Tag Archives | closure

The Cheesecake Factory Closing Down For Good in Lebanon

By Rami on January 30, 2019 in Lebanon, Restaurants

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.

It’s Official: Assafir Will Stop Publishing

By Rami on March 24, 2016 in Lebanon

Several people from Assafir confirmed the rumors we all heard last week about a possible closure of the newspaper. Sanaa Khoury, a journalist in Assafir, was among the firsts who announced it on twitter.

Assafir has been in print for 42 years now and was among the leading newspapers in Lebanon, so it’s definitely odd to see it closing down with its employees getting laid off. But then again, it’s only logical for the publishers to halt their operations if there’s not enough revenue.

Throughout my teenage years I got used to reading Annahar as it was my parents favorite, but that was up till 2005 when Gebran Tueini was assasinated and they then switched to buying Assafir. And although I personally enjoy flipping through the physical copy, I never felt the need to subscribe to a newspaper when I got married and moved out in 2011, mainly because I was staying up to date with news through the available news websites and feed readers.

This actually brings me to a related news on ministers Sejaan Azzi and Ramzi Jreige calling for support to media outlets suffering from financial difficulties. Times are changing, and any support a newspaper will be getting is going to be temporary in my opinion if people simply don’t feel like buying a physical copy anymore, just like stone tablets were abandoned for documentation hundreds of years ago. Moreover, the closure of a newspaper will not affect the culture in Lebanon if journalists kept expressing their opinions online because it’s the content that matter and not the medium. Publishers should simply adapt to the changing news consumption habits and act accordingly, and if the government feels like being nice then it should probably consider helping the laid off employees.

Photo via Al Arabiya

Update:

It was reported today that Assafir got some financial support and will keep publishing at least for the next few months. A press conference will be held by the management on Wednesday to talk about the issue with the public.

Sar Lezem Rassak Yefroz – This Makes No Sense

By Rami on January 15, 2015 in Lebanon

sarlezem

There’s this “Sar Lezem Rassa Yifroz” campaign on Facebook that caught my attention, not because of the catchy name but because I found it a bit weird.

The people behind that campaign believe that the closure of Naameh landfill will result in a crisis similar to what happened last year when waste piled up in Beirut, and want to manage that crisis by asking people to start sorting their waste material starting January 17th when Sukleen might stop collecting garbage due to the closure of the landfill.

The sorting is quite simple, in black bags you’re supposed to put food scraps along with paper to reduce the moisture and therefore delay the food fermentation, and in blue bags you put everything else (plastic, glass, metal, etc…).

Now what will happen as of January is that there will be around 100 trucks which will roam the streets of Beirut and Mount Lebanon to collect the blue bags ONLY (the ones containing recyclable material and can be sold) and leave the black ones on the street. So basically what irritates people the most and makes this crisis a crisis, that is the bad smell of fermented food scraps, will remain there! So I don’t really see how will this campaign manage the crisis other than by reducing the piles a bit and making use of the recyclable stuff (for their own benefits?).

Furthermore, they seem pretty confident that the campaign will reach a large number of people as they prepared a hundred trucks to roam the streets, but their facebook page seemed to have have no more than 480 likes at the time of publishing this post, so they will most probably be surprised when they notice the blue bags they targeted were full of all kind of waste and not just recyclable materials (don’t say I didn’t warn you guys!).

Not to mention that one of the campaign managers is also accused of copying the slogan from an Arabnet competition last year…

The whole thing really doesn’t make a lot of sense now eh..?

Amarres shuts down at Zaitunay Bay

By Rami on May 2, 2013 in Lebanon

ZaitunayBay-2-cQ

Back in 2012, several websites started posting about a possible closure of Zaitunay Bay closing down due to the slow economy and the low numbers of tourists visiting Lebanon. This however was denied by the people behind Zaitunay through twitter and the media.

Yet just today, Ziad Kamel, the co-founder of The Alleyway, confirmed on twitter that Amarres in Zaitounay Bay will be shutting down due to the instability the whole country is currently going through, which is eventually causing tourists and Lebanese expats to abstain from visiting the country, whereas Zaitunay heavily relies on them.

So while Zaitunay Bay might be staying, one this is for sure, which is that restaurants owners there are definitely struggling to make ends meet, except for Classic Burger Joint probably which always seems to be full! (khamseh bi 3youneh)

Anyway, back to Ziad Kamel, he claimed a second branch of Couqley will soon be opening in Dbayeh on May 15th, which is great news to all those who live north of Beirut. I’ve been once to Couqley in Gemmayze by the way and totally enjoyed their French menu.

Is the economic situation really that bad in Lebanon?

By Rami on October 30, 2012 in Lebanon

Looks like news about businesses closing or facing troubles are on the rise now. People were surprised to read about the closure of Buddha Bar in Downtown Beirut last week due to the economic and security situation in the country, and today, I just came across this article in Al-Akhbar about Khoury Home facing some difficulties even though it controls a major share of the household products market in Lebanon.

Apparently, due to the decrease in sales and increase in payable to large suppliers, the Khoury family has entered in negotiations with one of their partners to sell their share in Khoury Home. You can read more about it here.

Navigation

Tag Archives | closure

They never justified their prices

When was the last time they made an advertising campaign?