Does anyone know why white castle left Pittsburgh? (Philadelphia, Penn Hills: home, restaurant)

[escilade18]

This is always a question, why did White Castle leave Pittsburgh altogether? I heard that they had quite a few locations back in the day, now the closest location is in Akron. Another chain that bypassed the city is Checkers/Rallys which is in Baltimore, DC, Philly, NYC, Charleston WV, Columbus, Cleveland but not in Pittsburgh. Does anyone have any information to why certain chains avoid Pittsburgh, any info and links would be greatly appreciated

[escilade18]

other companies that come to mind would be Kroger, Big Boy, and Ruby Tuesday is in the process of leaving the region, the only one that I can think of that is left would be their ones in the exurbs of Uniontown, Indiana, and New Castle. The weird part is that Cleveland, a city of similar size, is a fast food hub so to speak with the only major chain that it lacks that I can think of would be In and Out for obvious reasons

[MathmanMathman]

I heard that Giant Eagle drove Kroger out. I remember Big Boy in Monroeville. I loved Big Boy burgers and shakes. It's weird but we have iin Atlanta, Shoney's, and it had a connection with Big Boy but I think they split. Never ate at a Shoney's so I don't know if it is as good.

Johnny Rockets is good. We have 8 in Atlanta. Pittsburgh has one at Pittsburgh Mills in Tarentum (a bit far out but it should count). Cleveland doesn't have one.

Maybe Pittsburgh is not a strong restaurant/fast food market? Someone told me that Toldeo is a big restaurant market in that people there often eat out. Can't swear that it's true.

We don't have any White Castle's in Atlanta. Are we missing much? I think our answer to White Castle is Krystal. Tiny burgers...eh...not worth it.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by escilade18

This is always a question, why did White Castle leave Pittsburgh altogether? I heard that they had quite a few locations back in the day, now the closest location is in Akron. Another chain that bypassed the city is Checkers/Rallys which is in Baltimore, DC, Philly, NYC, Charleston WV, Columbus, Cleveland but not in Pittsburgh. Does anyone have any information to why certain chains avoid Pittsburgh, any info and links would be greatly appreciated

Years ago, someone I knew killed himself after we ate at a White Castle on N. Craig St. White Castle left town shortly thereafter.

[escilade18]

The outlier to me is how there are Checkers in Charleston WV, a city much much smaller than Pittsburgh (actually not much larger than Penn Hills) and in all of the surrounding cities including Philadelphia (so it is not a PA thing) but there is not one to speak of in Pittsburgh. The Giant Eagle point makes sense (although Kroger pays much much better) but I can see them having more influence in their home city. The closest Shoneys that I can think of to Pittsburgh is in Morgantown WV and I would say that from what I can remember Kings and Eat'n Park are more like Big Boy than Shoneys is.

[Love2Golf09]

Maybe White Castle just couldn't cut it and left? A lot of the chains mentioned were in the region in a limited way, but did not do well so they left rather than expanded. Shoney's was in Uniontown and did not do well. Big boy was in a lot of area locations before pulling out. But, many, like Denny's, have come and thrived. I'm surprised at the lack of ihop's in the region.

[raubre]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Maybe Pittsburgh is not a strong restaurant/fast food market?

I highly doubt that's true. Pittsburgh loves it's fast food.

[raubre]

Originally Posted by escilade18

Another chain that bypassed the city is Checkers/Rallys which is in Baltimore, DC, Philly, NYC, Charleston WV, Columbus, Cleveland but not in Pittsburgh.

I remember we had a couple of rally's here in Pittsburgh a few years back. There was one in Wilkinsburg and also one in the North Side (I think)

[gg]

The Rallys were around. Across from the McDonalds in the Northside and one on Penn. The White Castle's I remember were on the North Shore area and I think one downtown. They had a reputation for not being the greatest.

Speaking of fast food, there is a Hardee's in Millvale. I always found that interesting that we have one. I think the next closest one is in Waynesburg.

[greg42]

Part of the issue I'm sure is that it's hard to find good locations left, and the good spots are expensive. Also in the typical retail conundrum you need more stores to have good coverage of the area.

Hardees: so weird that the Millvale one stays open. There used to be one in Cranberry (it's where the Krispy Kreme was in front of Bed Bath and Beyond/Babies R Us/etc on 19, and that is now an AT&T store!)

Big Boy: there are many different companies that used the Big Boy trademark. There used to be an Elby's Big Boy in Cranberry (was torn down to put up the NexTier Bank, on 19 in front of Walmart). But the real Big Boy history around here is apparently Eat n Park. Eat n Park itself was once a licensee of the original Bob's. This ended if I recall sometime in the early 80s but would still potentially explain why there aren't other iterations of Big Boy here. Shoney's was also a Big Boy licensee, but their affiliation also ended probably in the late 80s or so.

Why some things were here in a larger way and then left, well, a declining area in the 70s and early 80s probably didn't help. I'm sure it's a combination of factors, and some of the factors are different for each entity.