Heinemann’s Closes for Good
The three Heinemann’s Restaurants in Fox Point, Brookfield and Milwaukee, as well as the Milwaukee commissary, stopped operating on Tuesday, it was announced today. Around 115 people are losing their jobs.
“This is an incredibly sad time for all of us,” co-owner Peggy Burns said in a statement. “We tried our best to continue operating, but increasing competition in an overbuilt restaurant industry and the economic recession adversely affected our business.”
Burns also blamed the new Milwaukee ordinance that requires city employers to provide sick days to their workers.
There will be more.
There will be more.
A lot more.
I have heard that as many as 73K retail outlets are expected to close in 2009.
And this is how absurd the bailout/stimulus bs has gotten.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/28542109
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 1236 hrs
So it’s no longer fashionable in certain circles to call this an imaginary recession perpetuated by a bunch of whiners?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 1241 hrs
Even Kudlow and Luskin have capitulated.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 1310 hrs
Owen
How about keeping a running total of the business’s killed by the sick day law?Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 1319 hrs
How about keeping a running total of the business’s killed by the sick day law?
Now that is what I call a sense of humor.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 1324 hrs
I imagine if you rank the 3 reasons given for closing (competition, recession, and sick leave ordinance), the sick leave ordinance would be way at the bottom of the list. Think of the bright side - now there will be 115 employees available on a fill-in basis for those restaurants that will need temporary help when their staff calls in because they need time off to take their kids to the doctor’s office for their flu shots or whatever else was the rationale for mandating sick leave (I think Obama’s position was so that employes could take their elderly parents to the doctor when necessary).
In West Bend, in the past year we have seen the closing of Ponderosa, Dick’s Pizza, and some new restaurant (it was only open a few months) on south Main street. Before that, the Charcoal Grille closed & Jackson lost Sario’s Pizza. In most of the situations, overbuilding was given as the reason, especially with the franchise operations coming in like Texas Roadhouse, Buffalo Wings, Noodles, Panera, etc. There was a relatively new restaurant (Great 50 States) that sold their building to Buffalo Wings, because the alternative was that BW would build next door anyway, so the owner of Great 50 States was better off recouping the investment in his building by selling it, instead of it sitting empty like Ponderosa & Dick’s Pizza. All of this was before the economy went downhill.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 1413 hrs
We tried our best to continue operating, but increasing competition in an overbuilt restaurant industry and the economic recession adversely affected our business.
Sorry don’t buy it.
I don’t know these restaurants. Never been there. But there are only three reasons that restaurants fail
Bad Service
Bad Food
Horrid Location
Restaurants with 2 of the 3 will/can survive.
Blaming the sick pay law this early in the game is ridiculous. Especially when 2/3 of your operations are not effected.
Good economies will keep bad restaurants open. Bad economies will effect the worst restaurants first.
After 20+ years on the south side, I am still looking for a good family friendly restaurant that serves good potato pancakes.
And yes - I think that I have been watching too much of Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 1555 hrs
But there are only three reasons that restaurants fail
After reading that - I will add one more
Incompetent manglement or ownership.
There are not enough quality restaurants in Milwaukee for a restaurant that has good food & good service in a decent location with ownership that has a clue to go out of business.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 1559 hrs
The sick leave ordinance certainly was not the main cause for their closing, but it sounded like the frosting on the cake for them.
Either way - it certainly didn’t make it easier for them to stay in business.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 1604 hrs
As someone who voted against the sick leave ordinance I doubt it was a reason. First of all, it has not gone into effect yet. Second, only one of the three restaurants is in Milwaukee.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 1738 hrs
“Burns also blamed the new Milwaukee ordinance that requires city employers to provide sick days to their workers.”
Except…two of their restaurants were not in the city of Milwaukee.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 1905 hrs
Heinemann’s was awesome. They had incredible breakfasts. many of them healthy with yogurt, home-made granola, or egg whites. All of their bread was fresh baked, most were whole grain. And they had fabulous coffee. On Saturdays, they had home made bacon, broccoli, and cheese soup. When we lived in Tosa, we went to the one on Mayfair and Center at least once a week. If you wanted breakfast or lunch on Sunday, you expected a 20 minute wait for a table. That one closed when they tore down the building it was in. I think the new building only has one tenant now.
Heinemann’s was a Milwaukee fixture for decades. This is sad.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 1911 hrs
A Heinemann’s employee once said to my (ex)wife: “wow, you really ate that fast.” She was seven months pregnant.
I’m surprised it took them this long to fail.
Posted by Fuzz on January 07, 2009 at 2037 hrs
I think it was a victim of aged demographics and their cliental was dying off. If you wanted to feel younger, just go to a Heinemann’s. In fact my brother was wise enough to take me there for my 50th birthday.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 2048 hrs
Although they only had one of their locations and the kitchen in the city of Milwaukee, they would have had to offer the benefit to ALL employees if you think about it. Otherwise, all the employees at the Bayside location in theory could have asked for transfers to the MKE store so they can get sick pay days, which Heinemann’s isn’t mandated to offer at that location.
You’d have a situation of unequal benefits between employees doing the same job, which is the last thing many employers want to deal with.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 2135 hrs
Talk to a commercial real estate broker about selling/leasing business space in the city of Milwaukee. Anyone who is at the end of their lease is moving out the city, and no one is renewing their leases there.
Yes - even though ordinance hasn’t gone into effect yet - it’s effects are being seen.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 08, 2009 at 0748 hrs
I’m against the sick pay law as much as anyone. As a CPA I have several clients who will be impacted by this law and some will leave the city because of this.
That said, Heinemann’s did not close because of this law and this law isn’t likely in the Top 100 reasons of why they closed. In reading the article it was pretty clear that they can no longer pay their bills and that is what caused a shutdown where no one even had a fair warning.
We can’t cry wolf on the Sick Pay law. There will be plent of real instances of a Company closing, or more likely relocating, that we can get outraged about.
Posted by Michael Bark on January 08, 2009 at 1359 hrs
I didn’t get to read the print version until today - it sounds like they have been in a financial freefall for awhile, and are turning their secured assets over to their creditors in lieu of bankrupcy. They had already closed their Greendale, Whitefish Bay, Grafton, and Wauwatosa locations last year.
Besides the financial issues and demographics of their customers, it appears that one of the partners was no longer involved in operations due to illness.
I suspect that perhaps the sick leave ordinance factored into the timing of the shutdown - maybe they would have hung in a little longer (at least until the unpaid vendors stopped delivering), but adapting to the ordinance would have been like changing the engine oil on a sinking ship.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 08, 2009 at 1438 hrs
Heinemann’s history is not only baked oatmeal and grilled coffee cake. At its 102 E. Wisconsin Ave. location they had their “Men’s Grill.” Heinemann’s management with the cooperation of the Milwaukee City Attorney and Police refused to serve women there from at least 1930 until 1975. In 1969 and 1970 “feminists” staged periodic sit-ins. Finally, the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin challenged Heinemann’s discriminatory practice in federal court. In 1975 the court ruled that Heinemann’s had violated the rights of women denied service at the “Men’s Grill.”
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 08, 2009 at 1744 hrs
I’m in agreement with Keith on this one. Heinemann’s went the way of The Grand, Chapmans, the Boulevard Inn, John Ernst, and other great fixtures. the demographics skewed Sr. Citizen. Sad, but to this day I still miss the Mr. Softie truck.
However, one of my best friends is a commercial real estate broker and he told me that even in the worst market he has seen in a long time, there is a lot of interest in his listings that border Milwaukee. All exiting from Milw. when their leases expire.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 08, 2009 at 1803 hrs
John Burns was the heart and soul of Heinemann’s. When he was stricken with menengitis his wife, Margaret (Peggy), took over and it went downhill from there. This “Mequon Mary” had absolutely no work experience but pretended she did. More importantly, she was very demeaning and was the most universally disliked person I have ever come across. The very talented staff began to leave one by one starting with the CFO who knew what was coming. Then the President (a 25 year employee) followed by eleven more members of the management staff. The economy may have been the final blow but those of us who were there know Miss Margaret was the real cause. The way she screwed over the employees tells you all you need to know.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 14, 2009 at 1104 hrs
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