Wendy’s, Denny’s, Red Lobster closing locations in 2024

A tough year for the restaurant industry has seen many chains close underperforming locations in 2024 as they try to improve their sales in the following years.

Inflation-weary consumers cut their spending at restaurants in 2024 and instead looking for price and discounts when they decided to dine out. Total U.S. restaurant visits fell in the first 10 months of the year, according to industry tracker Black Box Intelligence.

Cost-cutting in restaurants has led to weak sales and a surge in industry bankruptcies. Twenty-six restaurant companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy defense in 2024, almost three times more than in 2020, during the height of the pandemic.

With a few exceptions, casual dining chains in particular have struggled to attract customers, adding to the segment’s post-Great Recession challenges. Since the emergence of fast-casual chains, many diners have opted for the convenience and promised quality of players such as Chipatl or Sweet Green over the casual restaurant chains that dominated previous decades.

Here are the restaurant chains that have announced they are closing in 2024:

At the end of October, Wendy announced that it will close 140 underperforming locations by the end of the year, in addition to the approximately 80 closures it made in the first three quarters.

Executives made the decision to cut some aging restaurants, which had annual revenue of about $1 million each, to improve the company’s overall footprint.

Despite the closings, the company expects to end 2024 with an unchanged number of restaurants thanks to new restaurant openings, Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner told investors during the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call.

My father is Appleby, Dine Brandysaid it plans to close 25 to 35 of the brand’s U.S. locations. By the end of September, the global number of Applebee’s units had decreased by 36 locations compared to the same period last year.

Applebee’s same-store sales have declined for the past six consecutive quarters, according to company filings.

Dine Brands, which also owns IHOP, has closed more stores than it has opened each year since 2016, except for 2022.

Danny closed about 50 restaurants in 2024 and plans to close another 100 restaurants by the end of 2025. Including the closings this year, the 24-hour eatery chain still has roughly 1,300 locations open.

The restaurants marked for closure are in the bottom third of the chain’s performers, with annual unit sales of $1.9 million to $2 million, executives said at the company’s investor day in October. Once those restaurants close, Denny’s expects same-store sales and annual unit volume to increase. The chain’s same-store sales remained roughly flat in the most recent quarter.

After 2025, Denny’s plans to open 45 to 50 new locations annually.

Fast-casual network Noodles & Co. announced in August that it would close about 20 locations after an audit of its entire 475-restaurant footprint.

The review was part of the company’s efforts to improve its operations and finances after several difficult years. Noodles & Co. also overhauled its menu, cutting back on items that weren’t selling and adding new appetizers that might appeal to more customers.

But it will take time to turn around. In the most recent quarter, the company reported that same-store sales fell 3.3%.

Bloomin’ BrandsOutback Steakhouse’s parent company, Carrabba’s Italian Grill and Bonefish Grill, closed 41 underperforming restaurants in 2024.

The closings affected older locations with leases dating back to the 1990s and early 2000s, company executives said on an earnings conference call in February. To make the decision, the company weighed the sales and attendance of the locations, as well as the cost of investment in improving the locations. Most of the closures were in the hinterland.

Like many other casual dining companies, Bloomin’ has struggled to grow sales in recent quarters. Its US same-store sales fell 1.5% in the third quarter.