Honestly, yes, but maybe not for the reasons you think. These restaurants were mediocre at best, let’s be honest. The food was fine. The service was fine. The whole experience was a beige blanket of fine-ness. But they were part of the British landscape. A place you’d go for a birthday when no one could agree on anything else.
Whitbread to Cut 3500 Jobs and Close Pub Restaurant Chains
Now, we’ll just have more empty units in retail parks. Great. What’s next, a Greggs on every corner? (Oh wait, that’s already happening.) The plague of closures also signals that the high street is still dying a slow, painful death. You can’t just blame Covid anymore. This is a fundamental shift.
What’s the Silver Lining?
Maybe this forces Whitbread to actually innovate. Like, create restaurants people want to visit? Maybe a cool rooftop bar? Or a pub that doesn’t smell like stale beer and regret? Probably not. They’ll just build more identical hotels, and we’ll eat protein bars in our rooms.
But here’s my hot take: good riddance to the mediocrity. If your business model relies on serving microwaved lasagna to tired families, you’re on borrowed time. The workers deserve better jobs anyway. Maybe the next thing will pay more and have less grease.
