Burger King Franchisee to Close 26 Locations Across SE Michigan, 12 in Detroit Proper

[313WX]

The bleeding of fast food options in the city of Detroit continues.

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...ds-of-layoffs/

This will result in 424 workers being laid off and it should be completed by mid-April.

These closure will leave Detroit proper with a grand total of 4 Burger King locations:

East Side

*Outer Drive & Van Dyke [[owned/operated by GPS Hospitality)

West Side

*West Lafayette & Trumbull

*West Vernor Hwy & Livernois

Downtown

*GM Headquarters / RenCen

[EGrant]

Had no idea there was a Burger King in the RenCen

[401don]

Had no idea there was a Burger King in the RenCen

It's been there for years. You would think with their limited hours they would be one of the closures. Must have a really sweet lease. W. Lafayette draws at all hours from the post office workers.

[313WX]

It's been there for years. You would think with their limited hours they would be one of the closures. Must have a really sweet lease. W. Lafayette draws at all hours from the post office workers.

Most likely, those locations are run by a different franchisee.

Besides GPS Hospitality, I think Tria Company is another big one locally.

[JonWylie]

Did someone say Savvy Sliders?

[softailrider]

Had no idea there was a Burger King in the RenCen

I have no idea about anything in the RenCen anymore since Michigan Basic moved out. I'd rather get a root canal then go into that place.

[swingline]

These all appear to be a single franchisee? Never good for a neighborhood to have boarded up fast food stores. West Lafayette location always seemed to be well run. The one on Gratiot near Eastern Market has been a disaster for years.

[mtburb]

Had no idea there was a Burger King in the RenCen

I'm surprised that one is still open, considering that nearly everything else in that food court has closed, and the rest of the RenCen's misfortunes since the pandemic began, having lost CVS and Comerica among other tenants.

[K-slice]

Look at the reviews for these restaurants and it's not hard to see why. If I'm getting fast food, it's the suburbs or bust.

[Danny]

Yes it true!!!

What a shock! Twenty six Metro Detroit Burger King Restaurants will be closed on April 15th. 470 employees will lose their jobs in the flash!

Here are the locations that are closing:

The following Metro Detroit Burger King locations will be closed by mid-April:

Dearborn Heights: 20401 West Warren Avenue
Detroit: 20200 Grand River Avenue
Detroit: 2155 Gratiot Avenue
Detroit: 9239 Gratiot Avenue
Detroit: 18021 Kelly Road
Detroit: 9871 Livernois
Detroit: 16245 Livernois
Detroit: 20240 Plymouth Road
Detroit: 12661 Mack Avenue
Detroit: 13600 West McNichols Road
Detroit: 17440 East Warren Avenue
Detroit: 8201 Woodward Avenue
Detroit: 15500 West 7 Mile Road
Ecorse: 3863 West Jefferson Avenue
Ferndale: 10336 West 8 Mile Road
Flint: 3801 Clio Road
Flint: 3625 South Dort Highway
Highland Park: 13324 Woodward Avenue
Livonia: 28203 Plymouth Road
Livonia: 34835 Plymouth Avenue
Royal Oak: 31456 Woodward Avenue
Southfield: 30711 Southfield Road
Southfield: 23660 Telegraph Road
Walled Lake: 1113 East West Maple Road
Warren: 2411 East 8 Mile Road
Whitmore Lake: 9774 East M-36

Who's to Blame The franchisee has failed to keep out with BK's marching orders.

[Danny]

Did someone say Savvy Sliders?

Savvy Sliders target is chase White Castle out of Detroit.

[313WX]

Did someone say Savvy Sliders?

If unseasoned burger meat is your thing, then you'll love Saavy Sliders!

[Richard]

Most likely, those locations are run by a different franchisee.

Besides GPS Hospitality, I think Tria Company is another big one locally.

EYM King of Michigan, based in Irving, Texas, the franchisee that owns the restaurants, informed the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity on March 22 of the layoffs.

The closings are due to “unforeseen business circumstances” and failure to reach an agreement with Burger King Corp., according to a WARN notice sent to Michigan’s labor department.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...team%20members.

TOMS King Holdings, a 90-unit Burger King operator with locations in four states, declared bankruptcy this week, blaming the pandemic and subsequent inflation challenges for draining its cash flow and making it unable to pay its debt.
https://www.restaurantbusinessonline...res-bankruptcy

• 
  
• Meridian Restaurants Unlimited, which operates over 115 Burger King restaurants across nine states, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week.

https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/...nkrupt/644529/


The way it looks the city’s that had extended lock downs are the ones that are being shut down across the country,BK most likely would not negotiate lease terms so the ones that were hurting could never really fully recover.

[Richard]

Savvy Sliders target is chase White Castle out of Detroit.

Good luck with that,WC is a private family owned business that is saddled with no debt and does not franchise,they do not open locations willy nilly and in a burger war they would win hands down because they have no debt and other locations across the country can pick up the losses,unlike a local franchise.

[401don]

Restaurant Brands, the Brazilian company that owns Burger King, also owns Tim Horton's. They have had quite a few disputes with Tim's franchisees in recently.

[Zacha341]

I don't think so. The price point of WC is still attractive for a fast-food-crap-burger! And SS doesn't have those wonderful chicken rings or onion chips!

Savvy Sliders target is chase White Castle out of Detroit.

[Zacha341]

Kinda incredible that this one is closing...... The locale should have kept it going. The few times lately that I had a hankering for flame grilled they looked closed and I drove on...

Here are the locations that are closing:

The following Metro Detroit Burger King locations will be closed by mid-April:

....Detroit: 8201 Woodward Avenue

[Zacha341]

Over-priced too! Once the new-shine wears off that reality will emerge......!

If unseasoned burger meat is your thing, then you'll love Saavy Sliders!

[Danny]

Good luck with that,WC is a private family owned business that is saddled with no debt and does not franchise,they do not open locations willy nilly and in a burger war they would win hands down because they have no debt and other locations across the country can pick up the losses,unlike a local franchise.

White Castle is a Franchise.


https://www.franchisehelp.com/franchises/white-castle/

[Pat001]

In W. Bloomfield over the past year two Starbucks closed, two Tim Horton's, a Burger King, a KFC Chicken, Checkers, Outback Steak House and Panera have closed. Many of these places can't find help.

[Zacha341]

^ True! Too many younger workers can't stay off their phones enough to work.

[Canadian Visitor]

^ True! Too many younger workers can't stay off their phones enough to work.

While I think your engaging in gross over-generalization......

I will ask a serious question in reply.

"Why would any worker, of any age work for anything close to Michigan minimum wage"?

If the offer is under $16USD an hour, the appropriate response is an obscene gesture.

I will never fail to be amazed that people think you can cut/restrain[[spending) to success.

It almost never works, when it does, its rarely sustainable.

You need people to want to work for you; to enjoy their jobs, to see a future with your company.

That requires good wages, benefits, training, and full-time and promotion opportunities.

If you wont' offer those, people will not choose to work for you; generally not even when desperately poor.

After all, if you can barely make rent, need a food bank / food pantry in order to eat, can't afford to insure your car, and are behind on your taxes while working 30 hours a week; why not be exactly the same and sit on your duff?

To be clear, I've never been on gov't assistance and hope I never have cause to be; I've done decent in life; but I also realize my good fortune in that; a bit of hard work, a few connections, an excellent education, a family that helped w/tuition and learning etc.

For people who either haven't had that; or for that matter, people who have, a job that pays miserly and offers no material opportunity for advancement is pretty easy to take a pass on.

[Richard]

White Castle is a Franchise.


https://www.franchisehelp.com/franchises/white-castle/

White Castle does not actually franchise, it has subsidiaries that are privately owned. White Castle expands very carefully and deliberately, using earmarked earnings to fund construction and not stretching too far geographically away from the company’s resources.

It is in the overview section in the link you posted

[Richard]

While I think your engaging in gross over-generalization......

I will ask a serious question in reply.

"Why would any worker, of any age work for anything close to Michigan minimum wage"?

If the offer is under $16USD an hour, the appropriate response is an obscene gesture.

I will never fail to be amazed that people think you can cut/restrain[[spending) to success.

It almost never works, when it does, its rarely sustainable.

You need people to want to work for you; to enjoy their jobs, to see a future with your company.

That requires good wages, benefits, training, and full-time and promotion opportunities.

If you wont' offer those, people will not choose to work for you; generally not even when desperately poor.

After all, if you can barely make rent, need a food bank / food pantry in order to eat, can't afford to insure your car, and are behind on your taxes while working 30 hours a week; why not be exactly the same and sit on your duff?

To be clear, I've never been on gov't assistance and hope I never have cause to be; I've done decent in life; but I also realize my good fortune in that; a bit of hard work, a few connections, an excellent education, a family that helped w/tuition and learning etc.

For people who either haven't had that; or for that matter, people who have, a job that pays miserly and offers no material opportunity for advancement is pretty easy to take a pass on.

ummm the average wage for a fast food worker in Canada is $14 per hour and taxed at a higher rate,so they make less then they would in Michigan.


There are 28,000 employees in the fast food service sector out of 158 million employees in the country.



"Why would any worker, of any age work for anything close to Michigan minimum wage"?


It’s simple

Because they can.

They could move to Canada and make $150,000 a year flipping burgers because their skill level demands it.

I have never seen anybody walk into any business and offer to pay more so the employees can make more.

Better yet,next time when you go through a drive through,flip them a C note because they deserve more,it’s the right thing to do.

[Canadian Visitor]

ummm the average wage for a fast food worker in Canada is $14 per hour and taxed at a higher rate,so they make less then they would in Michigan.

I'll ignore the rest of your useless tirade to correct and augment what you say above.

1) There are virtually no provinces left with a minimum wage under $15 CAD so your statement is peculiar unless your attempting to state that that number is in USD [[though Canadian fast food workers aren't paid in USD, nor are their expenses, but I digress)

2) Minimum wage workers [[full-time) pay very little income tax at all in Canada.

Ontario exempts anyone making less than $50,000 from Provincial Income Tax.

The Federal gov't provides everyone $15,000 in tax-free income; then if you're a low-wage earner, the Canada Worker's benefit refunds a good chunk of what you pay on the rest.

***

That said, and noting that this discussion wasn't about Canada, a place you can't legally enter, but about Detroit, a place you've never actually been.

***

Finally, note, those jobs can't be filled in Canada at the moment, which is why we're taking in huge numbers of Temporary Foreign Workers and allowing Foreign Students to work full-time, while enrolled.

For the record, I disagree w/our governments on this strategy as it discourages productivity investments and wage growth; but it is what it is.