Monday, December 12, 2011

Closed Friendly's Restaurant in Waterbury, Connecticut

photo by Mike Kalasnik kaz@deadanddyingretail.com
description by Nicholas Eckhart nicholas@deadanddyingretail.com



     This Friendly's was located at 544 Reidville Drive in Waterbury, Connecticut in the Waterbury Shopping Plaza. The label-scar is still visible above the door. This restaurant was originally "The Pie Plate" before it ended up burning down. The restaurant then reopened as Friendly's. A total of 63 store closed after Friendly's filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 5th, 2011. The stores that closed were considered under-performing Company-owned stores. Here are the states that lost restaurants in this Bankruptcy; Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Vermont.

8 comments:

  1. Far too often people will take an "easier" way out and declare Bankruptcy. This is a lot worse when companies or chains declare bankruptcy. Friendly's closed 63 restaurants. Each of those likely had about 20 - 30 employees, think of how many jobs were lost in just that Bankruptcy. Kmart closed hundreds of stores in the early 2000s. A typical Kmart employs around 100 employees; I know some employ far less and some employ far more. Bankruptcy is not really a plus on companies. For example, when Kmart closed its Supercenters they abandoned a very good concept, sure some may not have been doing well, but Kmart could have improved on them instead of simply closing them. I am sure if Kmart did not abandon their Supercenters Sears Holdings would not be towards the top of every list on companies expected to fail. The few remaining Super Kmart stores have been losing customers to nearby Walmart and Target stores, it seems that Sears Holding will still not invest some money into stores to make them do better. Even the employees seem to be worried at Super Kmart stores lately; they are always sure that Sears Holdings is going to convert their store or worse close it and then they will be out of a job. The only positive move I have saw lately was the move to change Sears Essentials and Sears Grand stores back to Kmart. Bankruptcy is often abused and turns into a very big mistake.

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  2. Friendly's closed three stores I knew of. Both stores in Westboro, MA (right down the road from each other) closed one was demolished the other which was actually once a Bob Evans. Another one in Northbridge, MA as well. I know of one that was closed many years ago in Framingham, MA as well still dead.

    Dylan Palmer

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    Replies
    1. I cannot think of any Friendly's that closed in Ohio. I am surprised there are Bob Evans in MA. In Ohio it seems that Applebee's and Bob Evan's are around every corner and are always busy.

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    2. There were once a couple in MA but they are all gone now. I got a coupon in Ohio for Bob Evans and the store locator said the closest one is in Pennsylvania. Friendly's is headquartered in Western Mass so there are a lot of stores here. Friendlys has really gone down hill recently. My last three experiences have had pretty poor service as well as dirty floors. The food and ice cream is good but when it takes 5 minutes to scoop ice cream and place it in a cone well thats not so good. The last time I went to that closed one in Westboro that was a BE the waitress didn't come for like 3 minutes so I walked right out. It closed like 2 months later. A couple Applebees have closed in Mass but the ones that are open are doing good. The one in Milford gets about the same business as TGI Fridays, Uno, Outback, and the Chilis in the area. It gets a lot more business then the Friendlys down the street for sure.

      Dylan Palmer

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    3. Bob Evans had a small batch of locations in an apparent try to expand eastward, including the mentioned one in MA (I think it probably was the only one in MA or for that matter anyplace east of NY). There were a few in Western NY as well for a time (like Syracuse and such) but now the only ones look to be Buffalo area.

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    4. There were two Friendly's locations in Ohio that I know of that closed in the mid 1990s...one in Wooster (which is now a parking lot), and one in Wadsworth (which was demolished for a Rite Aid.

      Of course as I write this, Friendly's decided a week ago to close the remaining 14 Ohio locations...

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  3. This former Friendly's is 835 Wolcott Street in Waterbury, not 544 Rediville Drive. Now it's a AAA Travel Center. The one at 544 Reidville Drive is the only one of 3 in Waterbury that is still open.

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  4. what bothers me is that most of these will be turned into something stupid like an AAA Travel Center. as Anonymous mentioned. They closed a KFC by me and turned it into a enterprise car rental center.

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