[HokiePokie]

I have eaten at Ruby Tuesday numerous times, the food was great each and everytime, the salad bar second to none! I cannot understand why each time I drove down to this restaurant they had very few people there eating. The employee’s were always super friendly, the places I ate at were always clean, and I ate at several locations. What is it that people want in a restaurant? This place had steaks, ribs, chicken, all kinds of vegetables, and they had very tasty desserts. The prices were not overly high compared to everyone else, so why are these places not doing great business like the other eating establishments? And since I mentioned Fort Payne I will go ahead and mention Bri, I think she is at Scottsboro now but she was a super sweet employee. I miss the salad bar, I ate lots of calories from it and it made me gain a few pounds but it was so good!

[GreggT]

Wondered myself. We liked Ruby Tuesday's, and went at least once a month. My wife and I often wondered why more did not frequent the place.
I am with you, the salad bar was great!

[jlawrence01]

Ruby Tuesday's is the remnant of the old Morrison 's Cafeteria chain. They have been losing money for years and closing locations. Personally, from my experience with their Chicago locations, I found them underwhelming.

I was a real fan of Morrison's Cafeteria and Morrison's Health Care Services.

[harry chickpea]

I would suspect a couple of factors:

Reputation of the chain

Reputation of the local restaurant


When something negative happens at a place of entertainment or dining, people stay away in droves. It doesn't even have to have anything to do with the place itself, like a random shooting in a parking lot during a drug deal. If publicized enough or it gets to be a word-of-mouth warning, the place can be doomed.

It actually happens in all retail, but may be less noticed as such. The old Winn Dixie chain had some outstanding stores, and excellent fair pricing. Publix charged significantly more, but had much better PR. People flocked to the Publix and WD tried cost cutting and went down the tubes. Every negative story just piled onto the hate.

A fascinating aspect to me is that much of the negativity is attached to the physical structure. If the building is torn down and rebuilt or (to a lesser extent) extensively remodeled, much of the avoidance goes away. It makes little logical sense, but that is how the public thinks. Places like McDonalds have taken that to heart.

[nalabama]

Once upon a time the southeast Huntsville Ruby Tuesday had a wonderful salad bar and we ate there frequently. Then they decontented the salad bar and raised their meal prices. Then we quit eating there. Now it is gone. Imagine that.

[AU HSV]

Originally Posted by nalabama

Once upon a time the southeast Huntsville Ruby Tuesday had a wonderful salad bar and we ate there frequently. Then they decontented the salad bar and raised their meal prices. Then we quit eating there. Now it is gone. Imagine that.

Yep, always enjoyed the salad bar. Bad quality high prices and poor management are a guaranteed closure.
Another mystery is Golden Corral

[dijkstra]

It has been a long line of poor decisions from upper management that has led to this point for Ruby Tuesday. I also used to like going there. Years ago we used to meet friends there, have a couple drinks, eat and then head out to the ball game, hockey game or whatever was going on. Then upper management decided to dismantle the menu, strip it down and jump on the "gourmet hamburger" craze that was sweeping through restaurant chains at the time. It was a huge blunder that basically cost them the majority of their customers. We completely quit going at that time.

After a while with the crappy menu full of burgers that nobody wanted, they got the message and brought back most of the old menu. I believe they had already started having to close restaurants by that point. I heard they had the old entree's back so gave them a shot. It was good but then they found a way to screw it up again. That is when they stripped the salad bar and ran all the customers off again. It was another big debacle and eventually they brought it back but by that point the damage was done. They had pretty much alienated every customer they had and most we done with them.

They also now have a plethora of competition in most markets. It is now most likely just a matter of time until they are gone completely. It will take some sort of miracle to save them at this point and whatever that miracle is, I seriously doubt those currently in charge can figure it out.

[chiluvr1228]

All the Ruby Tuesday's in Lee County, Florida have closed also. :-(

Also many restaurants closed their salad bars due to the pandemic.

[Suesbal]

Goodbye Ruby Tuesday.

[y8tiger]

Since the Pandemic, 242 Ruby Tuesday locations have closed and the chain is predicted to close completely in the near future.

Sad to see them go.