The Retail Apocalypse (Incorporating Casual Dining Closures)

Haha yikes.

strawberry float Andy Street also.

Lagamorph wrote:

twitter.com/Duffers100/status/1281735811009064965

(Apparently it is indeed true)

And it’s still unable to be profitable by all accounts which says it all. An utterly unwise decision to open in the first place. Would surprise me if the council brought them in promising the world.

I’ve sat on recently a few new site build meetings and proposals with local councils, and it’s amazing how inept some are. They’ll talk about bringing a 5 screen Cinema in the middle of nowhere along with huge restaurant units and give you ridiculous numbers of nearby people. Who live next to an already successful complex of a similar status and you’ll run through figures with them. And they still try and sell it as the next big thing, then offer you discounted rents and such. It’s madness.

Pizza Express potentially closing appoximately 75 of its 470 restaurants.

Dozens of PizzaExpress sites are facing the threat of closure as part of a financial restructuring of one of Britain’s biggest restaurant operators.

Sky News has learnt that the company is drawing up plans to close "around 75" of its 470 UK outlets through an insolvency process called a company voluntary arrangement (cva).

Sources said on Thursday that the final number of proposed closures had yet to be arrived at, and would depend partly on the progress of formal talks with landlords, which are expected to get underway as soon as next week.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus- ... s-12029655

Another chain that's guilty of overpriced, average food, and too many outlets.
£7 for a pint of beer, £15 for an average pizza, £13 for a small bowl of pasta

And despite rip-off prices, according to the Guardian at the end of 2018 they had debst of £1.1 billion

I've never got the love for pizza express. Whenever I've gone in its been pizza I could easily make better myself, and it costs a bloody fortune.

241 deals with Orange Wednesday were decent.

Never understood why bottled beer was expensive in those kind of places though.

Their supermarket pizzas are pretty good. Shame to hear about yet more job losses.

I always used to think I didn't like Pizza Express but then I went a few times over the couple of years and the pizza was really good.

Obviously I'd be losing GRcade points if I didn't clarify that any local gooseberry fool hole Bob's Pizza of Nowhere is a hundred times better, because no one's heard of it, so err yeah, there you go, but that aside it is a shame, particularly for the newly-unemployed people.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:I always used to think I didn't like Pizza Express but then I went a few times over the couple of years and the pizza was really good.

Obviously I'd be losing GRcade points if I didn't clarify that any local gooseberry fool hole Bob's Pizza of Nowhere is a hundred times better, because no one's heard of it, so err yeah, there you go, but that aside it is a shame, particularly for the newly-unemployed people.

I know you're just being arsey, but do you live in a large city? I very rarely go to any of these chain places when I'm in the city centre because all the indie places are genuinely better.

When I'm in Liverpool city centre and I want a pizza, I go to Rudy's:

[instagram]https://www.instagram.com/p/CCODEPpHO_F[/instagram]

The most expensive pizza on the menu is less than £9. Their flour and tomatoes are shipped in from Italy, as is their oven.

Why on earth would I go to Pizza Express over Rudy's? Except it isn't just Rudy's. Every metropolis will have its own equivalent turning out better food than the chain equivalent for less money.

There's a pretty good pizza place in St Albans called Nonno although I do like Pizza Express. I think part of the problem for the large chains is that there has been huge growth in really good indie or micro chains.

Rudy's has two places in Manchester and they're brilliant. Really looking forward to going when I'm willing to go to a restaurant again. Thinking about it, there's loads places I want to go. Now I'm sad.

Winckle wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:I always used to think I didn't like Pizza Express but then I went a few times over the couple of years and the pizza was really good.

Obviously I'd be losing GRcade points if I didn't clarify that any local gooseberry fool hole Bob's Pizza of Nowhere is a hundred times better, because no one's heard of it, so err yeah, there you go, but that aside it is a shame, particularly for the newly-unemployed people.

I know you're just being arsey, but do you live in a large city? I very rarely go to any of these chain places when I'm in the city centre because all the indie places are genuinely better.

When I'm in Liverpool city centre and I want a pizza, I go to Rudy's:

[instagram]https://www.instagram.com/p/CCODEPpHO_F[/instagram]

The most expensive pizza on the menu is less than £9. Their flour and tomatoes are shipped in from Italy, as is their oven.

Why on earth would I go to Pizza Express over Rudy's? Except it isn't just Rudy's. Every metropolis will have its own equivalent turning out better food than the chain equivalent for less money.

If there's one thing I can lay claim to over the last seven years, it's going out for food and drink in the city.

There is a vast and changeable range of good and bad experiences to be had across the entire market. Every single independent restaurant is better than every single chain restaurant in every city? How can you state something like that with such confidence it's absurd.

One thing I'll say about indie pizza places over chain places is that they actually put enough strawberry floating sauce on the pizza. Most chain places will put just a tiny bit of sauce in the middle of the pizza then spread it so thinly that it may as well not even be there in some spots (And infact isn't in a couple). At least indie places will be a bit more generous so you actually get a pizza rather than cheese and toppings on bread with vague hints of tomato here and there.

I go to Pizzaface. There's one in Brighton, one in Hove and one in Worthing.

Pizza Punks in Newcastle is nice. I think it's £10 for a pizza and any toppings. And they have tons of toppings.

Sunderland had loads of cheap Italian places and the North East has Sambucas, the cheapest Italian ever. Bloody tasty too.

Another vote for Rudy's in Manchester. The Calabrese is divine, and their white pizzas are just *chef's kiss*

Lotus wrote:Pizza Express potentially closing appoximately 75 of its 470 restaurants.

Dozens of PizzaExpress sites are facing the threat of closure as part of a financial restructuring of one of Britain’s biggest restaurant operators.

Sky News has learnt that the company is drawing up plans to close "around 75" of its 470 UK outlets through an insolvency process called a company voluntary arrangement (cva).

Sources said on Thursday that the final number of proposed closures had yet to be arrived at, and would depend partly on the progress of formal talks with landlords, which are expected to get underway as soon as next week.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus- ... s-12029655

Another chain that's guilty of overpriced, average food, and too many outlets.
£7 for a pint of beer, £15 for an average pizza, £13 for a small bowl of pasta

And despite rip-off prices, according to the Guardian at the end of 2018 they had debst of £1.1 billion

Pizza express has been ruined by debt loaded onto the company through its Chinese parent company not through poor profitability as a business model. It’s similar to how the Glaziers bought Man United.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:

Winckle wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:I always used to think I didn't like Pizza Express but then I went a few times over the couple of years and the pizza was really good.

Obviously I'd be losing GRcade points if I didn't clarify that any local gooseberry fool hole Bob's Pizza of Nowhere is a hundred times better, because no one's heard of it, so err yeah, there you go, but that aside it is a shame, particularly for the newly-unemployed people.

I know you're just being arsey, but do you live in a large city? I very rarely go to any of these chain places when I'm in the city centre because all the indie places are genuinely better.

When I'm in Liverpool city centre and I want a pizza, I go to Rudy's:

[instagram]https://www.instagram.com/p/CCODEPpHO_F[/instagram]

The most expensive pizza on the menu is less than £9. Their flour and tomatoes are shipped in from Italy, as is their oven.

Why on earth would I go to Pizza Express over Rudy's? Except it isn't just Rudy's. Every metropolis will have its own equivalent turning out better food than the chain equivalent for less money.

If there's one thing I can lay claim to over the last seven years, it's going out for food and drink in the city.

There is a vast and changeable range of good and bad experiences to be had across the entire market. Every single independent restaurant is better than every single chain restaurant in every city? How can you state something like that with such confidence it's absurd.

I think you've misread my post. I didn't claim that every indie is better than every chain. I said that each city will have an equivalent that's better. The locals will know where that is generally.

Why is it the more expensive the pizza, the worse the base gets, and the amount of cheese and sauce decreases?

Chocolate-Milk wrote:Another vote for Rudy's in Manchester. The Calabrese is divine, and their white pizzas are just *chef's kiss*

I usually get whatever the special is. When I last went it was a white pizza with pecorino, gorgonzola, and pancetta. Incredible.