But when close to twenty percent of Denny's go under, you know the shit has hit the fan.
For those of my readers outside of the U.S., Denny's is a chain modeled after the classic 1950's diners. Greasy food, black coffee, and shakes. Not exactly healthy, but comfort food after a late night partying or when you're pregnant and can't keep anything else down.
(Don't ask me why on that last one. It's the one place my stomach could tolerate when I had morning sickness and after I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.)
I wasn't surprised when my sales dropped shortly after Tribblehead's inauguration. The same thing had happened during his first term, and that's accounting for me doing elder care for the in-laws.
But this time around, things are much, much worse. ICE is kidnapping brown folks, whether they're legally in the U.S. or not. White folks don't want to admit brown folks are the backbone of the restaurant business.
The quality of a lot of restaurants' food has gone downhill, especially fast-food joints. The last Big Mac I ate had more special sauce than burger. My last two sandwiches from Arby's were not cooked all the way through.The last cheesy fries I ordered from Wendy's were. . .let's just say there was a quarter inch layer of oil in the bottom of the container making the fries very, VERY soggy.
Look, I've had diabetes and been immunocompromised for the last twenty-six years. But I still treat myself once in a while. But even DH was grossed out the last three times we hit a fast food place. And he has a cast-iron stomach. Needless to say, I've been cooking cheeseburgers, pizza, and tacos from my own recipes at home, and not just because it's cheaper and healthier.
Which brings me to my second point. With retail prices for everyday needs staying near the levels they were during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, people don't have the extra money for eating out. And if my experiences with really shitty take-out are any indication, people just aren't going to splurge at those restaurants anymore.
It's not just Denny's closing thousands of stores. I scrolled through other restaurant news. McDonald's sales are down as is everyone else's in the fast food market. Red Lobster nearly collapsed. In fact, the one in our town was originally slated for closer, but somehow, they found a CEO who pulled them out of the tailspin. By the way, the new CEO is . . .what for it. . . . . . . .brown!
In the meantime, DH and I aren't wasting money at these franchises anymore. We've been patronizing locally-owned restaurants at the rare times we go out, mainly out of a sense of self-preservation. I don't feel like dying from fast-food food poisoning. I've got a ton of books to write.
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