Restaurant With 152 Locations Now Makes An Unexpected Closure

May 16, 2024

A restaurant with 152 locations now makes an unexpected closure in California, leaving customers in the dark about its decision.

Rubio’s Coastal Grill in River Park, California shut down with no prior warning this week.

The storefront at Fresno’s River Park Shopping Center has been a staple in the community for over 15 years, reports The-Sun.

Now, with nothing more than a paper sign taped to the door, both residents and employees are left disappointed at the abrupt closure.

“This is so sad!,” said local resident Paula Farris in a comment on X, formerly Twitter.

“I love that place,” said another disappointed community member.

But perhaps more than disappointed were the employees who were handed checks and told to leave.

Employees were called in for an unexpected meeting at 8:30 am on May, 15.

With no other warning or even an explanation, all the location’s employees were given their final pay and sent out on their way.

Workers say there were no efforts made by the company to retain any of them, and possibly transfer them to another location, according to employees who spoke with local Fox affiliate KMPH-TV.

“I am heartbroken for the employees and the families that this affects,” said Larissa Clark, a Fresno resident who ate at the Rubio’s a few times a week for the last four years.

“What a terrible thing to do to those employees”, Suzelle Smith Kasaian wrote on Facebook.

“There will be a lot more of this,” said Skip Swain.

“Companies can not pay the over-inflated wages for a job that doesn’t many require skills and is supposed to be entry-level, while trying to keep fast food affordable,” he said.

However, it is currently unclear as to why the location suddenly closed, but the chain has been having some financial issues since the pandemic, with the company’s earnings having been impacted in part by the higher labor costs, according to a report by Bloomberg.

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Another massive retailer is now closing due to crime despite its location being a community staple for several years.

Rampant theft has led Walgreens to permanently close one of its major locations at the White Oak Shopping Center in Maryland, reports The-Sun.

Staff and shoppers told ABC affiliate WJLA-TV that the store was closed due to high rates of theft and crime.

Mobile security cameras were recently added by police in the parking lot around stores in the shopping center.

A source also told WJLA-TV that the shopping center’s management company had to fire their security company and hire a new one.

Just last year, there was an armed robbery inside Walgreens, resulting in a man and a woman taking an unknown amount of money and products.

Robberies have become a major problem in the area as stores get ransacked by violent thieves.

A resident told the outlet she was too scared to leave her car in the shopping center’s parking lot.

She says she saw another woman get assaulted and robbed.

“You can simply be walking and they take your purse and start running and they leave you with nothing,” said Sarah Rodriguez.

“That’s why when I’m here before I get out of my car I always look around first.”

Walgreens corporate execs announced earlier this year that about 150 stores will be closed throughout the US.

This would reduce the company’s corporate staff by about 10%, resulting in over 500 positions being eliminated.

News of a replacement for the store in the White Oak Shopping Center hasn’t been announced.

However, the center has been struggling to replace the Sears location that has sat vacant for over three years.

“Yeah, it’s not good, because everyone is complaining,” said resident Kokou Eafbo.

“This is the only pharmacy we have in this area and suddenly they close, we don’t understand.”

The shopping center had once been a thriving area full of shops in Montgomery County, reports The US Sun.

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