Before the pandemic, this Texas-based pizza chain's systemwide sales fell from $443.3 million to $393.9 million, a decline of nearly 10%, from 2017 to 2019.
Dine-in sales at the business plunged precipitously by 77% in the final week of March 2020, and by the end of the year, the chain had lost more than a tenth of its total store count. California Pizza Kitchen was severely affected by the epidemic.
The parent business of the steakhouse chain, CraftWorks Holdings, filed for bankruptcy in March 2020, laying off almost all of its 18 000 workers.
The pandemic had a particularly negative impact on chain buffet restaurants, and Golden Corral was no exception. Sales fell by approximately 60% in 2020, and the popular chain closed 25% of its outlets the following year.
In the previous twelve years, Friendly's has filed for bankruptcy twice: once in 2011 and once in 2020. During the pandemic, sales at the family dining chain fell by 40%, and shop closures accounted for approximately 5% of the total footprint.
During the early stages of the pandemic, corporate bankruptcy filings drastically surged, according to a 2020 Harvard Business School research.
The number of filings with assets worth $50 million or more increased by roughly 200% between January 1 and August 31.
Although those numbers might not come as a surprise, it is important to note that filings among small businesses did not rise at the same rate. In the early months of the pandemic, small business bankruptcies actually declined.