CHEESECAKE Factory will be closing a major Tennessee mall location.
Next month, the restaurant located at the Wolfchase Galleria in Memphis will be closing its doors for good, with the news coming as a shock to employees.
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This location, which opened in 2015, will be officially closing on July 14, as confirmed by the manager to local CBS affiliate WREG-TV.
Although the manager confirmed the restaurant’s closure, he did not confirm why the location is shutting down.
And employees are in the dark as to why as well.
In fact, workers said they found out about the closure, and subsequent termination of their jobs, just this week.
“We just hope the staff members who have been there a long time are able to find something,” location manager Jennifer Madrigao said.
“A place like Cheesecake factory relocates management, but as far as veteran staff — not everyone is able to relocate,” she explains.
The closure follows an opposite trend for the restaurant in recent years.
In fact, some residents suggest they need to take their concerns to city hall and demand action.
“I’m calling city hall to find out what the economic planning team is doing to keep and bring businesses to the city,” Lele Hughhes, a resident in the community, said on Facebook.
Cheesecake Factory, unlike most chains at this time, are in a growth phase.
This means they plan on as many new locations as possible.
In the last quarter of 2023 alone, the company opened nine new restaurants.
“During the quarter, we opened nine new restaurants to strong consumer demand,” said company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, David Overton, in a press release at the time.
“We believe we are well-positioned to build on this momentum and continue accelerating unit growth to achieve our longer-term development objectives,” he continued.
Then in May, the company reported another five locations opened across the country in the first quarter of this year.
The Company says they are expecting to open as many as 22 new restaurants this year alone.
“The Cheesecake Factory restaurants comparable sales and traffic once again meaningfully outperformed the industry,” Overton said in the quarterly report.
Right now, the company owns and operates 335 restaurants throughout the United States and Canada.
But that number will drop to 334 come mid-July when the Wolfchase Galleria location shuts its doors.
“‘Memphis’ was an absolute journey altogether,” said Madrigao, who originally relocated to the Memphis restaurant from Texas.
“I’ve grown to love the staff,” she said, wishing them all well in the future.