I don't think Medford or Sacramento will be around much longer either. Both locations close at 6 PM or 7 PM. What is the point- may as well close at 2 PM if you can't be open during dinner. With facilities as large as they have, they need a lot of revenue. Closing during dinner is a suicide move. I don't care how much it costs to staff (since chain restaurants surrounding them are all open at night they seem to be able to staff), whatever revenue you get from being open will exceed the zero you get from being closed. What is strange is I think Sacramento is a lot busier than Rocklin so I am not sure why they have cut hours at Sacramento but not at Rocklin. They must really want to make that Rocklin location work due to how visible it is.bryceleinan wrote: ↑March 20th, 2023, 1:38 pm In a somewhat shocking (to me) development, the Beaverton, Bend, and Tualatin stores are closing immediately, leaving only Medford...
https://www.kgw.com/article/money/busin ... 46e6afeda0
I've been to all of the Oregon locations, and outside of Jantzen Beach and maybe Medford, I would have thought the remaining stores would be safe. Sad to see them close.
Also these locations in recent months (the OR locations, and the 2 Sacramento locations) made various cuts to their menus. Their food variety is still much larger than competitors despite these cuts. They quit offering items considered to be too "southern" so staple foods like grits were removed from the menu, along with certain side items like okra and such. I am sure sales must have been slow on these items but it was a bit odd of a move.
Also their pricing at these OR/Sacramento locations is outrageous. The menu prices are $3-$4 above the Utah/Idaho locations on entrees. This type of price difference is uncalled for and almost like they are actively trying to take advantage of CA/OR being known to have higher costs. I could see $2 more, that is pretty common. For instance their entry level/cheapest breakfast entree whatever they call it, is $12.99 in OR/Sacramento. It is 8.99 in Utah/Idaho. It is 10.49 in Las Vegas. It is 11.99 in Victorville, CA.
They have started to construct Reno so they must plan to have it attached to the UT/ID region. This chain is clearly done in the Pacific Northwest and I think its future in NorCal is very questionable. The few SoCal locations can probably stay around as attached to Las Vegas/AZ/NM and maybe grow SoCal a little more.
I am starting to wonder if these food service distributors are starting to charge excessive fees to chains that have a limited number of locations in a geography. For instance how much sense does it make for a Sysco warehouse in NorCal to slot Cracker Barrel-exclusive products for just 2 locations? They obviously have to get the stuff from a warehouse in a region that has more locations and move it from that warehouse to NorCal then send it out on the truck in NorCal. In the past this hasn't been a big deal as they move stuff between warehouses steadily. Maybe it is just too complicated with the current supply chain issues for these chains with far flung/few spread out locations to get their proprietary products and supplies out to these far flung locations.