FREEZING OVER
‘Another bites the dust,’ diners cry as ice cream chain with 60 locations suddenly closes outlet in city for good
The store will shut after almost 50 years of business
A POPULAR ice cream chain has closed the doors of another store in California due to financial struggles.
The increase in the fast food minimum wage and rising costs from inflation forced the ice cream store to permanently shutter.
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This is the third Fosters Freeze location to shut its doors since the start of 2023, The Fresno Bee reported.
The Fosters Freeze store was located in the Fresno area of California - about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Sacramento.
It closed its doors for the final time on Monday after almost 50 years of business.
"This place has been there since [the] 1970s," Hafed Alwajih, the store owner, said.
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"I feel bad. It has a lot of loyal customers."
According to Alwajih, three main factors contributed to the closure of this Fosters Freeze location: the rise of the fast food minimum wage, inflation, and the expiration of the building's lease.
California's minimum wage for fast food workers increased from $16 to $20 an hour in April 2024.
And this led to a rise in other related expenses.
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"When the minimum wage goes up, of course the insurance will go up," Alwajih said.
"Of course the payroll tax will go up," he said. "It's everything."
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Alwajih said his overall expenses had gone up 30% in the last two years.
Inflation has also had a significant impact on this Fosters Freeze location.
The price of ingredients has risen and customers have been eating out less.
The combination of these financial struggles forced Alwajih to make the difficult decision to close the store when the lease came up for renewal.
"We're not going to make it, so why [are] we going to renew?" he said.
A SAD GOODBYE
Customers took to social media to express their sadness at this store closure.
"Another bites the dust in California, congratulations to everyone who voted for it, you have killed small business," one user said on Facebook.
"Some things don't last forever," another user commented.
This Fosters Freeze store closure is not the first to happen this year.
California saw the closure of one location last January and another last summer.
The rise in rent also contributed to the shuttering of these two stores.
Alwajih urged that these store closures had nothing to do with the company's branding.
Restaurant closures in 2024
BOSSES at major dining chains have announced a series of restaurant closures. The U.S. Sun has compiled a list of the chain's affected.
- Cracker Barrel: Stores in Medford, Oregon, Columbia, South Carolina, and Sacramento, California, have closed.
- Mod Pizza: Bosses dramatically shuttered 27 shops in April, including some in the state of California.
- Frisch's Big Boy: Restaurant chiefs confirmed the closure of a restaurant in Covington, Kentucky in April.
- Outback Steakhouse: The chain will shutter 41 'underperforming' locations this year.
- Two Bucks: Four restaurants in Ohio closed in April.
- Chili's: A restaurant in Port Arthur, Texas, has shut permanently as well as one in Irvine, California.
- Friendly's: Bosses confirmed an establishment in Ronkonkoma, Long Island will close.
- Pizza Hut: A restaurant in Glen Falls, New York, closed at the end of March, followed by four in Ohio in June and 15 in Indiana.
- Denny's: Two restaurants in Boise and Nampa, Idaho, have closed.
- Carl's Jr.: The first Boise, Idaho location has closed.
- In-N-Out: An Oakland location closed earlier in the year due to crime in the area.
- Cheesecake Factory: The chain is set to shutter a location in Memphis, Tennessee in July.
- Applebee's: Announced the closure of between 25 and 35 locations this year.
- Taco John's: Shuttered a restaurant in Minnesota and put the building up for sale in May.
- Rubio's Coastal Grill: Has announced the closure of 48 locations in California after filing for bankruptcy.
- Burger King: Shuttered a location in California in June after 30 years.
"It's not Fosters Freeze," he said. "The inflation and minimum wage is killing everyone."
There are still several other Fosters Freeze locations in California, so the chain is not gone for good.
Another Foster's Freeze store closed in April this year.
It was located in Lemoore - about three hours north of Los Angeles.
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Employees spoke of how shocked they were about the news.
"I was so caught off guard. We had no type of notice, no type of warning either," the assistant general manager said at the time.
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