Waffle House’s Struggles Highlight How Coronavirus Is Killing Restaurants | Forbes

Published 3 years ago
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The past two weeks have been sobering for Waffle House Chairman Joe Rogers, Jr. The chain of no-frills, 24-hour breakfast spots has remained defiantly open in the face of so many disasters that the Federal Emergency Management Agency uses a Waffle House Index to measure their severity. Hurricane Hugo couldn’t shut the doors for long in Charleston in 1989. The same in Georgia when Irma crashed through two years ago. The index was solid green in Joplin, Mo. after a tornado killed 158 people there in 2011. Then came the coronavirus pandemic.

The FEMA index uses the time it takes for Waffle House locations to re-open after calamity strikes. Normally it doesn’t take long, if they even shut down. His system of 2,000 diners in 25 states is “almost comically” well positioned to mobilize in a crisis, Rogers said: It’s family owned, tightly controlled and able to shift resources and supplies from unaffected restaurants to those in need with alacrity.

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This week he’s had to close 20% of locations, about 420 in all. Waffle House typically has annual revenue of more than $1.3 billion but with the country on lockdown — and only one drive-thru location and a marginal take-out business — sales are about 30% of what they should be, Rogers said. Thousands of his 40,000 workers are now furloughed.

Read the full profile on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2020/03/29/crippled-by-coronavirus-waffle-house-faces-a-harsh-reality-weve-never-seen-anything-like-this/#2293350b32c5

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