This Once-Popular Restaurant Chain Is About To Close More Than 40 Locations
In today's challenging restaurant market, new restaurants open and existing ones close every day. Thus is the case with the popular drive-through healthy eatery, Salad and Go. According to CEO Mike Tatters, the chain is set to close a total of 41 locations as of September 19 across Texas and Oklahoma.
Salad and Go, as the name implies, serves healthy food like salads and wraps to hungry customers who are looking to eat healthy without having to meal prep salads or buy expensive meal kits. It operates on a drive-thru-only business model, meaning that its restaurants have no seating areas, and customers either have to use the drive-thru or walk up to get their food.
Following the closures, 99 out of its previous 140 fast food chain locations will remain, primarily in the Dallas area, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Las Vegas. This news comes after a wave of explosive growth, with Salad and Go almost doubling its locations over the past two years and constructing a central kitchen in Garland, Texas to support up to 500 nearby locations.
Why are so many Salad and Go locations closing?
According to Tatters in a statement to QSR magazine, "Concentrating our efforts will allow us to strengthen the brand and invest more in improving quality, driving innovation, and building community."
Though Tatters didn't offer much else by way of expansion, the most likely culprits for so many closures all at once are increasing operating costs due to inflation and competition from other restaurants. Salad and Go's rapid expansion has left it in a position where it has a lot of costs in areas where it may not yet be fully established, so it's natural that its leaders would focus on more profitable locations. Another possible cause is the recent shift in leadership, as Mike Tatters took over as CEO only a few months ago, as of this writing.
It's also possible that the business model itself is to blame, at least in part. Drive-through only restaurants limit a location's clientele, as customers who wish to sit down and eat may pass them by in favor of a more traditional dining experience. Health-conscious restaurants have also experienced economic struggles lately, as evidenced by the recent bankruptcy of another health chain, Planta, which closed over half of its locations as a result.