A Friendly’s Goodbye

Corporate Ax Fells Revered Oneonta Restaurant

By JENNIFER HILL • Hometown Oneonta & The Freeman’s Journal

ONEONTA – Melissa Ackerly, 60, had plans to meet a friend for ice cream at the Friendly’s at Main Street and Walling Avenue on Monday, April 8.

Instead, the Delhi woman found the door locked and a note taped to the glass.

“We apologize for disappointing you on this visit, but this location is now closed for business,” the sign read.

“I’m shocked,” said Ackerly. “There was Burger King, the YMCA, and Friendly’s for eating out when I was in high school.”  More recently, the 2013 closing of the Neptune Diner was a shock.

And now this.

The company released a statement later in the day from Friendly’s President George Michel, revealing the Oneonta closing was one of 23 “corporate-owned” restaurants shuttered.

Oneonta’s was among 14 restaurants closed Sunday, April 7, in Upstate New York, from her to Bingham, Syracuse and Buffalo, plus three in Massachusetts, three in Connecticut, two in New Hampshire and one in Maine.

The company continues to have 77 corporate-owned restaurants and 97 franchises.

The company has been feeling pressure from changing consumer preferences, increased competition and rising costs, Michel said, and made the strategic closing to protect “our beloved brand.”

In the Friendly’s that remain, plus new ones, the goal is to “re-energize out marketing efforts, … refresh our menu, focus on delivery and catering, and improve the overall restaurant experience for our customers,” he said.

Be that as it may, the closing was a shock to in-county customers; 11,155 flocked to www.AllOTSEGO.com throughout Monday, which broke the news at 11:47 a.m.

In 1935, two brothers, Prestley and Curtis Blake, ages 20 and 18, respectively, opened “a modest neighborhood ice cream shoppe” in Springfield, Massachusetts, according to Friendly’s website, selling double-dip cones for five cents.  Additional Friendly’s were opened throughout New England over the next 40 years, including the one in Oneonta in late 1969.

Corporate ownership of Friendly’s changed several times – Hershey Food Corp. in 1979, Tennessee Restaurant Co. in 1988, and “an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, Inc., which specializes “in leveraged buyouts and investments in market-leading companies” in 2007, and to a Texas-based distributor Dean Foods in 2016.

In a statement,President George Michel cited “competition and rising prices” for the decision to close 23 restaurants across New England, including 14 in Upstate New York.

“While this was a tough decision, we are confident it will best position the brand for a bright future,” he said in an email sent out to franchisees. “Especially difficult is the impact these closures will have on the locations’ wonderful employees, who we are working to support with opportunities in other locations or severance payments and other assistance.”