More US chain restaurant woes

[rcjordan]

Dozens Of Outback Steakhouse, Bonefish Grill, & Carrabba's Restaurants Closing

https://consumerist.com/2017/02/21/dozens-of-outback-steakhouse-bonefish-grill-carrabbas-restaurants-closing/

[rcjordan]

McDonald's to Cut Prices on Drinks as Fast-Food Industry Slumps

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-22/mcdonald-s-to-cut-prices-on-drinks-as-fast-food-industry-slumps

Sacrificing a cash cow. That's serious (and proven hard to recoup later, IIRC).

[Mackin USA]

Guess we should use our Gift Certificate to Outback Steakhouse SOON

[Brad]

These national chain restaurants are what I usually avoid.  They all seem the same and over priced for a canned decor and experience.  Maybe this will give the locally owned places a boost.

Applebee's just closed here, few people noticed.

[rcjordan]

>this will give the locally owned places a boost

Since Travoli turned us on to using Yelp even for roadside food vendors (Hawaii), we've used it with great success even in very small towns.  I've often thought that Yelp, Google maps w/ embedded reviews, and TripAdvisor (**HUGE** in Hanoi) served to promote or kill the local independent.  Reading indicates that the millennials are shying away from corporate restaurants. I expect the internet is one of their main tools.

[Mackin USA]

Ruth Ann is a big believer in supporting LOCAL & uses Yelp all the time.