A Farewell to Dairy Queens

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

Many of the communities affected by the loss of their Dairy Queens were already struggling, so losing even a small employer is significant.

Link to tweet

FOOD & DRINK

A Farewell to Dairy Queens

A recent spate of closures of the iconic restaurant chain has left many communities in the lurch.

From the May 2018 Issue

On a recent Thursday afternoon, the front lawns of Lockney, a South Plains farming town of fewer than two thousand, were still dusted with the windblown residue of the cotton harvest. Main Street was largely deserted, and most of the storefronts were empty. Though locals long ago became hardened to news of economic woes, the latest casualty was one that few could fathom: the local Dairy Queen, the iconic fast-food mainstay of small-town Texas, closed in late October. “They came in during the night and took everything,” said Buster Poling, Lockney’s city manager.

Now the store is a hollow shell sitting in the shadow of the town’s rusted water tower. Its red roof is marked with a teardrop-shaped scar where the DQ logo once perched. Inside, the menu boards have been stripped clean. On a side window, “Go Horns” is still written in white shoe polish, a tribute to the local high school football team, whose fans would gather at Dairy Queen after games.

The old saying that every Texas town has a Dairy Queen is no longer true for many communities, especially the agricultural hamlets of the Panhandle, which have been disproportionately affected by a spate of closures. On October 30, Vasari LLC, which operated about 70 Dairy Queens across Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, filed for bankruptcy and announced it was closing 29 stores, 10 of them in the Panhandle.

In Haskell, about 150 miles southeast of Lockney, city manager Janet Moeller was so concerned when she heard about the closure in her town that she called her counterpart in Graham to see if the owners of its Dairy Queen would buy the Haskell site and reopen it. So far, nothing has come of the request. “It’s devastating for Haskell,” she said.
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[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. That's a shame.

I haven't been to a DQ in ages, but I did go to them in my younger days. I used to get their hotdog as a cheap meal when money was scarce.

[Eyeball_Kid]

2. After a recent surgery, my daughter bought me a large brownie blizzard. Gads!

I can't remember anything tasting better, not having anything like a blizzard in decades.

So I decided to look up the calorie count, thinking that perhaps I could have one every once in a while.

A large brownie blizzard tips the scales at 1120 calories. So it's either the Blizzard of my Dreams or heading to the department store to buy Big Boy Pants.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. Most DQ's

are Franchisee's . Let's face it,when your start losing money,you have to make adjustments. Apparently the local economy is in the toilet. Some what fimiliar with a DQ franchise,one has up to 200k parked in one of these. Takes some real guts to walk away.

[Wednesdays]

4. Huh, here in northern/central OK, Dairy Queens are enjoying a sort of renaissance

There were big crowds for the opening of one nearby last year, and business continues to be brisk in several in our area.