BIDENOMICS: Popular nationwide pizza chain set to file for bankruptcy in days — sparking fears its 500 restaurants could close.

A popular pizza chain is the latest to face money problems in the face of rising costs and falling customer numbers.

Mod Pizza is preparing to file for bankruptcy as early as next week, sources told Bloomberg on Wednesday.

The plans are not finalized and could still change, the person familiar with the matter said.

‘We’re working diligently to improve our capital structure and are exploring all options to do so,’ a Mod Pizza spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Mod Pizza, known for its custom personal pizzas and salads, has more than 500 locations across 28 US states.

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Restaurants have increasingly been struggling this year.

They have been putting up prices over the past two years – as they pass on higher costs to customers. But these price hikes have led to a fall in visitors.

Bigger chains like Applebee’s, TGI Fridays and Boston Market have have all recently shuttered restaurants, as have smaller chains like BurgerFi.

Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy in May and also shuttered almost 100 restaurants.

Chains have been worst hit in California where the minimum wage for fast food restaurants jumped to $20-an-hour from April 1. In early June, Mexican chain Rubio’s shut 48 locations in the state and also filed for bankruptcy.
Two weeks ago, it emerged that almost 150 Pizza Hut restaurants are set to close due to an ongoing financial dispute with one of its major franchisees.

Bidenomics is also likely driving McDonald’s return to reality: McDonald’s will stop selling ‘healthy’ menu item due to lack of sales.

‘Our founder famously said in 1970, “I don’t know what people are going to be eating in the year 2000, but we’re going to serve more of it than anybody else,”‘ the CEO said.

Adding: ‘And so if people really want salads from McDonald’s, we will gladly relaunch salads. But what our experience has proven is, that’s not what the consumer is looking for from McDonald’s.’

At the same time as he said the chain was ditching salads, [McDonald’s USA president Joe Erlinger] said that McDonald’s had given up on its bid to sell meat-free beef burgers in America.

He said the McPlant has been ditched because customers did not want fake meat.

The chain had been testing the McPlant at several hundred restaurants in California and Texas since trials began in late 2021.

Developed with Beyond Meat, it was made from pea and rice proteins.
While it has flopped in the US, it has been a hit in the UK, Germany , Holland and Portugal.

As Steve Green wrote in 2015, when since-departed McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook announced his plans to transform McDonald’s into a “modern, progressive burger company:”

McDonald’s is almost certainly doomed. Or at the very least, Easterbrook is the wrong guy to head up the burger chain — any burger chain, for that matter.

To understand why I’ve come to this conclusion, read the very next line from the story:

Easterbrook plans to unveil his plan for turning McDonald’s into a “modern, progressive burger company” on May 4.

Now maybe I should withhold judgement until I see this plan next week. Maybe a bold headline like “McDonald’s Is Doomed” is just the kind of baseless clickbait fear-mongering I try to resist indulging in.

But a progressive burger company? Really?

How about a barber shop with shampoo laced with Nair? No, that doesn’t seem like a good idea to you? Let’s talk about it at my bar, where I water down the scotch. No, you’d rather not? Well, that’s how I feel about a “modern, progressive burger company.”

A progressive burger chain is like a quiet rave, a smoke-free poker game, or a free & fair Chicago election.

A burger chain serves up the sandwich version of meat & potatoes — the very antithesis of “progressive” anything. A fast-food burger is supposed to be simple, hearty, wholesome, perhaps-not-entirely-healthy fare designed for families on a budget and on the go.

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This shouldn’t be rocket math. Progressivism has come to mean top-down, pre-engineered, overpriced, “we know what’s best for you,” nannystatism — which is not what I consider to be a fun meal with the kids.

A fun meal with the kids is decent, fast, inexpensive dining on American food. There’s nothing “progressive” about it. And any attempt to force that square peg into the round hole of our hungry mouths is doomed to failure.

An inflationary economy with poor job numbers is hastening the demise of many companies, and speeding up a return to reality for McDonald’s.

Besides, you don’t win friends with salad: