Zaxby's corporate layoffs accurate indicator of economy, priorities
I am biased. I love eating at Zaxby's fast food restaurants with my son after an athletic event at Herman C. Michael or the Oconee Veterans Park. For those who do not know or live outside of Georgia, Zaxby's is a chicken finger fast food place with roots deep in Oconee and Baldwin counties I believe. I first tried their tasty food in the Cornelia-Demorest-Clarkesville area of Habersham County some 10 years back or longer. They had a very shrewd business plan and model to slowly grow and cater to clientele in secondary markets. They went were Chick-Fil-A would not go and sometimes where Hardee's had been. But something has gone wrong in the Zaxby's business model where paying semi-famous people to eat their limited time food products seems to be the rule now instead of careful growth.
These days we usually eat at the Taco Stand after coming home from a soccer or basketball game or practice, but there was time where I would grab some fingers or a Zak Snack a couple of times a week. Now I might go more than a month between Zax sauce fix and yes it is exactly the same as Guthrie's and might as well as be exactly the same as Canes' which operates in the old Guthrie's location on Baxter in Athens.
Zaxby's grew quick and grew too fast, no longer settling for the overlooked markets outside of metro Atlanta. They exploded on the Atlanta market and have tried to compete directly with many restaurants ranging from KFC to Wendy's. They decided to try and grow outside their niche and now they are paying the price for reckless growth and speculation beyond their means. Where I once would have highly recommended investment behind this juggernaut, now I would urge you to stay away.
While comments at the end of an article in the newspaper do not foretell all the economic prognostications with any great accuracy, the wretched tenor of all the complaints to lay claim to a larger problem and that of the inevitable backlash. Decisions in real estate and race cars have doomed more than one successful business entity and I do not wish the same fate for Zaxby's. I think in the next year we shall see a whole lot less in terms of sponsorships for all manner of sporting events, and sadly we will all probably be the worse off for it. I hope Zaxby's retools back toward their original game plan and capitalizes on what makes it unique or we shall see restaurants closing to join the corporate employees terminated at Christmastime. The free market can be a cold, cruel bitch at this time of year.
There have been other local restaurant chain fluctuations and adjustments. Locos and DePalmas shelved plans to come into Oconee indefinitely, but both companies honchos remain focused on what made them successful in the first place: their character, their charm, their oddities and the weirdness (not to mention GOOD FOOD AT FAIR PRICES.
I think Mirkos and TransMet are the only local restaurants to open new locations in Athens recently . I would be very happy to be wrong on that so please let me know. I think we are at a saturation point in restaurants given the economy and the fact that people are not eating out nearly as often. I know I am not. I know I love to eat out and wish I could go out more often.
These days we usually eat at the Taco Stand after coming home from a soccer or basketball game or practice, but there was time where I would grab some fingers or a Zak Snack a couple of times a week. Now I might go more than a month between Zax sauce fix and yes it is exactly the same as Guthrie's and might as well as be exactly the same as Canes' which operates in the old Guthrie's location on Baxter in Athens.
Zaxby's grew quick and grew too fast, no longer settling for the overlooked markets outside of metro Atlanta. They exploded on the Atlanta market and have tried to compete directly with many restaurants ranging from KFC to Wendy's. They decided to try and grow outside their niche and now they are paying the price for reckless growth and speculation beyond their means. Where I once would have highly recommended investment behind this juggernaut, now I would urge you to stay away.
While comments at the end of an article in the newspaper do not foretell all the economic prognostications with any great accuracy, the wretched tenor of all the complaints to lay claim to a larger problem and that of the inevitable backlash. Decisions in real estate and race cars have doomed more than one successful business entity and I do not wish the same fate for Zaxby's. I think in the next year we shall see a whole lot less in terms of sponsorships for all manner of sporting events, and sadly we will all probably be the worse off for it. I hope Zaxby's retools back toward their original game plan and capitalizes on what makes it unique or we shall see restaurants closing to join the corporate employees terminated at Christmastime. The free market can be a cold, cruel bitch at this time of year.
There have been other local restaurant chain fluctuations and adjustments. Locos and DePalmas shelved plans to come into Oconee indefinitely, but both companies honchos remain focused on what made them successful in the first place: their character, their charm, their oddities and the weirdness (not to mention GOOD FOOD AT FAIR PRICES.
I think Mirkos and TransMet are the only local restaurants to open new locations in Athens recently . I would be very happy to be wrong on that so please let me know. I think we are at a saturation point in restaurants given the economy and the fact that people are not eating out nearly as often. I know I am not. I know I love to eat out and wish I could go out more often.
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