A friend of mine shared with me yesterday an end of work notice that The Cheesecake Factory employees were getting from their management which states that April 30th 2019 will be their last working day due to the restaurant closure. (You can check it here)
The notice attributed their closure to the bad economic situation that Lebanon is going through right now, but I don’t think it’s only that. I personally loved The Cheesecake Factory but always thought it failed to really compete with other american diners here for two reasons.
They never justified their prices
Items at The Cheesecake Factory are expensive if you compare their menu to that of other diners in the country. However their portions are really big and definitely meant to be shared.
Unfortunately, that’s was one thing people failed to get at the beginning, which left an impression that the restaurant is quite expensive while you can in fact share a main dish and a salad with another person and end up with almost the same bill you would get from Roadster or Crepaway.
They never bothered to convey that message to the masses and I never recall they promoted some special formulas for two like other diners do sometimes.
When was the last time they made an advertising campaign?
I recall they made a buzz when they first launched but that was it I guess. My timelines across the different social media platforms is always infested with sponsored posts from food places but I can’t recall the last time I saw an ad from The Cheesecake Factory. On the other hand, I have no idea if they follow the same strategy in the UAE but their outlets there are much busier and I remember I once had to stand in line for a good time to get a table. So I’m not sure whether they should be blamed or the Lebanese market simply has different preferences.
Anyway, as much as I hate to see it going, I think a lot of us were expecting it, and foreign brands who are planning an expansion to Lebanon should definitely take lessons from The Cheesecake Factory experience here.