Heather Haddon
Appearances
The Journal.
The Epic Mess at TGI Fridays
I think TGI Fridays is a lesson on both casual dining and how much joy it has brought to America and how good of a concept it has been, but how challenging it is to keep these vintage brands going in a new America. I mean, I think taste of change and younger people don't see going out to eat at all sometimes as what they want to do.
The Journal.
The Epic Mess at TGI Fridays
So I think we do see something emblematic in TGI Fridays and how consumers eat out differently than they used to.
The Journal.
The Epic Mess at TGI Fridays
TGI Fridays is known for its bar, for its comfort food, for its appetizers, its stuffed potato skins, and a place to meet people, maybe have a happy hour after work, maybe bring your kids.
The Journal.
The Epic Mess at TGI Fridays
Yeah, so TGI Fridays is to some degree emblematic of a lot of casual dining restaurants right now we're going through, which is tough times. These vintage, historically very popular restaurants now just aren't popular like they were previously. And TGI Fridays is a particularly egregious example of that.
The Journal.
The Epic Mess at TGI Fridays
TGI Fridays is definitely not in a good place. It is not a happy, happy hour place right now.
The Journal.
The Epic Mess at TGI Fridays
Well, one great thing about restaurants is they generate a lot of cash. So they have steady cash flows. And especially if they're managed well, there's money coming in and there's money coming to the company. And that is great for private equity and other investors.
The Journal.
The Epic Mess at TGI Fridays
And also when these private equity firms came in, they really pushed to shift TGI Fridays from an ownership model of its restaurants to having franchisees run its restaurants. And that's really helpful for businesses the company in that it makes for this asset-light model.
The Journal.
The Epic Mess at TGI Fridays
So the franchisees are taking on a lot of the potential reward and also risk of running these restaurants, and they pay royalties to the owners. So it helps... kind of reduce some of the risk and liability for the company that owns them and helps them to grow.
The Journal.
The Epic Mess at TGI Fridays
You know, hopefully these franchisees are invested in their restaurants and growing their restaurants and making them successful, and that benefits the parent company.
The Journal.
The Epic Mess at TGI Fridays
It's a combination of TJR Friday's own issues and also casual dining generally has really been struggling. And so they just couldn't rebuild in the way they had hoped. And from what I understand, there was friction between those CEOs and the board about correct approaches going forward. And here we are in bankruptcy.