Friendly’s Goes Under Again
Bloomberg reports Iconic Restaurant Chain Friendly’s Files for Bankruptcy
Friendly’s Restaurants LLC, an iconic chain on the East Coast of the U.S. known for its sundaes, became the latest dining institution to go bankrupt amid the pandemic.
The pandemic and lockdown have dragged down sales at restaurants around the world, and led many already-struggling eateries to buckle under debt loads. Pizza Hut franchisee’s NPC International Inc., the holding company of Chuck E. Cheese CEC Entertainment Inc. and the U.S. arm of Le Pain Quotidien have sought bankruptcy protection since the Covid-19 crisis started.
This isn’t the brand’s first brush with bankruptcy. In 2011, Friendly Ice Cream Corp. and its subsidiaries, the operator of Friendly’s restaurants and a nationwide distributor of ice cream products, had entered Chapter 11.
More Lockdowns
COVID restrictions and lockdowns rise in US and Europe, as Trump’s rallies are blamed for cases.
Also note Fauci, Warning of Bleak Winter, Draws White House Rebuke
As Mr. Trump toured the country assuring Americans that the U.S. has “turned the corner” on the coronavirus, Dr. Fauci looked ahead to the coming winter and declared that “you could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”
“We’re in for a whole lot of hurt,” Dr. Fauci said in an interview with The Washington Post published on Saturday.
Mr. Trump, in a battle for re-election and eager to portray the virus as tamed, has preferred the counsel of another pandemic adviser, Dr. Scott W. Atlas, who has questioned mask use and offered a number of other contrarian philosophies.
Ordinarily circumspect, Dr. Fauci directly criticized Dr. Atlas in the interview.
“I have real problems with that guy,” he said.
Agree with them or not, more lockdowns are coming.
This will be the final death bell for many chains and independents.
Mish
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Let people do what they want and limit the cost of care each person is owed. That may cause people to be more cautious. Locking them down will simply kill the currency….which is of course the whole point. We are heading for a reset of the dollar and Covid is the cure.
Another lockdown at this stage, Australian style 3 months or European style 1 month will kill any small to medium business that has survived this ordeal. If the goal is to destroy businesses, then this is the way to do it. There is always a trade off. One would think that after having experience with this last March, only those portions of our society whom are the highest at risk would be required to stay indoors, and not the entire populous
So are you advocating protecting ‘high risk’ portions of the population with good health/hygiene – masks, distancing, no large group gatherings – or are you just going to have part of the population supposedly ignore the pandemic and hope people are stupid enough to not care about those locked down and themselves (even if lower risk) and just go out and spend like mad?
If the former, I apologize for my leaping to an incorrect conclusion. If the latter – well, we are here again because of this attitude and we will remain economically hobbled until (self-) control is exerted by a large majority in this country. I am not optimistic.
If you’re worried, stay the hell home. Order in. Cut an air lock in your door. Leave the rest of us alone.
Im not advocating anything but for businesses need to be open. I would be fine the former, and those in high risks groups being limited exposure and protected, but with businesses open. The entire economy will be destroyed. The main issue comes down to human nature, you can never legislate a persons free will, therefore, you need to protect those that are at risk. Businesses can easily stay open and put requirements to get served. most do that already. Punishing everyone to stay closed will simply destroy everything and i wold say, if you think the economy is “hobbled” now, it will get much worse, and not better if more business go under with another lockdown
Just one final observation. I go back and forth between Florida and New York and what I notice in Florida is that there are a ton of hospitality workers that are desperate to get back to work. These people need to make money and put food on the table for their families. They are not for another shutdown. The most interesting observation is, the same types of workers in the hospitality sector in New York want the same thing. People simply want to work and be able to provide and I dont believe that shutting things down all over again will help. It will hurt us all
I fully support opening businesses and schools with the most current recommendations from health experts. They may be wrong – they may change their minds; but this is the best we have and following the best minds we have would allow people to have piece of mind that might allow more of those people to go out and contribute to those businesses.
The issue is those that advocate ignoring those recommendations will cause more economic harm. Jojo’s response is a perfect example. Sure – I’ll leave you alone; and you and others that want my economic contributions to your businesses will likely be disappointed. The more this spreads, the worse the economic outlook will be and there is nothing you can do about that except take actions to protect yourself and others such that the spread is mitigated. Whining about wearing a mask and the fact that people don’t want to be exposed to people who don’t use distancing/masks/good hygiene is just stupid and self-defeating. But you are free to do that in this country, as is abundantly clear in reporting and pictures along with (what should be fully expected) results.
That’s fine. I would welcome the opportunity to see how many scared shitless pansies like yourself populate this country. I’d wager that there aren’t very many and that the economic hit from your type staying home would be minimal, at best.
As far as I can see on TV and reading news stories is that as soon as restaurants and bars open, people are out eating and drinking. I see this in my area of CA, where all the outdoor tables are crowded with people chowing down and schmoozing away while not wearing masks.
You don’t seem to understand anything unless it is digital. That’s ok – life is analog and will eventually force understanding on you. It doesn’t have to be now or even on this subject. Grey areas are everywhere in life and those that understand that will take advantage of those that don’t.
Also – your example doesn’t support your thesis – it supports mine. Those places that have outdoor seating are making updates to safety and behavior that directly support their economic well-being by attracting more people. (And if you’re going to blather on about the masks – obviously you can’t eat and drink with masks on – duh.) My point – which obviously blew over your head – was that the larger portion of the population still has reservations about running around to places that are easily termed ‘unessential’. A few easy updates to behavior will attract more people to those same places. Not making those updates may be fine for some places, but if another decides it is in their interest to make them and they take customers – well, that’s life; grey area and all.
Oh and as far as being scared goes – well; all I have to say is you must have ‘very small hands’ if you feel the need to posture like that. Sad, really.
Oh my! These lockdowns are really affecting the sales of many businesses today. Many of the big companies are closing because of the pandemic. I hope that this will be over soon.
Didn’t the company that makes Friendly’s ice cream recently file for BK protection? Seems to ring a bell.
Dean Foods and they too filed for bankruptcy.
…Lockdowns don’t work…
Sorry putz, lockdowns did work to cut the first peak down to manageable size.
We haven’t had lockdowns since spring. Where have you been?
People get careless and cases rises.
Thereby guaranteeing the next lockdown needed to cut the peak down to manageable size.
How many times do you need to figure that out?
Never call someone a “putz” when they know Sweden didn’t require a lockdown to manage the virus. The medical profession uses blind and double blind test studies to get rid of those like you that do not know risk management and disrespect science for their agenda.
Reusing your comments? Can’t think of anything more foolish to post?
Service in Friendly’s has always been notorious for being slow and I mean slow. That said their takeout ice cream sundaes will be sorely missed.
If shutting everything down prevents even one case of the wuflu, it’s worth it. After all, we’re all in this together! ™
Yes, if locking down saves one life, though it may drive a 1,000 to suicide, it is manifestly wise to lock down. We do this all the time. For example, we all drive multi-ton armored vehicles that get 25 gallons per mile, so as to save that “one life.” We are smart and noble.
I haven’t seen or been in a friendly’s restaurant in decades. didn’t realize they still existed. this may be why they are going under
Lockdowns are a last ditch effort to keep healthcare facilities from being completely overwhelmed. And so they DID work, in that frame of reference, back in the spring.
It was never going to eradicate the virus in most countries. It’s a coping strategy, not a cure for a disease.
Nobody argues that lockdowns are good for the economy. Obviously, they cause the economy to be devastated.
I don’t favor lockdowns, but I don’t favor acting stupid either. Apparently some people do. Like the President.
You are right that the key is when the healthcare system breaks down because the lack of personnel, drugs and equipment to keep up with the surge. My guess is the average of 180k per day given that hospitalizations will be following a week behind. Looking a Bill McBride’s (Calculated Risk) graph probably around Thanksgiving. The 8.9% positive yesterday was an eyeopener.
Sweden didn’t require a lockdown to manage the virus. The medical profession uses blind and double blind test studies to get rid of those like you that do not know risk management and disrespect science for their agenda.
Death rates are down, but still lotsa folk need to go to hospital. If folk cooperated with the less invasive restrictions like wearing masks in crowds, then the spread may be slow down enough to let it seep through the community. But nooo. selfishness and denial, so the spread picks up, the hospitals get full, death rates rise and we have to go into lockdown again.
We should wear masks and distance, but I believe your conclusion is simplistic. Hospitals are not being overrun except in very rare circumstances. Further, slowing the spread still means the same number of people get infected, it just happens more slowly. The rise in death rates you fear can come only from an overwhelmed health care system and that is not happening. It nearly happened in NYC, but did not. There is a large and widening gap between the rise in cases, the much smaller rise in hospitalizations and the continuing downtrend in deaths. I see two/three reasons: 1. the rise in testing; 2. the fact that testing is now flagging younger populations (who get infected but don’t succu,b) and 3. doctors learning (steriod use, laying on stomach, etc..)
Wearing a mask to stop the virus is akin to trying to stop mosquitos with a chain link fence. A virus is hundreds of times smaller than the porous openings in most of the masks/bandanas in use. If anything since John Q. Public doesn’t wash their masks that fact in an of itself is causing more sickness and probably hastening the virus’s spread through rebreathing/concentrating
Distancing is fine but washing of hands fanatically is key to not getting sick.
We need to encourage those under 40 to socialize and get this virus as that is the quickest path to herd immunity. Just like your parents/grandparents used to do with chicken pox
“Wearing a mask to stop the virus is akin to trying to stop mosquitos with a chain link fence. A virus is hundreds of times smaller than the porous openings in most of the masks/bandanas in use.”
This is true of the virus itself, but is disingenuous because people do not generally respirate out the virus without any other material/liquid/particles. If the virus is embedded in a larger particle, there is every chance that the mask will actually be effective on that. In addition, this doesn’t have to be a ‘all or none’ filtration to be effective. If you disrupt the fluid flow (air) carrying the virus particles so that they do not reach as great a distance, you have also had a positive effect on concentration of infective material vs. distance from the source. Masks have a number of different beneficial effects on lowering infectivity – that’s why they are used in health care environments.
Since you want to do silly nitpicking – IF the virus fragment in the large droplet gets caught in the mask, what do you think happens once the droplet breaks up or evaporates a bit? The virus fragment than gets blown out into the world anyway. And supposedly, the covid virus can live for up to 3 days on just about any object it lands on.
And then there are my very cheap $1 store masks, the same 3 that I have been wearing and reusing w/o cleaning for past 8 months. Those things are probably littered with all kinds of viruses and bacteria. [lol]
I see you weren’t even able to respond to my entire ‘nitpick’. But I’ll respond to yours.
You forgot Africa which has the lowest infection rate of them all. How would you explain that?
The same way one explains the China numbers. Both China and Africa have about the same population numbers (1.4 billion). Their Covid-19 numbers aren’t accurate. Africa probably doesn’t even have the technology to count infections or deaths. Stones and abacuses don’t work well for counting large numbers.
Something to considered in Africa the average age is 19.7 years the United States it’s 37.9 so when you look at symptoms that would get a poor person to the hospital I don’t see a great percentage going to get tested.
Locked down will only keep this virus around longer. Immunity comes from exposure to it not hiding from it. Vaccines are only 60% affective at best with some people experiencing life altering affects.
Vaccines are being tested to see whether they bring the number of (asymptomatic) PCR test spread down. They are not even being tested for improvements in hospitalization rates or morbidity rates. There is no degree that less old people will die upon vaccination.
Immunity doesn’t last. Same with the flu. Either this thing is ended, or we’ll see a permanent shortening of human life on the planet.
Please provide any data to illustrate that memory T and B cells are not established, and that anti-COVID 19 T cells do not last.
Could be the death knell for many politicians also, who will be taking the voters blame for making the Covid-19 scamdemic worse that it needed to be.
Lockdowns don’t work. If they did, then the world would not be having a resurgence of the virus.
How many more lockdowns can businesses survive?
So how would you handle this crisis? Not trying to argue just curious what you would do.
Read:
Thousands Of Health Experts Sign Declaration Calling For End To Lockdown, Warn Of ‘Irreparable Damage’
By Tim Pearce
Oct 7, 2020
Herd immunity
7 billion infections
100 million deaths
Amirite?
If you were included in one of those 100 million, I would not be unhappy.
Aww Jojo, that’s so Trumptastic of you. But unfortunately for you, your card-carrying membership in a death cult makes you FAR more vulnerable.
So sad.
A lockdown might have worked if we’d actually tried it. The problem is all the “Don’t Tread on Me” nutjobs who think they have a constitutional right to walk around maskless and who never bothered with social distancing. No wonder it’s going to be a bleak winter.
Since MANY COUNTRIES are experiencing 2nd and 3rd Covid-19 waves, I assume you are referring to so-called “nutjobs” worldwide who all refused to follow in your sheeple, fear leaden footsteps?
But are there places that are not experiencing a large second wave? The only success stories I’m seeing are in east and southeast Asia, where a few factors stand out:
If the first two factors are the difference, then we should have taken Covid more seriously. If the third is, then we’re screwed because many of us would rather jab shards of glass into our eyeballs than avoid junk food and walk around more than is absolutely necessary. If it’s due to lifestyle, we’re finally going to start paying for having such a dopey culture.
Keeping the virus contained on an island or so may require you to lock down forever. As soon as the borders are opened, boom, you’re back to square one.
In Japan they’re less obese, but plenty of old people and hypertension, etc. No lock-down. And 50% of the Tokyo population has been exposed and are seropositive (so much for the masks). There is no easy recipe.
Very dubious 50% are exposed in Tokyo. One study, not peer reviewed. Entirely out of step with everywhere else in the world. Cold fusion.
“And 50% of the Tokyo population has been exposed and are seropositive (so much for the masks).”
The one item in your statement that I will take issue with is the ‘so much for masks’ — I would argue that this is a positive data point for masks. If you have extremely low death rates and high exposure/infection rates (which I would question in your statement, but let’s let that go for now), it would seem there is a difference in the way the virus is acting in that population. If (and it is an if) the difference is masking and taking public heath recommendations seriously, then this should be counted in evidence in favor of those things.
As far as lockdowns are concerned – I don’t have any opinion because the only lockdown I’ve seen is a few weeks in March where I was designated a required employee. At this point, we are officially still in stage 1 of reopening (out of at least 4 stages if not 6 – who knows) and we are back to having rush hour traffic and stores that are basically fully open along with in-restaurant dining. This doesn’t look much like a lockdown to me. The only slice of life that has the whiff of lockdown is the reopening of schools – and that is being actively reconsidered to lower the bar for in-person classes in higher population areas (more rural areas are already open).
Actually, yes. Look at countries with high social cohesion such as China, Korea, Vietnam. Like it or not, countries were “nut jobs” were not tolerated have done better. Like it or not.
…Lockdowns don’t work…
Sorry putz, lockdowns did work to cut the first peak down to manageable size.
We haven’t had lockdowns since spring. Where have you been?
People get careless and cases rises.
Thereby guaranteeing the next lockdown needed to cut the peak down to manageable size.
How many times do you need to figure that out?
You neglected the economic consequences of lockdowns. But that’s normal for the top 10% who have no idea how the other 80% live. Lockdowns were a vast overreaction to the potential damage of Coivd. A few million deaths, if that, is inconsequential against an 8 billion world population. Even if any of those deaths did happen to be one of your relatives.
There’s no way to know if mask wearing or lockdowns worked. We don’t know what would have happened otherwise.
It’s like stating if we had gone for it on 4th down, we would have won.
Says the idiot who thinks masks are useless
This may be above your IQ level bubbles, but give it a go.
The Sketchy Claims of the Case for a Mask Mandate
Phillip W. Magness
– October 24, 2020
They had great food. Hate to hear they filed again.
Hopefully they will keep making one of the better coffee ice creams available.
Don’t worry, in our wonderful free market economy, if there is a demand for it (and there always is for the sweet stuff – in case you haven’t noticed!), someone will supply it. Remember when Hostess, the maker of twinkies and ding dongs went out of business? You know the rest of the story…