Claim Jumper sold again?

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storewanderer
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Claim Jumper sold again?

Post by storewanderer »

It appears Claim Jumper, or at least most of its locations, has been sold by Landry's to someone called Kelly Companies. It looks like the casino locations of Claim Jumper are still connected to Landry's.

They still seem to be trying to be tied into the Landry's loyalty card, but are currently "off line."
https://claimjumper.com/LSC_Notice.aspx

Then when you go to the contact page at claimjumper.com it leads to this:
https://www.kellycompanies.com/cj-guest-feedback/

This is quite interesting given Landry's has continued to accumulate more and more restaurant chains over the years.
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Re: Claim Jumper sold again?

Post by rwsandiego »

McCormick and Schmick's, Bubba Gump, and Joe's Crab Shack are also owned by Kelly according to their Portfolio page. The corporate website is a WordPress page, which is NOT typically used to house the websites of big companies.

After looking a bit more carefully, Kelly owns 5 M&S locations and 1 Bubba Gump. My guess is they are a franchisee who happens to have bought 33 ofn the 35 CJ locations.
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Re: Claim Jumper sold again?

Post by storewanderer »

I am curious when exactly this happened. It looks like it happened sometime earlier this year but there is not a good way to pinpoint exactly when.

Many of the Claim Jumper locations are approaching 25 years old and it is possible many are about to be near the end of their lease. As many of these locations were much larger than a typical restaurant and not pulling near the crowds Claim Jumper did back in the early 00's, it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years with this chain's unit count.

Landlords may think Landry's is a big company with deep pockets and may have been establishing lease renewal rates accordingly. I am not sure landlords would view this Kelly in the same manner. That could work to the advantage of Claim Jumper in negotiating more favorable lease terms assuming nobody else wants the space anyway.

I hesitate to say Landry's ruined Claim Jumper, but they sure changed the dynamic of the chain. I've never had a bad meal or bad service there, though, over the years. But it sure doesn't feel as unique or inspired as it did before Landry's bought it.
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Re: Claim Jumper sold again?

Post by Bagels »

storewanderer wrote: December 25th, 2019, 9:41 pm It appears Claim Jumper, or at least most of its locations, has been sold by Landry's to someone called Kelly Companies. It looks like the casino locations of Claim Jumper are still connected to Landry's.

They still seem to be trying to be tied into the Landry's loyalty card, but are currently "off line."
https://claimjumper.com/LSC_Notice.aspx

Then when you go to the contact page at claimjumper.com it leads to this:
https://www.kellycompanies.com/cj-guest-feedback/

This is quite interesting given Landry's has continued to accumulate more and more restaurant chains over the years.
It appears Kelly Restaurant Group (KRG) was started in 2017 by a private equity firm with the intention of acquiring distressed restaurants. This year, they’ve acquired numerous restaurants from Landry, including a single Bubba Gump’s as well as most of the Claim Jumpers. No press releases or news articles exist about the transactions, which isn’t surprising given both companies are private. There’s a few news articles detailing confusion in that KRG will not accept Landry’s gift cards or participate in its loyalty program at the Landry’s properties it acquired (including Claim Jumper).

I’ve never ate at Claim Jumper’s myself. In the late 1990s, when I was in high school, I bought their frozen entrees (which were often dirt cheep with a coupon) and they were absolutely terrible. When I moved to SoCal in 2000, I was within walking distance of one of their restaurants but just assumed it’d be terrible. Right before Thanksgiving, I couldn’t find a frozen Marie Callender’s pie (our favorite pumpkin pie) and somebody informed me that Identical frozen pies were sold under the Claim Jumper name. First time having one, and they were right.
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Re: Claim Jumper sold again?

Post by klkla »

Bagels wrote: December 29th, 2019, 9:52 pmI’ve never ate at Claim Jumper’s myself.
I haven't ate at one in years. But I liked them 10 years or so ago when I lived closer to one. The only thing I didn't like was that their portions were obscenely large.
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Re: Claim Jumper sold again?

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: December 30th, 2019, 2:30 pm
Bagels wrote: December 29th, 2019, 9:52 pmI’ve never ate at Claim Jumper’s myself.
I haven't ate at one in years. But I liked them 10 years or so ago when I lived closer to one. The only thing I didn't like was that their portions were obscenely large.
Claim Jumper ran like such a well oiled machine when it was an independent company. Some of the best run and highest volume restaurants I've ever seen. The bad economy and too big of locations sure did them in quickly. It is tough to see they went bankrupt and even Landry's now appears to have deemed them "distressed" and got rid of them. I do notice the Reno location is never even close to capacity anymore, but hasn't been since Landry's took it over.

Landry's cut a lot of menu items out from Claim Jumper and does not do the large portions anymore. The portions are much more realistic now. Pricing does not seem to have decreased, but portions sure did. No more little apple coming with the plate of food, either (always thought that little apple was to stuff the pig, I mean customer, after they ate that way too large of a portion of food). I can see how the value perception may have decreased under Landry's. However the previous Claim Jumper portions were so large, it was almost like two people could split a meal and still have too much food. I am not sure how that worked out economically if many people did it.

Great happy hour bar menu at Claim Jumper with a lot of small plate options. Landry's in general does well with that across some of their other brands as well and I will be curious to see if this new ownership makes any changes on that front.
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Re: Claim Jumper sold again?

Post by Bagels »

Landry's likes to buy restaurants, make no further investment in them, then close them when they're no longer advantageous. I use to work on Bubba Gump's when it was based in San Clemente. Its owners had big growth prospects for the chain... they cashed it out for their big payday. I don't think Landry's has opened any locations outside its casinos. Nor has it been interested in investing in its aging restaurants. Of course, they cheapened the food quality and raised prices. They no longer use high-quality seafood, but they're hoping all that batter and salt will make you not notice.

I guess Claim Jumper could do no more for them. It doesn't look like the chain's going to be around much longer; the new owners closed a couple locations this year, saying that the leases were expiring and the new rates don't make sense. I bet that will extend throughout (what's left of) the chain.
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Re: Claim Jumper sold again?

Post by storewanderer »

Interesting article involving this Kelly Group and Landry's pertaining to the bankruptcy bid for Joe's Crab Shack.

https://www.nrn.com/mergers-acquisition ... te-s-price
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Re: Claim Jumper sold again?

Post by SamSpade »

Wow.
Also, Morton's charges a "healthcare fee" on guest cheques. Guess that was one of the Landry's decisions.

M&S has never been the same since selling, IMHO.
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Re: Claim Jumper sold again?

Post by Bagels »

Coincidentally, when I was flipping through one of the unsolicited newspapers that's mailed to everyone, it listed Claim Jumper (along with Black Angus, El Torito, Coco's and others) as legacy California restaurants not likely to survive to 2030.

I didn't realize Black Angus had dropped to just 40 restaurants...
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