How NOT to close a store
By Tuckerbox on May 28, 2008 in Commentary, My Girlfriends Kitchen
I’m not bringing this up to single anyone out; rather I think there is a lot to learn from this post. I think it’s safe to say this is not the best way to go about closing down your store.
It’s interesting to note that the store was still selling gift certificates even though they were closing down.
Sending out a blast email with a free-for-all-first-come-first-served-take-all-you-want mentality probably isn’t going to be well received and may just be a sure fire recipe for disaster and pissed of buyers.
It’s a great idea to make as many meals as you can and use up as much inventory as you can, but keep a clear head when you do it. You don’t want to just toss open the doors and let the chaos ensue. Closing should still be professional and orderly with a focus on try to accommodate and please customers rather than a last ditch effort to aggravate them.
You still need to conduct business in town, and you certainly don’t want to be the person people refer to with the phrase “Oh… that’s the person who…â€
Well, my SIL Carrie forwarded me an email she received from the company stating that they were closing and they were having a sale on their May menu and it excluded the June items. Prepackaged frozen meals were 50% off. Awesome deal. So me and a couple of my girlfriends (who happened to be regular, loyal customers to MGFK since the day they opened mind you) went to go grab some grub.
My life, my love, my reality…: My Girlfriend’s Kitchen is a bust
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Sallyonherown had this to say on | May 29, 2008 | Reply
how interesting that you would be so mean as to talk poorly about the customers in line. They waited longer than you did and should be able to purchase what ever they wanted.
You probably don’t have a clue to what is going on in this industry. MGFK was purchased by another MA franchise. I’m sure it was not there choice to close.
They are probably more sad about their present situation then you are at your slight inconvenience. Many owners have lost their homes, their savings after this. Don’t you have any compassion for anyone else.
I’m sure these owners have the integrity to offer you your money back in exchange for your gift certificate if you’d just ask, or maybe they’ve already offered you that option. Which hopefully you won’t be choking on that crow.
Be kind!
p.s. and why would your expectant friends get to go up front when they weren’t there on time, just because they’re pregnant??? and by the way it’s strada not estrada.
Nordy had this to say on | May 29, 2008 | Reply
I bet they’ll give you your money back.
They are probably heartbroken over their loss of money and livelyhood.
It’s a sad situation.
I’m sure they had the best of intentions and are just stressed out over the mess the franchise has left them with.
hope it all works out for the best
NOWATDAOWNER had this to say on | Jul 28, 2008 | Reply
Just a note, I am one of the MGFK store owners who became The Dinner A’fare. With that being said, I had two MGFK stores in my area that closed months before the buy out. Since the change over, I have had a number of calls from people who have HUGE gift certificates from other stores (one store took over $800 for a local fire dept and never made contact to make good) and want to redeem them at my store. Since MGFK is no longer around, and neither are the gc records, there is no way to know if these gc are even still valid AND I would not be compensated at all for them. I can’t afford to GIVE away $150 or more in free meals, so I have offered to allow them to place $50 at a time towards an order. The response from customers has not been well received, however, I feel I’ve done my part to help make good on a situation I did not create. If I was to decide to close my store, I would email out my customers and announce my closing so that customers can try to redeem the gc - that’s just good business practice and would allow me to sleep at night.
Tuckerbox had this to say on | Jul 29, 2008 | Reply
That’s a situation a few owners have expressed concern about. I don’t know how frequently it happens, but there is certainly the fear that a a whole slew of gift certificates will be sold in a last ditch effort to make some money and the other owners in the area will have to do their best to try and honor them.
It’s certainly a rough situation for you to be caught in the middle. Hopefully your customers understood you were doing the best you would under the circumstances. It’s unfortunate the corp. office didn’t do more to help the situation. I’m somewhat surprised it doesn’t happen more often.
guest had this to say on | Aug 4, 2008 | Reply
One of the owners I think you’re talking about, perhaps the one that the fire dept. gift certificates were purchased, did try their best to have the receiver use up as much as possible. Those gift certificates were started in July and she repeatedly called them to have them come in to make meals before closing in December. As I remember she originally was going to close in October. Don’t judge when you only have one side.