Rubios Mass Closing

[ClownLoach]

Reports are coming in that Rubios has abruptly closed almost 50 locations overnight blaming under performance and the new $20 minimum wage.

One report indicates rent was not being paid and the restaurant had just been served with a 3 day notice to pay rent or quit - sounds like they did just that and quit, but now landlord wants to hold then to the lease?

I would imagine they can't pay the costs of these lease breaks and will need to seek bankruptcy protection.

https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/ ... erson-says


Note the below isn't my favorite source, but I find it amusing that they served a 3 day pay or quit, they did quit by immediately vacating the premises, and now landlord doesn't seem to understand quit means quit. Maybe they should have served a different type of notice?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.the-su ... ction/amp/

[storewanderer]

Rubios entirely pulled out of Northern California.

I expect we will see many more chains like this where the value equation doesn't quite work out, pull out of Northern California. Operating costs are out of control in that market. To get staffing in Northern California fast food you actually have to pay slightly above the $20/hr. The divide between people with a lot of money and people who are struggling keeps growing in Northern California. There are many nicer, better, places for folks who can afford it, to go to.

I cannot even believe the landlord quotes... is that a real article or a tabloid?

[ClownLoach]

Rubios entirely pulled out of Northern California.

I expect we will see many more chains like this where the value equation doesn't quite work out, pull out of Northern California. Operating costs are out of control in that market. To get staffing in Northern California fast food you actually have to pay slightly above the $20/hr. The divide between people with a lot of money and people who are struggling keeps growing in Northern California. There are many nicer, better, places for folks who can afford it, to go to.

I cannot even believe the landlord quotes... is that a real article or a tabloid?

It's a tabloid. I would never link such a source normally but I found it amazing that the landlord could be so ignorant of their filings (which they should have used a lawyer for). You serve a 3 day pay rent or quit notice and my understanding is it can become an effective "pass" for severing the lease if you do "quit." There are different filings for leases, including lockout notices that are more effective. You can file that if rent isn't paid by such date you will have the doors chained shut for example. In this case Rubios took them up and "quit" by closing and abandoning the premises. They should just send a check for the rent due to that moment of closing with a "Quit per notice, all obligations fulfilled by cashing this check" memo.

I would expect that they're going to file bankruptcy if they haven't already, no way they have the cash on hand to sever all those leases. Not to mention the WARN violations which again basically go out the window if they file chapter 11. Or if they were smart enough to make each unit an LLC then just file a batch of Chapter 7 filings one per unit.

[reymann]

I think we will see a lot of places in the bay area who are impacted by this minimum wage law close unprofitable and high crime area locations.

[veteran+]

GOOD!

If you can't pay a living wage hit the road jack.

[Alpha8472]

Rubio's has had problems in Northern California even going back to around 2002. The problem was that they were always short staffed. Customers complained that the service was slow and then they never came back. The restaurants always seemed not quite full and yet orders would take a long time.

It was poor service, mediocre food, and terrible management.

I think Rubio's killed themselves. There are much better authentic places around.

If they had staffed more employees and had better service the customers would have come back. However, they managed to drive away most of their customers.

[rwsandiego]

GOOD!

If you can't pay a living wage hit the road jack.

The idea of paying a living wage dates back to 1898.From a History channel history of the minimum wage:

1898: Samuel Gompers, founding president of the American Federation of Labor, publishes an article entitled “A Minimum Living Wage,” in which he advocates not just setting a legal threshold for wages, but also requiring it to be enough for workers to live.

Also from the same article, a billboard sponsored by the national association of manufacturers reading "World's highest wages - there's no way like the American way," photographed by Dorothea Lange.



How quickly we forget.

[storewanderer]

GOOD!

If you can't pay a living wage hit the road jack.

Gee, what about all those union positions in CA like UFCW grocery positions like service deli which is practically the same job as fast food (if not more difficult) that pay well below $20/hr to start and take many thousands of hours to get above $20/hr...? Do those jobs need to hit the road too?

[Romr123]

No, but there is value in working for a well-capitalized UFCW organization as compared to a thinly capitalized franchise situation...I'd argue that a $18 deli clerk at Albervons/Ralphs/Stater is roughly equivalent to $20 at a franchisee-run Burger McWendees.

Same thought process as how working for a government job pays less but is more stable than working in industry.

[veteran+]

GOOD!

If you can't pay a living wage hit the road jack.

The idea of paying a living wage dates back to 1898.From a History channel history of the minimum wage:

1898: Samuel Gompers, founding president of the American Federation of Labor, publishes an article entitled “A Minimum Living Wage,” in which he advocates not just setting a legal threshold for wages, but also requiring it to be enough for workers to live.

Also from the same article, a billboard sponsored by the national association of manufacturers reading "World's highest wages - there's no way like the American way," photographed by Dorothea Lange.



How quickly we forget.

For sure!!