Bankrupt - Ruby Tuesday

Started in the early 1970's, the Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain quickly grew to become an international goliath. They had restaurants spanning several countries, employed tens of thousands of people and at its peak, grew to over 900 locations. But ever since their peak in 2007, the chain has seen a quick downfall until their bankruptcy in 2021. So join me today as I look into the rise and fall of this iconic restaurant chain known for their salad bar, Ruby Tuesday.

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Bright Sun Films 2023

Presented in 4K

[gregorydougherty]

As someone that worked at Ruby Tuesdays during what I call the transition period. It truly was night and day. The salad bar shrank from 70 something items to 20 "high quality" items. The menu shrank from 30 something burgers to "high quality" selections. The uniforms changed from jeans to dress pants and the eclectic decorations and Tiffany lamps were stripped and replaced with bland nothingness. They wanted a high dining image and we went from a bursting wait list to nothing on Friday and Saturday nights. We were laughed at by customers to think a chain could be fine dining and also major complaints by what was done to the salad bar. This was my job to get me through college and was purely Sandy's major rebrand idea in 2005-2006 that killed the image of the restaurant and ostracized its passionate regulars.

[TheCubeTube]

Nothing is more iconic than the abandoned Ruby Tuesday in a dead mall. Keep it up Jake!

[theswampangel]

One of the few bright spots in 15 years of hard times is that non-franchise mom and Pop restaurants have made a comeback. At least in my part of the country.

[TylerMeacham]

I used to meet my mom for Ruby Tuesday lunch once every couple of weeks. One time—the last time—we parked in a spot right in front of the entrance doors. A man came running out of the restaurant and proceeded to projectile vomit into the trashcan right in front of us. We promptly backed out of the parking lot and never returned. RIP Ruby Tuesday

[Maleniabom]

My mom was a store manager for years. Corporate greed helped ruined franchises. They controlled pretty much everything. They did weird things with the food that my mom and other constantly tried to tell the upper ups that it wouldn’t work. When it would fail, they would basically blame it on the staff for not doing it right.

[jenc]

I used to work at Fry’s Electronics and there was a Ruby Tuesday across the street. The salad bar was actually super convenient to hit up on a lunch break. Now both of those places cease to exist. 😢

[remotelyanonymous]

Ruby Tuesday became like every restaurant that started in the 80s, they make exterior and interior changes, make it super modern and in the end the restaurant loses customers

[kriscynical]

I think another reason chain restaurants are dying in favor of local hole-in-the-wall treasures is because online reviews have taken a lot of the guess work/risk out of trying unknown places. Sure, online reviews can be wildly incorrect, but the overall gist of any local place is going to be much less of a craps shoot than it was even 20 years ago now that we all have a mini computer in our pockets.

Along those same lines, I know some people (myself included) would go to certain chains like Ruby Tuesday and Cracker Barrel while on road trips because they were "safe" and pretty consistent no matter where you were. But now, again, with online reviews you can look up any particular place and not only see a menu but read reviews as well. Now when I'm traveling if I have the choice between Ruby/Cracker Barrel or a little local place with glowing reviews, I'm going to try the local place for the added adventure for my trip.

Even when I'm at home I've started looking for places around me that I haven't tried before instead of going to chains even though I grew up going to places like TGI Friday's. It's been a positive change, too, because I have found some absolute GEMS right in my backyard that are regular haunts for my family now!

[meowtherainbowx]

Ironically, a still-open Ruby Tuesday location came in handy for me a year ago. It was in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, a couple of nights before Christmas of 2022. The temperature was 0 degrees F. I was just about to get dinner at Cracker Barrel before completing the last leg of the journey to visit my mom, which would've taken over an hour in good weather, let alone these icy conditions. However, much to our dismay, the Cracker Barrel was in the process of closing early without any notice. We drove to Texas Roadhouse just to find that it, too, had already closed. With our dinner options in this small city dwindling, we finally tried Ruby Tuesday, and we were thrilled to find that it was open. It was less than 60 degrees inside, and the food was just okay, but it was much appreciated. Thanks, Ruby Tuesday, for staying open despite all odds!

[pikestance]

Ruby Tuesday, Applebees, and TGIF are what I call nondescript restaurants. They are where you go when you are with a group of people and you want to ensure everyone can find something to eat. If you want something specific, like BBQ or Italian, then you don't go there. Applebees is where my referee group went after our meeting. We went there for the very same reason I stated. Alternatively, you can go one step down and end up in Shoney's or Denny's.

[Alex_FRD]

So let's see;
Abandon identity
Raise prices
Appeal to a new crowd, alienate the old crowd
Results: Fail spectacularly

[SueBobChicVid]

I was a fan of Ruby Tuesdays because of their salad bar. I work on the road a lot, and being able to eat my veggies while staying in hotel after hotel is difficult.

[mpeezy]

I worked for Ruby Tuesday from 1996 to 2014. When they changed concepts and got rid of the artifacts and Tiffany lamps is when they started to decline, eventually losing their identity and confusing and ultimately losing all their customers.

[butterflygroove]

Old school Ruby Tuesday with the artifacts on the wall, the salad bar (the pumpernickel croutons alone), my favorite menu item EVER French Onion Soup, flavored iced teas and their amazing blondies was always a fun experience, I never enjoyed the rebranding.

[adorabledeplorable]

I worked for a major food company for 25 years . When the founder died in ‘93 the company started changing policies that were proven effective . So they brought in an outsider who had no business experience in the food industry and made him c.e.o. After a few short years of declination the “ directors “ sold the company to mid west company and gave the “ c.e.o. a $ 40, 000, 000 severance package . After the sell I was eligible for retirement through the Teamsters . A year after which the company was sold to an investment company in Florida .
It amazes me how a company which started during the Depression and survived all the heartaches that make a company successful can be destroyed by people who think they know better than . Brings to mind of the old saying “ if it ain’t broke don’t fix it “ .

[davidharing]

To anyone who ends up in a management business ever. If you turn your locations into beige boxes, that's not modern, that's cheap. It looks cheap, make you look desperate, makes you look boring, makes you look dead, and makes the locations less fun than a funeral home! I'd rather burn a beige box down than eat in one.

P.S. To Ruby Tuesday, the Tiffany lamps were gorgeous and timeless, the dorm room lamps you replaced them with are the kind that belong in the trash after you graduate, because you stole them from a hotel.

[mariebelladonna]

As a long time food-service worker, with experience from many different restaurants, I can tell you with confidence, these companies are always their own worst enemies. Corporate is always made up of execs who have either never worked in the trenches, or who haven't worked in the trenches for so long, that they've forgotten what it's like. They have no clue how things really work, or what really goes on, at store level. They make decisions based on numbers, and/or what their out-of-touch selves think. But in reality, those decisions are often the exact opposite of what their customer base wants, and that often work against the efficiency, speed, and quality of their staff, stores, and product. And they just don't get it. When you have a system that works, you should stick with it. There's a reason why it works. But when you change things, you lose customers, because why go to a place when the whole reason you loved going in the first place is now gone?

[bababababababa]

I’m Nigerian but for some reason I love watching these videos of random American companies I’ve never heard of going bankrupt

[stephenalbert]

Corporations just never will understand. You have a brand, an iconic appeal that drive repeat customers. DONT CHANGE IT. This isnt rocket science. The marketing departments these day are out of touch, and market with their heads up their arses. People dont want change when something is good just as it is.

[PirrePirre]

What i have a notice is that a common thing with these big franchise that goes bankrupt is that they open to many store at ones and dont have a niche.