Boston Market: From 300 Locations to Just 27 in Two Years
Boston Market has seen its location count plummet from over 1,200 at its peak to fewer than 30 restaurants as of late 2024. The rotisserie chicken chain closed approximately 300 locations in 2023 alone, and about 16 by the end of 2024, before a modest rebound through franchising. According to Restaurant Business Magazine, the restaurant chain has shrunk from about 300 locations down to just 27 since the start of 2023, with evictions over unpaid leases being the impetus behind many of these shutterings.
The rapid pace of closures has been attributed to landlords evicting the chain over unpaid rent and utility bills, and state officials shutting down locations for tax issues. Industry experts suggest Boston Market may be in its final days as a national chain. Additionally, the states of Massachusetts and New Jersey fined Boston Market over unpaid wages, with the New Jersey Department of Labor temporarily shutting down 27 locations in August as a result. The U.S. Department of Labor is currently investigating the restaurant chain because of complaints over wage and hour violations.
The chain’s downfall represents one of the most dramatic collapses in recent restaurant history. In January, a U.S. District Judge ordered Boston Market to pay $15 million to US Foods, an American food service distributor, in a lawsuit surrounding unpaid bills. What was once a comfort food staple for millions of Americans has become a cautionary tale about financial mismanagement and the fragility of restaurant empires.
Taco Bueno: Heavy Rains and Crushing Debt Sealed Its Fate
Taco Bueno, a Tex-Mex restaurant, opened its doors in 1967 in Abilene, Texas, offering a menu brimming with tacos, burritos, nachos, and its signature creation, the Muchaco, a meat and refried bean delicacy tucked into pita bread. As a regional powerhouse, it spread its influence across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and beyond, with 178 locations reported in 2016. By 2018, some of those locations were on the chopping block.
Heavy rainfall in fall 2018 at the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with over 20 inches reported between September and mid-October, making it the wettest fall on record, according to court documents in Taco Bueno’s bankruptcy filing this week. The rain led to a 20% decline in sales at the 169-unit chain. For a chain with $130 million in debt and leased locations, the decline proved too much. Taco Bueno filed for federal bankruptcy protection Tuesday after reaching a deal that will ultimately cede ownership of the chain to a big, Dallas-based multiconcept franchisee, Sun Holdings. Sun Holdings, which operates more than 800 locations for a number of brands such as Burger King, Arby’s and Popeyes, will become the owner of the chain in a debt-for-equity swap.
These closures were a harbinger of deeper financial woes, leading to a bankruptcy filing in November 2018, followed by an additional dozen locations being sealed off. As of March 2024, there are around 133 Taco Bueno locations in the U.S. Though the brand survived under new ownership, its footprint has never recovered to pre-bankruptcy levels, making it a shadow of its former self in the Tex-Mex landscape.
Pie Five: The Pizza Chain That Couldn’t Rise
The Dallas-based chain opened its doors in 2011 and reached its 100-location milestone by 2017. However, by the end of 2019, it had shrunk by 40%, closing 42 stores. COVID-19 and the global recession surely didn’t help the business to thrive. As of 2024, there are only 22 Pie Five restaurants left, mostly in Texas.
The fast-casual pizza segment proved brutally competitive, with established players like Chipotle and newer entrants all fighting for the same customer base. Pie Five’s build-your-own pizza concept seemed promising in theory, yet the execution never matched consumer expectations. Pizza is universally loved, and pizza chains are typically among the most profitable businesses. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case for Pie Five.
The chain’s dramatic reduction from 100 locations to just 22 illustrates how quickly fortunes can change in the restaurant industry. What started as an ambitious expansion turned into a desperate fight for survival, with most locations outside Texas becoming casualties of an oversaturated market and changing dining preferences.
Hardee’s: Franchise Troubles and State-by-State Retreat
Hardee’s has fast food chain locations in 32 of 50 states, but three states have fewer Hardee’s locations in 2024. Storefronts in Tennessee, Missouri, and Illinois have been shut down this year. The closures were sparked by the brand’s bankruptcy troubles, which previously sparked a slew of franchise shutdowns in Georgia, Montana, South Carolina, and other states in 2023, when Summit Restaurant Holdings declared bankruptcy.
Summit Restaurant Holdings operates more than 100 Hardee’s locations in eight states. The Spring Hill, Tennessee, location shut down just nine years after its original opening, and Illinois saw the most location closures of the three states, with stores shutting down in Springfield, Carterville, Chatham, and others. Hardee’s has exhibited a pattern of regular closures over the past couple of years. The fast food chain closed multiple locations in 2023 in the Midwest and South, with more closing in 2024 across Central Illinois. At the time, Hardee’s did not disclose the reasons behind the closures, but there were enough to raise concerns.
The franchise model that once helped Hardee’s expand rapidly has become a liability during economic downturns. When franchisees struggle financially, entire regions can lose their Hardee’s presence almost overnight, leaving loyal customers with few alternatives and local communities without a familiar dining option.
PDQ: From Regional Success to Multi-State Contraction
Unfortunately, some communities in North and South Carolina will be without a PDQ in 2024, with the chain closing eight locations across those states. Citing “market conditions” in a CBS 17 news story, the company is closing locations in Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Wake Forest, Winston-Salem, Hickory, Greenville, and Columbia. The latter two are based in South Carolina, leaving six North Carolina locations to shut down.
This leaves the brand with locations remaining in just four states: Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey, and New York. A significant majority of the locations are based in Florida, which has 52 of the 59 PDQ storefronts. The chicken chain’s retreat from the Carolinas represents a strategic pullback to core markets where the brand has stronger positioning and better operational support.
PDQ’s contraction reveals how regional chains often struggle to maintain profitability across multiple states. The “market conditions” cited by the company likely include increased labor costs, supply chain challenges, and intensified competition from national chicken chains that have deeper pockets and more efficient operations. What remains is essentially a Florida-focused chain with a few outposts in other states.
The restaurant industry’s upheaval continues reshaping America’s dining landscape in ways that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago. These five chains represent different aspects of the same crisis – financial mismanagement, weather disasters, oversaturated markets, franchise failures, and strategic retreats. Their disappearances leave holes in communities where families once gathered for affordable meals and reliable service. What emerges from this industry shakeout remains to be seen, yet one thing is certain – the fast-food landscape of tomorrow will look dramatically different from today.
