These closed restaurants will probably become vape shops, nail salons, or a new branch of a grocery store. That’s the circle of life in retail. You’ll drive past a boarded-up Beefeater and think, “I had a terrible chicken wing there once.” And you’ll smile.
Or maybe a new, trendy place will open, selling overpriced avocado toast and cold brew. Then we’ll all complain about that, too. It’s a never-ending dance of bad choices.
Honestly, the real winner here could be the local pub. You know, the one that smells like dog and cheap bleach, where the landlord smokes behind the bar and calls you “mate” even if you argue about football. Those little joints are survivors.
A Final Toast
So pour one out for the Whitbread empire. We had a love-hate relationship: we loved the unlimited salad bowl and hated paying £12 for a glass of wine that tastes like cough syrup. But it’s over now. Or at least, it’s shrinking.
Next time you eat a microwave meal in your pyjamas, remember: you didn’t kill the chain restaurant. You just chose better hardware. And maybe a slightly less polyester slipper. Cheers to that.
