Companies That You Expect to Disappear Soon

[duffield]

...

The same report also states Claire's. I actually thought they had already totally gone rather than that Modella Capital had bought around half of the stores last September.

Yes, I was convinced they'd already all closed. I was walking through Meadowhall in November last year with my sister and saw a Claire's sign in the distance and confidently told her that they'd gone bust and gone away. I looked a bit foolish when we got closer and saw they were still open and busy...

 

[styles]

Not yet disappearing but TGI Friday's are closing a third of their UK restaurants, with 456 job losses.

Hardly surprises me. TGIs is one of the more expensive chains with mediocre food. I also wonder if some people who crave it just go to the supermarket and buy their frozen stuff.

I think the nation is slowly falling out of love with these chain restaurants. There's so much competition from high quality independents now who also usually manage to do it for cheaper. There's little chance of me going to Pizza Hut or TGIs when there's a wood fired pizza place or a street food burger joint doing tastier food for the same or cheaper.

 

[johntea]

I do think the chain restaurants have reached a very dangerous tipping point in terms of putting prices up

Me and the mother went to Nandos the other day, 2 small starters, 2 chicken mains with a couple of sides each and 2 drinks...and £50 lighter!

 

[Broucek]

I do think the chain restaurants have reached a very dangerous tipping point in terms of putting prices up

Me and the mother went to Nandos the other day, 2 small starters, 2 chicken mains with a couple of sides each and 2 drinks...and £50 lighter!

100%

 

[Harpo]

I think the nation is slowly falling out of love with these chain restaurants. There's so much competition from high quality independents

Independent restaurants don’t help themselves either though with an industry standard mains menu of chicken whatever, burger, fish & chips, steak, sea bass and something pasta vegetarian/vegan. And don’t start me on calling casserole with a pastry on top a ‘pie’!

 

[jon81uk]

I do think the chain restaurants have reached a very dangerous tipping point in terms of putting prices up

Me and the mother went to Nandos the other day, 2 small starters, 2 chicken mains with a couple of sides each and 2 drinks...and £50 lighter!

£50 for a two course meal for two still seems like a decent price.
£15 for a good sized main with sides isn't too bad now.

 

[lookapigeon]

I do think the chain restaurants have reached a very dangerous tipping point in terms of putting prices up

I wonder what part of it is actually increased costs (from food, energy etc) and and what part is just greed disguised?

 

[styles]

I do think the chain restaurants have reached a very dangerous tipping point in terms of putting prices up

Me and the mother went to Nandos the other day, 2 small starters, 2 chicken mains with a couple of sides each and 2 drinks...and £50 lighter!

I actually don't think that's bad - starter, main, sides, drinks for £25pp isn't that bad. Nando's also do pretty good deals for just mains and sides.

I was saying to my partner last night that I think this is one of the chains which will continue to do well.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Jan 2026 ==

Independent restaurants don’t help themselves either though with an industry standard mains menu of chicken whatever, burger, fish & chips, steak, sea bass and something pasta vegetarian/vegan. And don’t start me on calling casserole with a pastry on top a ‘pie’!

Maybe I visit different independent places but I don't really find this to be the case?

I do find chicken to be quite popular, but then if you go to Tesco they'll have like quarter an aisle dedicated to chicken breast with the chicken thighs or whole chickens somewhat relegated. The country currently has an obsession with super lean protein.

My local independent restaurant (couple of minutes walk away) actually does ox tail, as well as wood fired pizzas. I'd rather give them money than Dominos or Wetherspoon.

I do totally agree about the misappropriation of the term 'pie' though Pubs have been doing it for years and when I get served it it winds me up!

 

[Kite159]

The chains which suffer are the ones who have a higher starting price, but do endless promotional vouchers giving 25/33/50% off the price of food if you sign up to their mailing list etc.

 

[styles]

The chains which suffer are the ones who have a higher starting price, but do endless promotional vouchers giving 25/33/50% off the price of food if you sign up to their mailing list etc.

I must admit, I'd much rather just have honest pricing.

If you're a burger joint wanting to make an average revenue of £9 per burger, then just advertise it for £9 and do away with the offers. I'd be more likely to pop in for a burger and fries at a reasonable price than if I have to hunt for newspaper vouchers or Instagram discount codes.

I do understand offering discounts for e.g. OAPs, students, etc; but they are a small number of regular discounts which can be factored in.

The chain pizza places are the worst for this. Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa John's all selling pizzas for £25 but have a host of complicated "deals" to reduce them to like £15 each.

 

[D6130]

After the recently-announced increases in business rates and the minimum wage, I suspect that those independent restaurants that survive will see fairly hefty price increases.

 

[styles]

After the recently-announced increases in business rates and the minimum wage, I suspect that those independent restaurants that survive will see fairly hefty price increases.

My experience of joining the board of an independent food place facing bankruptcy is that actually the local councils will do what they can to allow independents to continue.

While I'm aware this is patchy, I also know councils would rather have some income than none.

 

[Kite159]

I must admit, I'd much rather just have honest pricing.

If you're a burger joint wanting to make an average revenue of £9 per burger, then just advertise it for £9 and do away with the offers. I'd be more likely to pop in for a burger and fries at a reasonable price than if I have to hunt for newspaper vouchers or Instagram discount codes.

I do understand offering discounts for e.g. OAPs, students, etc; but they are a small number of regular discounts which can be factored in.

The chain pizza places are the worst for this. Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa John's all selling pizzas for £25 but have a host of complicated "deals" to reduce them to like £15 each.

Agreed, and how many potential customers will look at the 'list' price where that £9 burger is advertised as say £15 and decide not to consider using the place as it's too expensive.

And some of those pizza deals offered by the likes of Dominos are rubbish if you only want the one pizza. Buy one, get one free is OK if you are ordering for 2 or more people, but hopeless if you are eating alone.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The chain pizza places are the worst for this. Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa John's all selling pizzas for £25 but have a host of complicated "deals" to reduce them to like £15 each.

I find that an irritant too, but it's actually quite clever market differentiation. Sober people will spend a few minutes finding the deals and will pay a reasonable price (to the extent that any pizza delivery is reasonably priced compared to a premium non-frozen supermarket pizza), whereas drunk people will be too confused by all the deals and will pay over the odds quite happily.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Jan 2026 ==

After the recently-announced increases in business rates and the minimum wage, I suspect that those independent restaurants that survive will see fairly hefty price increases.

In the end we shouldn't get to enjoy a meal out (a luxury) off the back of what is essentially slave labour. If the cost of paying people a wage they can live off is more expensive meals a bit less often, then that's what it should be. And if a business is only viable by paying people slave rates, then the business simply is not viable at all and it is right that it closes - it's not right that its owner should be able to profit personally from paying people poverty wages.

That's how it is in Switzerland, eating out is quite pricey but the service is generally excellent. Indeed what you often see is more family run restaurants where family members will do the different roles rather than just getting cheap labour in to do an often very lackadaisical job of front-of-house, often the restaurant owner will be the waiter/waitress with a different family member in the kitchen. I find that in bars in mainland Europe too - here the model is often that the landlord rarely serves on the bar except when they want to if they enjoy it, but they take on minimum wage bar staff, whereas there the bars will typically be smaller and staffed mostly by their owners and their family.

It's noticeable, as an aside, how hand car washes are a common thing now when they weren't 30 years ago - 30 years ago you did it yourself, got a valet company in at high cost or used an automatic wash. These largely exist now due to immigrants willing to/coerced to work for poverty wages, and I don't see that (the poverty wages, not the immigrants, I'm not about to go out and stick a St George's Cross on the nearest lamp post) as a good thing. It's exchange rates that make that sort of thing viable in my view (and as Eastern Europe is getting richer, the exchange rates are evening out) and I suspect car washes will return to being mostly automatic over the coming years as they do.

 

[D6130]

the end we shouldn't get to enjoy a meal out (a luxury) off the back of what is essentially slave labour. If the cost of paying people a wage they can live off is more expensive meals a bit less often, then that's what it should be. And if a business is only viable by paying people slave rates, then the business simply is not viable at all and it is right that it closes - it's not right that its owner should be able to profit personally from paying people poverty wages.

Fully agree. I'm not advocating the paying of slave wages to hospitality staff, but merely pointing out the status quo in large parts of the UK hospitality sector. The community co-operative pub in which my wife and I are shareholders has a policy of paying the national living wage as do most other co-operatives.

 

[Broucek]

I think that, on the whole, restaurant price increases are being driven by price rises for ingredients, energy and labour rather than owner "greed". In decent-sized town centres, there's usually a reasonable amount of competition.

The exception might be PE-backed businesses where the playbook is to increase prices AND investigate scope for reducing quality (e.g. 6 mozerrella balls on your pizza rather than 5). Of course that's fine in the traditional PE "turnaround" situation where a business is losing money and change is needed - it's not so great when the business is doing OK but the PE house is just looking to ramp margin higher... I used to be a big Pret fan but the prices there are now absolutely insane (and I'm a reasonably high earner).

Agree with those who have highlighted the issues with the "deal" / voucher business model. Benefiting the well-organised at the expense of the cash rich/time poor (or the drunk ) isn't the worst thing that could happen but it leaves a nasty taste (boom-tish) when you realise you've been mugged relative to other customers!

 

[wilbers]

Yes, I was convinced they'd already all closed. I was walking through Meadowhall in November last year with my sister and saw a Claire's sign in the distance and confidently told her that they'd gone bust and gone away. I looked a bit foolish when we got closer and saw they were still open and busy...

post #1 of this thread in 2018 began with the news of Claire's going into administration.

 

[whoosh]

It's noticeable, as an aside, how hand car washes are a common thing now when they weren't 30 years ago - 30 years ago you did it yourself, got a valet company in at high cost or used an automatic wash. These largely exist now due to immigrants willing to/coerced to work for poverty wages, and I don't see that (the poverty wages, not the immigrants, I'm not about to go out and stick a St George's Cross on the nearest lamp post) as a good thing. It's exchange rates that make that sort of thing viable in my view (and as Eastern Europe is getting richer, the exchange rates are evening out) and I suspect car washes will return to being mostly automatic over the coming years as they do.

Hand car washes aren't going anywhere.
Wash - £10
Wash and Polish £20
Wash Polish and engine clean £50

Who has ever let them touch their engine? No-one, that's who. But no one ever gets a receipt, and there's plenty of scope to say lots of people have had an engine wash, and launder money. See also, certain barber shops that have popped up everywhere. They are a wing of organised crime.

 

[Broucek]

.... See also, certain barber shops that have popped up everywhere. They are a wing of organised crime.

Very few turks in most of the "Turkish Barbers" around my way....

 

[adc82140]

I've often wondered what would happen if I went into to one of the cash only "barber shops" with no customers and asked for a hair cut. Do they contain any barbers?

 

[Leyland Bus]

I think that, on the whole, restaurant price increases are being driven by price rises for ingredients, energy and labour rather than owner "greed". In decent-sized town centres, there's usually a reasonable amount of competition.

The exception might be PE-backed businesses where the playbook is to increase prices AND investigate scope for reducing quality (e.g. 6 mozerrella balls on your pizza rather than 5). Of course that's fine in the traditional PE "turnaround" situation where a business is losing money and change is needed - it's not so great when the business is doing OK but the PE house is just looking to ramp margin higher... I used to be a big Pret fan but the prices there are now absolutely insane (and I'm a reasonably high earner).

Agree with those who have highlighted the issues with the "deal" / voucher business model. Benefiting the well-organised at the expense of the cash rich/time poor (or the drunk ) isn't the worst thing that could happen but it leaves a nasty taste (boom-tish) when you realise you've been mugged relative to other customers!

On the subject of independant resturants, seems another issue is finding staff thanks to Brexit... Quite gutted by this, my favorite place, was a regular and now its gone...

Shock closure of restaurant loved by Man United players and other famous faces

Gary Neville even had a dish named after him

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Puccini first opened in Swinton in 1982 and since 1990 has been run by Michele Pucci, who says he's been left with no choice but to close the doors on the Chorley Road business for good. Since the pandemic, he says trade has dropped, it's become harder to find trained staff and with rising costs they 'simply can't afford to be here anymore'. "Trade is dying, Swinton is dying and we're dying in Swinton," said the 65-year-old. "I have tried really hard to keep it going, but the council is doing nothing to support local businesses and the landlord isn't interested. "We're closed at the moment for three weeks holiday but we won't be reopening and I just want to thank customers for their support over the years as they have helped us to keep going for so long."

*I haven't copied everything across, the MEN is one of those web pages absolutely littered with adverts and pop ups...

 

[ChrisC]

I've often wondered what would happen if I went into to one of the cash only "barber shops" with no customers and asked for a hair cut. Do they contain any barbers?

Have any of the people who work in them actually had any training in cutting hair.

Returning to the subject of restaurants and fast food outlets. Many of the high streets in the somewhat run down ex mining towns around here have lost almost all of their longstanding independent businesses in recent years. In addition to the large numbers of barbers, nail bars and vape shops there are so many fast food outlets selling pizzas, burgers and fried chicken. Even the traditional fish and chips shops, Chinese and Indian takeaways seem to be on the decline as more of these fast food places open.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Not yet disappearing but TGI Friday's are closing a third of their UK restaurants, with 456 job losses.

Hardly surprises me. TGIs is one of the more expensive chains with mediocre food. I also wonder if some people who crave it just go to the supermarket and buy their frozen stuff.

I think the nation is slowly falling out of love with these chain restaurants. There's so much competition from high quality independents now who also usually manage to do it for cheaper. There's little chance of me going to Pizza Hut or TGIs when there's a wood fired pizza place or a street food burger joint doing tastier food for the same or cheaper.

TGI Fridays - good riddance. Over twelve years ago I went to our local TGI. The food was so fried and oily. I ended up with a migraine. Rest of the family were also unimpressed. Our local TGIs must have closed pre Covid (A23 Purley Way Croydon). Did not know any still existed.

I do think the chain restaurants have reached a very dangerous tipping point in terms of putting prices up

Me and the mother went to Nandos the other day, 2 small starters, 2 chicken mains with a couple of sides each and 2 drinks...and £50 lighter!

There are a few buffets that one of the step sons is obsessed with. We can eat as much as you like for £25 per head. Great choice etc etc but I do prefer to spend less than £25 and not over eat. Last time we all went (October) with said step son for his birthday, he got home and shall we say his stomach gave up processing it all (oh and he does not drink alcohol so not the room spinning) !. I have lost track since of how many times I have suggested, in front of him, going for an all you can eat since. His brothers are cracking up !.

Independent restaurants don’t help themselves either though with an industry standard mains menu of chicken whatever, burger, fish & chips, steak, sea bass and something pasta vegetarian/vegan. And don’t start me on calling casserole with a pastry on top a ‘pie’!

For a bog standard meal I go to Wetherspoons.

I can talk BUT then I eat well at home as the missus likes cooking and used to be a chef. I am ignorant and spoilt (and overweight).

The chains which suffer are the ones who have a higher starting price, but do endless promotional vouchers giving 25/33/50% off the price of food if you sign up to their mailing list etc.

Generally I think I end up suffering from hunt the offer fatigue. In restaurants it is often a string attached which means something cheap that I really did not want. It has got to the point where a plethora of offers just turns me off.

Back in the 90s I learned that independent restaurants often just had that little bit nicer food and service. I remember my departmental boss taking us all out on several occasions - she always wanted somewhere "new" and wanted suggestions. But the deputy always wanted a known chain. For example a proper Italian from a proper place (Pizza Hut, Pizza Land, Deep Pan or Pizza Express) none of these dodgy little places for him. His argument was safer hygiene and know quality. Then along came the scandals about one Pizza chain. After all who is going to care less about quality/hygiene or do nasty things to your food - the disaffected underpaid employee of a monolith OR a family member in a family business ?.

 

[dgl]

You can have a Pizza made by some random person who just needs a job and where there are specific instructions on how everything is made, or you can have a pizza by someone with Italian heritage where no two of them are quite the same but done properly.

In Dorchester sometimes there is a pizza van in the main shopping street run by the owner of nearby Italian restaurant, cooked in a proper pizza oven, much nicer than a chain restaurant pizza and quicker too.
I bet you can't guess which pizza the "l' errore" is

 

[Halwynd]

On the subject of independant resturants, seems another issue is finding staff thanks to Brexit... Quite gutted by this, my favorite place, was a regular and now its gone...

As the owner (who, in the MEN article, also seems to be saying their problems started during the pandemic) said: "Trade is dying, Swinton is dying and we're dying in Swinton.... I have tried really hard to keep it going, but the council is doing nothing to support local businesses and the landlord isn't interested. The area is run down, parking is very difficult and some of the older people who used to come have sadly passed away. Younger generations want to be in new places and different places and I don't blame them."

If staff is an issue, then there is always the option to invest in young people without experience instead of looking for ready-trained staff - youth unemployment is currently running at around 16%.

A couple of other thoughts... for many people, discretionary spending has been cut because of increased taxes and cost of living pressures. Additionally, the hospitality sector has become saturated particularly in large conurbations.

 

[Broucek]

If staff is an issue, then there is always the option to invest in young people without experience instead of looking for ready-trained staff - youth unemployment is currently running at around 16%.

Unfortunately, Rachel "Growth" Reeves has just made it more expensive to hire young people which worsens risk-opportunity ratio for a potential employer of such folk. Thank goodness the "full employment rights from day 1" idea has been watered down to something more realistic

 

[Kite159]

Hand car washes aren't going anywhere.
Wash - £10
Wash and Polish £20
Wash Polish and engine clean £50

Who has ever let them touch their engine? No-one, that's who. But no one ever gets a receipt, and there's plenty of scope to say lots of people have had an engine wash, and launder money. See also, certain barber shops that have popped up everywhere. They are a wing of organised crime.

They have been watching Breaking Bad

----

@Halwynd the issue I can see with some of those places wanting staff to come in from the street already trained is less hassle compared to setting up a training scheme to encourage some of those unemployed youths to do some work. Especially if there is no guarantee that you spend £X on giving someone the training they will hang around in the job.

 

[Peter Sarf]

They have been watching Breaking Bad

----

@Halwynd the issue I can see with some of those places wanting staff to come in from the street already trained is less hassle compared to setting up a training scheme to encourage some of those unemployed youths to do some work. Especially if there is no guarantee that you spend £X on giving someone the training they will hang around in the job.

As a programmer from the 80s I can tell you plenty of employers just want to poach someone else's staff rather than train their own existing staff. Plenty of us realised that promotion was a tool reserved for getting people in from out side. Really put a chip on some peoples shoulders. If/when I got to that stage I preferred to move on in the hope of building my experience portfolio.

A parallel is with service providers seeming to preferr to attract new customers rather than retain their existing customers.

I suppose in both cases it relies on a majority of customers/staff just staying put.
There is no such thing as loyalty I despairingly think.

As for eating out, it has gone the same way as pubs. Since Covid people have got used to getting food delivered, and other things delivered. That was a growing trend I suspect but Covid drastically increased the rate of change. To think my parents rarely ate out and my grandparents NEVER ate out (although I bet my grandfather did when it was on the company !). But then Grandmother would walk to the shops for raw materials for food - I do not recall the car being used.

 

[E27007]

Fully agree. I'm not advocating the paying of slave wages to hospitality staff, but merely pointing out the status quo in large parts of the UK hospitality sector. The community co-operative pub in which my wife and I are shareholders has a policy of paying the national living wage as do most other co-operatives.

Would the pub be the Fox & Goose of Hebden Bridge? Also in Hebden Bridge, "Soup Dragon" held in the Methodist Chapel routinely feed 20 to 40 people for £40 in total, ~ £2 per head,delicious soups, roasted vegetables, dessert, tea coffee and biscuits, which shows how volunteers and compassionate people can deliver so much for very little , the absolute opposite of low-wage profit-hungry labour mentality of the commercial "hospitality" industry rinsing away our disposable income, and an industry staring into the abyss of demise.

Hebden Bridge Soup Dragon facebook page

 

[D6130]

Would the pub be the Fox & Goose of Hebden Bridge? Also in Hebden Bridge, "Soup D

It would be indeed....and the Soup Dragon volunteers are excellent.