Ruby Tuesday to close 95 locations

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Ruby Tuesday to close 95 locations

Post by Brian Lutz »

http://www.walb.com/story/32746486/ruby ... 33209025=1

Not too familiar with them (they don't have any presence in this area) but they cite weakness in the casual dining industry as the cause of the closures. Not sure I buy that, as it seems that chains that are executing well are doing just fine (Red Robins in particular here seem to be pretty busy a lot of the time, and have been remodeling a lot of locations in the area over the past year.)
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Re: Ruby Tuesday to close 95 locations

Post by lake »

Brian Lutz wrote:http://www.walb.com/story/32746486/ruby ... 33209025=1

Not too familiar with them (they don't have any presence in this area) but they cite weakness in the casual dining industry as the cause of the closures. Not sure I buy that, as it seems that chains that are executing well are doing just fine (Red Robins in particular here seem to be pretty busy a lot of the time, and have been remodeling a lot of locations in the area over the past year.)
Although fast casual has had a significant impact on casual dining, many chains such as Red Robin, Buffalo Wild Wings, and others are doing quite decent and opening new stores. Ruby Tuesday has long been plagued with problems mostly stemming from the fact that it's just a boring chain. There's nothing overly exciting about their restaurants other than I guess their salad bar which really isn't a draw anymore. They're really dark restaurants and other than half decent food, they really don't have much excitement. People don't dine out to dine out anymore. If they need some food they'll go to Chickfila or Chipotle or whatever. People dine out for the experience which is why you see chains like Red Robin, BWW, Twin Peaks, etc doing well but chains that simply had decent food like Ruby Tuesday or Chili's doing poor.
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Re: Ruby Tuesday to close 95 locations

Post by storewanderer »

Ruby Tuesday, Chili's, and Applebees, all of a similar cut. It is funny, of the three, I always thought Ruby Tuesday had a little bit better food, a little bit better atmosphere, and as a result a little bit higher price point.

Too many menu changes and as is noted here just outright boring restaurants I think did them in. Similar to what did Marie Callendar's in. It wasn't that the food was necessarily bad, or the service, it was just the total package did not draw people in.

I thought Ruby Tuesday was up in Washington. They kept trying to expand in California but could just never get it off the ground, both corporate owned and franchise locations... opening their first restaurants in the state in Redding and Woodland was a curious move to say the least.
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Re: Ruby Tuesday to close 95 locations

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote:Ruby Tuesday, Chili's, and Applebees, all of a similar cut. It is funny, of the three, I always thought Ruby Tuesday had a little bit better food, a little bit better atmosphere, and as a result a little bit higher price point.

Too many menu changes and as is noted here just outright boring restaurants I think did them in. Similar to what did Marie Callendar's in. It wasn't that the food was necessarily bad, or the service, it was just the total package did not draw people in.

I thought Ruby Tuesday was up in Washington. They kept trying to expand in California but could just never get it off the ground, both corporate owned and franchise locations... opening their first restaurants in the state in Redding and Woodland was a curious move to say the least.
I know there is one near Portland's Clackamas Town Center. I have never eaten there though.
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Re: Ruby Tuesday to close 95 locations

Post by steps »

One thing about Ruby Tuesday's that annoyed me was the fact they advertised in SoCal with only ONE restaurant, the next closest was Arizona! Even the one SoCal restaurant wasn't even "local" (West Covina or Covina). I am assuming Ruby Tuesday's was a franchise operation since I can't see corporate spending money to advertise one restaurant. Must have been a re-used advert from an area with a high concentration of restaurants.
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Re: Ruby Tuesday to close 95 locations

Post by veteran+ »

steps wrote:One thing about Ruby Tuesday's that annoyed me was the fact they advertised in SoCal with only ONE restaurant, the next closest was Arizona! Even the one SoCal restaurant wasn't even "local" (West Covina or Covina). I am assuming Ruby Tuesday's was a franchise operation since I can't see corporate spending money to advertise one restaurant. Must have been a re-used advert from an area with a high concentration of restaurants.

There was one in Rancho Mirage on Hwy 111

I can't remember when it closed. I'm thinking around 2009?

I liked it (food and service) and I thought the building and decor was very attractive.
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Re: Ruby Tuesday to close 95 locations

Post by storewanderer »

They were trying very hard to expand in California. They were running ads on TV in California in an effort to build brand awareness (and even an attempt to sell franchises). As I recall a few locations were opened in SoCal. They initially had a franchise operator in Redding who was supposed to develop Sacramento also. Not sure what happened there but ultimately the Redding location debranded and the Woodland location also opened by that franchisee became a corporate location. The Redding RT was the first one I ever tried back around 2006 or so and the place was understaffed, dirty, and out of romaine lettuce. Whatever hot food I ordered was good; good enough that I tried the chain on some later trips to AZ, CO, SD, MO and around Sacramento and always liked it. Oddly, back when I had a job that involved a ton of traveling, many of my coworkers also liked RT and when we saw one it was a place that as a group we were always happy to visit (can't say the same for Applebees or Chilis, none of us were ever too excited about those). Then they found another franchisee to open short-lived locations in Folsom (new build) and Roseville (moved into existing space) and I do not think either of those lasted two years. Not long after the one in Woodland finally closed. At some point one of the vendors in the San Jose airport put a Ruby Tuesday in way down at the end of the hallway in one of the terminals, and that closed a couple years ago. The SJC Ruby Tuesday was the final location to operate in California, and was getting horrible reviews and it sounds like it had some problems operationally.
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Re: Ruby Tuesday to close 95 locations

Post by storewanderer »

I had no idea they had this many locations in SoCal...

http://www.insidesocal.com/dine909/2010 ... y-tuesday/

So it seems like those actually came and went right around the same time as the Folsom and Roseville locations did.

Woodland stayed open until 2011.
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Re: Ruby Tuesday to close 95 locations

Post by Knight »

It appears the 95 restaurants closing have begun closing. Ruby Tuesday #3781, Milestone Plaza, 3609 Pelham Road, Greenville, South Carolina 29615-5002, closed Sunday.
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Re: Ruby Tuesday to close 95 locations

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