Americans still love Fridays, just not TGI Fridays

It’s been a rough couple years for the chain sit-down restaurants of America. TGI Fridays, however, has had a particularly bad time.  

TGI Fridays (which if it wasn’t obvious, stands for “Thank God It’s Friday”) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Saturday, reporting between $100 million and $500 million in debt. It joins Red Lobster and Buca di Beppo in the undesirable club of bankrupt sit-down chains battered by consumer pullback.

The chain has been in business since 1965 and owned since 2014 by private-equity firms TriArtisan and Sentinel Capital Partners. As one of a few non-publicly traded brands in its category, TGI Fridays suffered in silence while its peers had to report their lackluster same-store sales declines each quarter. 

Foot traffic to TGI Fridays started to decline in 2023, according to data compiled by Placer.ai. By the week of October 21, visits were down almost 39% year over year. It’s hard to imagine it saw any revenue growth during that period.

Its overall foot traffic decline is inflated by the fact that the chain closed between 20% and 30% of its stores in the past year. Still, its visits per venue are down 10.3%.