Bennigan’s Locked Its Doors
I usually post food related blogs on the front site, but this has more to do with underhanded sneakiness, so this post should go here. So it seems a pretty crappy restaurant went tits up. The only thing that was good at any Bennigan’s store was the beer, and thankfully you can get that anywhere. But after years of having a schizoid menu that crossed from TexMex to Irish to American, the creditors are calling in payment. Bennigan’s shut all its corporate stores to liquidate its assets.
This SouthPark video was the same reaction to showing up to work at Bennigan’s yesterday morning. Supposedly the franchises are still operating, but I doubt they will do so for much longer. The Bennigan’s brand is a valuable asset too, and as such, the name should also be on the auction block.
From CBS2 here:
Bennigan’s Grill and Tavern closed all of its corporate-owned locations nationwide after filing for bankruptcy. That amounts to 160 locations, and about 10,000 employees are out of work.
Some managers and some employees say they were called in the middle of the night. People got the calls at the stores, others were called at 1:00 in the morning at their homes. No one expected it.
Bennigan’s spokeswoman Leah Templeton said Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale restaurants – both of which are owned by Plano, Texas-based Metromedia Restaurant Group – have filed for bankruptcy, along with the holding company S&A Restaurant Corp.
Chapter 7 bankruptcy means the company is being liquidated, as opposed to Chapter 11 bankruptcy, in which a company tries to reorganize and remain in business.
How crappy is it for any company to lock out its employees? But the managers at these restaurants had to have seen this coming. They see their dismal sales. They knew they weren’t hitting their numbers.
Sadly, another exhibit of corporate mongers cutting their hard working employees at the knees.
My only real concern now, is how long until the “flair” reference in Office Space becomes unrecognizable?
At the knees is right. When a corporation allows the employees to help make good decisions for corporate growth, the results are usually pretty good. Especially in the restaurant industry.
If this story is to be believed, the upper management was so insulated from the peons running the restaurant they were able to mortgage away the company and then shut it down with no notice whatsoever by the employees. I find that hard to understand and believe.
A part of me wants to think the whole restaurant chain was lost in a bad hand of poker.
I worked for this company for ten years. Ten years. I built a life with them. A career. It still hurts to hear from my former employees (friends, most of them) recount their despair in the sudden loss of their jobs, the upcoming rent due…and no paychecks to be had. Just to rub salt into the wound a bit more, any payroll checks that were deposited a couple of days before the filing, had bounced–now that money has disappeared, and overdraft/bounce fees were assesed by banks nationwide. I felt this horror too.
We all knew something was amiss in the months preceding the bankruptcy announcement. As a GM, I took countless calls from vendors demanding payment. I read the “past due” statements that came in. All the while, the upper management assured us all that these would be taken care of. but the frantic calls and mail didn’t stop coming.
Through several mismanaged promotions, lack of communication, aging restaurants with no updating..it came as no surprise that the company had a knee-jerk reaction to file Chapter 7. Another brilliant move by ownership to shaft as many people as possible without suffering much of a financial setback. What’s worse? Reading the website of the firm and trustee representing this case have now reported that after review, any and all of the employees from the corporate office and individual units are NOT considered creditors?! Incredible.
So, I’d like to thank Mr. Kluge for making 10,000 more reasons to revise the bankruptcy code.
Good luck and God bless to all those who lost their jobs, and may you all find employment in an intelligent and financially stable company.
Scorned, thanks for writing in. I hope you and your friends will be able to find good jobs elsewhere. What happened to you guys is the shittiest thing to happen to any employee, and Bennigans management should rot for destroying a good brand and good careers. We wish you the best.