down immediately. Only a trustee can get an operating order in Ch. 7.

In a UK context, yes. Chapter 11 and similar do not exist as such in the UK - if you're bust, you're bust, and the receivers are called in[1] to try to liquidate the business as far as possible. Parts of the business can be sold on without some of the debt liability, but that's somewhat different in that it isn't intended[2] to allow the existing owner to continue in business.

[1] Often it continues to trade while they do so, but not necessarily, I believe.

[2] It does happen, though, in that it's not uncommon for the old owner to set up a new business to buy some of the old one, assuming they have not been disqualified from doing so.

Neil

I first remember MC's from the late 60's when we ordered pies for Thanksgiving. Flash to the early 80's and they began to open more upscale locations to compete with the hot new TGIFriday's and Houlighans. Those early locations in San Diego had a line at night to get into the bar.

My how times have changed.