The Steak ‘n Shake in Maplewood recently posted a sign that it’s closed for remodeling. Five others have also closed.
Steak ‘n Shakes in Maryland Heights, Overland, the Ballwin area and two in Chesterfield have also closed, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported.
A notice on the company’s website said the restaurants are “temporarily closed.” The Indianapolis-based chain has several dozen restaurants in the St. Louis region.
The available labor pool is the problem, not the food or business model.
If you can’t pay enough to keep quality employees and you’re business model depends on service and quality, then the business model is in fact the problem. Pay people more. Treat them with respect. Raise prices. $8 meals and good service/reliable quality is a much better model than slinging out $4 meals and not being able to operate because of it.
Yes, I too agree that it is very sad to see the best tasting burger restaurant in St. Louis going down in flames. I’m a very long time customer of SnS. It was the first burger restaurant I was ever in as a kid. I went there often as a child, Then as a teen ( I even worked as a curb boy & indoor lineman for a short while), & as an adult for over 60 years. I prefer their burgers & fries to anyone I’ve ever had. So it’s not surprising that I have eaten lunch there for over 46 years at the same job 3 blocks away. I’m retired now. For a while, I ate there daily. The change came when their “Service” (I use that term lightly) started to crash. It was obvious that management decided to see how hard they could push the employees. There is not enough to properly run the store. They have employees doing the work of 3 or more. Waitresses trying to handle too many tables, then making fountain drinks & sundaes, then trying to buss tables, & host new patrons, & finally try to handle the cash register. I would be able to retire much earlier if I could get just $1.00 from everyone I’ve seen get mad as hell & walk out after waiting a ridiculous time coming in or going out. Heck, I’ve stormed out many times myself. The food is why I come back. Lately I guarantee you more than a hour wait to get a burger meal in this Fast Food restaurant & get out the door. I even seen them loose some of the nicest, fastest, & best employees, waitresses & managers that anyone could ever meet because they were push way past what would be asked of any A+ employee. Now I’ve seen 6 stores close with no notice in St. Louis only with some sick excuse about remodeling: 2 days or weeks or months ? ? ? I don’t know anything about a new owner, But there is a picture as you go in with a promise of good food & good service with a boss in the middle (CEO maybe). Maybe he should go for a lunch at a Steak N Shake someday, What do you think Mr. Bulgiri ! ! !
We stopped going to SNS because the service was so bad.
Steak n Shake has been offering franchises in this area. It’s safe to assume that if the closed restaurants reopen they will be under new individual ownership and operate as franchises.
I think Steak n’ Shake is circling the drain. They cannot compete in this environment of tight labor and rising prices with lousy service and poor quality offering a huge menu and $4 specials. Too much fast food competition and poor leadership at the top since Bulgiri (sp) bought them. Sad to see it end this way…
The employees were given hardly any notice, and were 1st told it was only going to be for 2 or 3 days, they were told it make be weeks or months, without placing them in other stores to work. One associate was given a choice to go to the St. Peters store! I feel sorry for the associates because any time a company is going to close a store for remodeling or improvements, they know well ahead of time that it is going to happen, and more than likely have a game plan and a window of time to be closed. Their associates should have been WELL informed and also the corporate should have made an effort to place their associates somewhere else or give them options. To be without pay for weeks maybe months will be detrimental to many of them. Very disappointed in the Steak n Shake corporation and management!!!!