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.
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COVID restrictions and lockdowns rise in US and Europe, as Trump’s rallies are blamed for cases.
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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.
Reprinted with the author’s permission.
