Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Nooooooo.............

Krystal filed bankruptcy.  Yes.  Krystal.  Please no.  Where else am I going to go at 2 AM when I need something to absorb um, certain additives in my stomach? The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported:



Legendary hamburger chain The Krystal Co. has filed for bankruptcy reorganization.

Atlanta-based Krystal filed for Chapter 11 on Jan. 19 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Atlanta, reporting assets between $10 million and $50 million and liabilities between $50 million and $100 million. In Chapter 11, a company remains open for business while it tries to reorganize its debts. (Read the full filing here.)

Krystal operates about 182 restaurants spread across nine states, including Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Arkansas. All 182 of the company’s restaurant locations are leased. Franchisees currently own and operate an additional 116 Krystal restaurants.

The company and affiliates — Krystal Holdings Inc. and K-Square Acquisition Co. LLC — employ approximately 4,890 employees, consisting of 743 full-time hourly employees, 3,856 part-time hourly employees and 291 full-time salaried employees.

The company, now headquartered in Dunwoody, Ga., was founded in Chattanooga, Tenn., in 1932. ...

In the past few years," the filing says, "the Debtors have experienced strong industry-specific headwinds due to a combination of shifting consumer tastes and preferences, growth in labor and commodity costs, increased competition, and unfavorable lease terms. The proliferation of fast casual restaurants as well as online delivery platforms has created new competition for traditional quick-service chains. Moreover, quick-service restaurants have faced increasing difficulty finding and retaining qualified employees in the current labor market. It is not uncommon for quick-service restaurants to face store-level turnover in excess of 200%. These challenges (together with company-specific business challenges) have resulted in deteriorating financial performance."

"In April 2018," the filing goes to add, "the Debtors began a process of significant investment in nine of their stores that involved completely demolishing and then rebuilding the locations. The Debtors completed five of these rebuilds in 2018 and additional four rebuilds in 2019. On average, these rebuilds required an investment of approximately $950,000 per location. These efforts resulted in substantial increased sales for these locations, but required significant capital investment." ... Rest of article.
Hopefully it will come back from the edge as Hostess did.  We neeeeeed this.


46 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh shyt!

Anonymous said...

Chik-fil-a and Whataburger have set a high bar for fast food quality and customer service. Why would I want to deal with shit quality and surly fast food workers at any time of the day or night when there are honestly better options?

Anonymous said...

Give me Waffle House or give me death!

The Krystal on Lakeland does pretty good, the one is Pearl has improved but it was so bad for so long that the parking lot is often empty. I don;t understand how it's still open.

Anonymous said...

Place was trash anyway. If you need food at 2am after "certain additives," you need Jesus and Waffle House.

Anonymous said...

mississippians r phat

Anonymous said...

Well, they may be broke but it ain’t for lack of customers. They just need to find a cheaper way to flip them burgers

Anonymous said...

Whataburger is open at that hour and serve much better food with better service.

Anonymous said...

Staying in biz just screwing current creditors while getting new credit from new lenders at higher rates.

Such is bankruptcy

Kingfish said...

Krystals still makes those apple pies the way McDonald's used to before it converted to that baked crap.

Anonymous said...

What a punch to the gut!

Anonymous said...

It's Chapter 11. Chill out, Krystal isn't going anywhere.

Anonymous said...

The never jumped on the "avocado and guacamole" on everything bandwagon and now they are filing bankruptcy.

Anonymous said...

Interesting comments about the "total rebuilds". Glad the one at metro was finished prior to this.

Also interesting comments about rising wages and shortage of available labor. Same crap we have been posting about all Jackson area food places for years.

The fight for $15 is certainly having its effects.

Anonymous said...

I just had my bacon,egg, & cheese biscuit this morning. They have the best chili cheese pups around. I hope the one on County Line and Lakeland do not close. I do agree with the above comments about service. Some of them are vary surly and seem to care less that you are waiting to be served. So sad.

Anonymous said...

Nothing was better than a bag full of Krystal's
after a night at Town Creek Salon.

Anonymous said...

If most of them are run the way the one in Byram is, it's no wonder they're filing for bankruptcy. They wouldn't be in this mess if they hired decent staff.

Anonymous said...

Growing up our shopping day routine was groceries at Kroger in Westland Plaza, picking up a big bag of Krystals on Ellis Ave then we’d get a gallon of root beer from the A&W also on Ellis to take home. Good memories.

PittPanther said...

Krystal in North Jackson is an institution, and has a group of retirees that eat breakfast there every weekend. Even has their pictures up for each year.

Best fast food breakfast available. And the Child are underrated.

Wait staff has never been surly (to me).

Anonymous said...

I used to love Krystal. You could get a sack of burgers that were well worth the money. Last few years have been pretty inconsistent though. The meat tastes a little off and the buns have been dry more often than not. Service has also been very poor at a lot of locations although I've never had an issue at the Brandon one.

I hope they can get their act together. It seems like they need better managers in the stores to keep things running smooth.

Anonymous said...

Yep. Remember the days when we got a big bag of 50 Krystal's for 5 Bucks at the one on Ellis Avenue. Good stuff.

Anonymous said...

They may stay open under chapter 11 but they've already closed many stores. It's just a matter of time how many will hang on until the end just like so many food and retail stores do.

Anonymous said...

Once a chain files for bankruptcy it's already on its death bed.
Would not be surprised to see White Castle buy up the carcass so they can expand into the south.

Anonymous said...

They need a hot new gimmick. Something nobody else has tried. I'm thinking Chinese fried rice burritos. Yeah! That's the ticket!

Burke said...

Lest we forget, Jimmy Buffett immortalized the Krystal on N. State near Meadowbrook, where a certain criminal type was nailed by police while in possession of an allegedly stolen TV set.

My personal record, set circa 1959, was 17 at a time.

Gag me with a spoon said...

I had a krystal once, and spit it out. Disgusting, but to each his own. But I noticed the lack of feral cats in the area.

Anonymous said...

Tells us more about Jimmy Buffett and the North State Street Krystal.

Is that in one his songs ?

Anonymous said...

Say what you all want, but I for one sure hope they don't close. I just get a hankering every now and then for a Krystal and coming from Detroit where we had those White Castle burgers, which are better, Krystal can bring back memories and yes KF, those fried apple pies are the best! Churches still has the fried apple pies too and I also agree McDs messed up with that baked crap! Ya'll, let's how they don't close. Those chilli cheese pups and corn pups be the bomb! LOL!!!

Louis LeFleur said...

Oh, come on now, y'all, let's be honest. Krystal has never been the same in Jackson since they closed the one on Capitol Street. (No, I'm not serious!) Fond memories of north Jackson Krystal on State near Meadowbrook from many years past. The one on County Line not so much.

Anonymous said...

We always called them “gut grenades” for obvious reasons.
Kingfish if you like their apple pies, you should try Tom’s fried Pies. They are much better.

Anonymous said...

"Fond memories of north Jackson Krystal on State near Meadowbrook from many years past. The one on County Line not so much."

Absolutely !

We were probably in there at the same time (around 2 A.M.)

Over the years there were some classics within walking distance. The old Kentucky Fried Chicken, Golden Dragon, Pasquales / El Burrito . . . not to mention the Dutch Bar. A short drive up North State was the original Cherokee.

But back on topic, the N. State/Meadowbrook Krystal brings back many memories.

And the County Line Krystal sucked all four times I visited.
(But that was during the mid 2000's, when I briefly returned home to the Jackson area)

Anonymous said...

Hope they don’t cut back on the meat in those patties.

Anonymous said...

Please have White Castle come in and snap up the locations. Much better.

Anonymous said...

to 1;18... the song is called
'the great filling station holdup'.......and it mentions a crystal resturant, but has no mention of jackson.

Jove said...

This is the worst news I have heard in a long time.

Anonymous said...

" the song is called
'the great filling station holdup'.......and it mentions a crystal resturant, but has no mention of jackson."

Thanks !

Anon-E-Mouse said...

The Apple pies at what a burger are fried ala old McDonald’s and krystals. They also have a lemon and chocolate

Anonymous said...

A friends dad worked for Krystal corporate and helped take them public years ago.

Imagine he’s not too pleased.

State street Krystal with its screwed up drive thru provided many a late night laugh as car careened off the edge of the drive thru lane .....hammered up drunks.

The food is a little harder to digest these days though imo.

Sad but not totally unexpected.

Anonymous said...

KF, if they go under, or even if they don't, your Egg Nog might be a good substitute "remedy" for what might "ale" you.

Anonymous said...

The old Krystal across from Kroger on 55 was a regular stop after concerts at the coliseum back in the ‘70’s. Saw many good shows back when touring bands would actually come to Jackson.

Anonymous said...

"Krystals still makes those apple pies the way McDonald's used to before it converted to that baked crap."

Sorry, Kingfish, but the Krystal restaurants don't 'make' apple pies. They simply thaw and bake them. They also don't make that excellent strawberry jam.

Anonymous said...

Well as long as we’re calling out terrible locations, I’d like to add Taco Bell in Madison.

Back on topic I liked the wings from Krystal’s, their pseudo burgers not so much. I find the White Castle Burgers in the frozen food section to be of better taste.

Finally, there’s the staff. When I was growing up people took pride in their work, but this trait seems to be absent in every service nowadays. The pay isn’t worth it, so you end up with someone there who would rather spend the majority of their time getting paid while establishing their “brand”. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why Chick-fil-A is doing numbers.

Early 70s Baby said...

Someone mentioned Golden Dragon!! My eyes are filling up with tears....

The Gluckstadt Krystal is amazing during the day but let the sun go down and the lazy crew and/or manger arrive and the quality and service crashes. Never liked the county line location.

Krystal on State was the spot after Callaway basketball games.

Krystal on Ellis was my personal favorite back in the day.

Anonymous said...

Krystal, for a while, actually had great fried chicken, years ago. I love a good Krystal breakfast at the one on County Line at Old Canton or the one on Lakeland near Primos and go to both, often. Lots cheaper than Primos breakfast and better, but can't see as many aloof customers at the K. By the way, all of them have almost totally African American employees, a majority of whom are really nice and anxious to please. This might shoot the hell out of Kingfish's theory that I'm racist.

And yes, the new Taco Bell in Madison is a crap-hole headed for closure.

Louis LeFleur said...

Yea, verily, 1/21 @ 3:25. Yea, verily. I was actually rarely there, just for a passing look usually, in the wee hours of the morning. Though not too many years later I would go there a little later for breakfast before hunting. Sometimes there were still a few "hangers on" around, though not in very good shape by that point, of course.

Louis LeFleur said...

KF, if you really miss the fried pies at Krystal so much you might want to check this out.



Cbalducc said...

About ten years ago, Wendy’s built a new restaurant in Cleveland. The former location became Krystal’s after sitting empty a long time. It closed in less than a year.



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