I saw this recently on Eat This, Not That – This Popular Struggling Restaurant Chain Is Making a Major Comeback, CEO Says: https://www.eatthis.com/news-popular-struggling-restaurant-chain-making-major-comeback/. Longer article.
BY ALAN KRAWITZ April 4, 2022
Not only has the beloved chain lived through the pandemic, it is also seeing record sales.
Lucky for Golden Corral and all its buffet-loving fans, the predictions of the chain’s demise during the pandemic proved to be wrong. Sure, the company was hit hard, suffering a major loss in sales due to the nature of the buffet business model, as well as a loss of dozens of restaurant locations caused by the bankruptcy filings of two of its largest franchisees.
In fact, things seemed so grim for a while that one news report called Golden Corral a “zombie company that’s dead, they just don’t know it yet.” But CEO Lance Trenary now says the chain, which dates all the way back to 1973, is on track again. And he has a message for any potential naysayers: “The buffet is back.”
The chain has new locations in the works as sales hit a record high
But the chain’s survival isn’t a fluke. Behind the scenes, the company was working hard to find solutions to its dependence on self-serve buffets during the pandemic.
“We were able to pivot quickly and shift to some different business models,” Trenary says, adding that guests were incredibly supportive during this time. Research told the company that people wanted their buffet back and, in the summer of 2021, when COVID-19 mandates began to relax across the country, things were already starting to improve.
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Ups Downs Family History 